Hammer Mills

If your in farming country check around some of the hog farms, most had their own hammer mills.

I have two a light duty 5 hp and very heavy duty 7.5 hp, both mills came with a good assortment of screens.

The smaller mill is used to shred electric thermostats from electric ranges, hot water tanks, timers from washing machines and dryers to recover the silver contacts.

My larger mill will shred **** near shred anything you feed it, I mainly use the large mill to shred the plugs from computer cables to recover the gold plated pins.

I have feed the large mill satellite LNA's and B's then used a magnet to pick out the iron, which would have been the screws and some other trash. After it goes through the mill they so not look like screws anymore just balled up nodes.

The aluminum fractures almost like broken glass.

The output size of your shred will vary depending on the hole size of the screen installed, for instance a 1/8" hole size will make fine shred while 3/8" will be larger and 1/2" screen even larger.

Another thing I use the large mill for is cleaning heavy copper wire, the cooper and insulation are both liberated rather quickly. it's an easy task to separate the plastic from the shredded copper.

Just put the shredded material into a plastic pail then give it a couple of shakes, the heavy copper falls to the bottom while the plastic rises to the top where you can skim it off.

I try to keep things like stainless steel and iron out of my feedstock, it raises cane with the screens, but non ferrous metals and plastics are fair game.

Paid $200.00 each for these mills with screens. The large hammer mill is worth over 7 grand, it's lined with heavy amour plate.

Gil, could you give the brand name model, pictures. Also what are they used for on the hog farm, processing feed? I have lots of hog farms in this area and might be able to pick one up. Sounds like it might be useful to process low grade boards as well, what do you think? Mike

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Originally Posted by gustavus

...The large hammer mill is worth over 7 grand, it's lined with heavy amour plate.

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did you manage to pick that one up for the same $200, or did it cost you closer to its estimated value?

Mills are from two different farms, paid $200.00 each, the motor was screwed on the small mill, the capacitors suffered from exposure to the weather. I replaced the whole motor with a spare 5 hp I had kicking about.

Yes I think that the large hammer mill would work to shred mother boards, if you put a dust collector into the circuit you could capture values. This is one reason I just incinerate then ball mill the chips that I have removed from boards. There is no money in the kitty for a dust collector, besides the amount of boards I get does not warrant the expense.

The pails beside the small "Farm King" mill sold under various brand names and colors. The pails are full of contacts already removed from timers etc, the silver buttons a are still attached and will come off when they are run through the mill.

Because silver has a lower specific gravity than copper, brass and plastic separating this from the other crap is reasonably easy.

Sorry guys the model number is on the backside of the large mill and it's tucked in at the moment otherwise I would be more than happy to post it.

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just contacted my friend who lives on his family owned pig farm here in NJ... this might be just what im looking for.

too bad he's in jail... might have to wait a while for him to get out

THe priceis right for him too. $200 dont seem like a bad deal.

yep, it looks like a good unit, not all beat up.

Putting the hammer mill to work - soon.

This is a short list of where I find my scrap silver.

During my scrapping season I saved all the silver soldered elbows and other connections from AC and refrigeration salvage, I melted and cast these into anodes. The two cells are bringing down about 2 plus ounces of silver daily.

Picture 3 copper depositing onto cathode, silver remains behind as sludge on the cell bottom. I could have used a cloth bag to collect the slimes but this is my first cell and i wanted to see what was happening as it happened.

On the anvil a rheostat from a hot water tank, usually you find a pair residing on the tank, just below the complete rheostat I have shown one that I have opened up, look close enough you can see the silver contacts.
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Then I have the contacts removed from a washing machine timer, or was that a dryer or dish washer, it doesn't matter they all have similar contacts.

It's more than silver, the silver used in contacts has been alloyed with other precious metals to harden the silver making it more durable. Contacts used in extreme conditions will have in addition to silver metals from the platinum group - gold alloyed.

Most of the scrap cars I get these days are of the era having electronic injection, power seats / windows and what not, inside the fuse box I grab all the relays - more silver possibly alloyed with a bit of gold.

Old tractor magnetos had platinum points, most have been replaced with tungsten, an easy way to tell is by a visual look see, platinum contacts do not corrode and never transfer metal from one contact to the other - like tungsten. Equipment having a mag with platinum contacts can sit for years and the engine will start as long as have fresh fuel.

As most of you know I'm also a member of the gold refining forum, another great forum.

I'm removing some iron and aluminum before I feed these through the hammer mill, after everything has been shred it's time to separate the silver from the other crap. Gravity, vibration and water become your friends.

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Very cool and informative. All I come to expect from you.

One of these days when you have far too much time on your hands run some random insulated wire thru your granulator. Then do the gravity/water seperation thing and let us know how that works.

Thanks, Mike.

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Originally Posted by miked

Very cool and informative. All I come to expect from you.

One of these days when you have far too much time on your hands run some random insulated wire thru your granulator. Then do the gravity/water seperation thing and let us know how that works.

Thanks, Mike.

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Mike I have already tried wire, of the copper and aluminum species in my larger mill. It does a nice job of making little ball bearings out of your copper there was no need to use water to separate the plastic from the copper merely shaking to bucket settles the copper bringing the plastic to the top for easy skimming.

The only problem was I had the small screen installed and I got some very fine copper powder along with the larger balls, had I used a larger screen this problem would have been likely eliminated.

The wire run was as you say only an experiment, It costs money to run that 7.5 hp electric motor were incineration costs me next to nothing

From my above post on the electro recovered copper from the cell, my yard pays out on number two fro that, I could melt it into dore then get paid out as number 1 but the added expense is not justified.

Besides it's not like I have tons of that type of copper, the little I do get is going to be turned back into copper sulfate.

Thanks for your response, Gus. I wish I had the space and equipment to play with. I will probably be going with a wire stripper to start with. If I am ever able to get a place in the country or an industrial building I may try out a hammer mill. Please keep us informed of your interesting activities, Mike.

I have found that the doors off a microwave oven act as great sieves (screens).

Here are some pictures of before and after the dish horns that I feed into the larger hammer mill, would love to have a large eddy current separators but I can see from the prices asked this bit of kit is not coming to my location anytime soon.

A small shaker table would be a cheap alternative, using good old gravity and water to do the dirty work.

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