Has anyone ever built a DIY ball mill?
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
Potomac Chocolate: I have been thinking about one, but with a different design than the one you linked to. My version would have a U-shaped tub with stirrers that would agitate the balls and chocolate. More or less, it's the same idea as a vertical ball mill, just turned on its side. My reason for this is that (if it works) I think you could make a small scale one using a meat mixer. Also, I make a U-shaped conche that could be used for this with by swapping out the conche scrapers for the stirrers.
Hello Ben,I've been thinking about this too, and actually I've seen it work in Mexico with a flour mixer. Unfortunately, they rarely ran it more than 30 minutes, so I could not check a longer refining result for taste and texture.
Would you be open to discuss the design? I'm going to purchase a small modified mixer and try this, but I'm not very confident on the modifications yet (RPM, motor power, stirrer design, ball weight/chocolate weight)I've got an engineer helping me but could use chocolatier advice too
Edit: attached the only image I have from the Mexico thing. No balls at that moment, but I think it's what we're talking about.
updated by @Victor Marin: 11/07/17 08:40:57PM