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Post by marcelo on Apr 14, 2017 10:16:05 GMT -5
Hi folks, follows a movie of a small home made attritor for making around 0.5 kg (1 lb) of chocolate: youtu.be/Ma3k5bD9GTA
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Post by joetlnf on Apr 14, 2017 10:44:03 GMT -5
The link isn't working for me, maybe because your profile is private(?). With a ball mill, you have quite a large surface area that gets coated with the chocolate during refining - I imagine this would make it difficult to remove it all when you're done and you'd get a big hit in yield. Is this true?
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Post by marcelo on Apr 14, 2017 22:12:22 GMT -5
I've updated the link. Regarding yield I did not weight but I guess I've lost less than 5% for sure. At first you screen the molten mass with a coarse sieve. After that you wait the chocolate to solidify but not enough to get hard, when it is soft, and not sticky, it detaches very easily from the balls; so you just screen it again, gently pressing the balls against the sieve. I'll measure the yield next time and let you know. Of course it is not for a small home business, it is just for fun.
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Post by lyndon on Apr 16, 2017 3:50:28 GMT -5
Looks good, how long did it take to turn to liquor? Did you add sugar as well?
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Post by marcelo on Apr 21, 2017 11:06:32 GMT -5
Looks good, how long did it take to turn to liquor? Did you add sugar as well? I've added sugar (30%) just after some reduction of nib particle's size (not shown in the video). As you saw it was quite viscous, so I've milled for 24 h, but I've also noticed that very few has changed after 8 h. Actually few hard particles remained until the end. Thus I need to improve the milling power in the next attempt, it is not a question of time. Anyway the chocolate was nice, everybody here liked it, even with some sensation of small particles cracking in your mouth.
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Post by lyndon on Apr 23, 2017 12:12:53 GMT -5
I've seen a few machines use a number of different sized balls too, that may help?
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Post by marcelo on Jun 25, 2017 19:44:40 GMT -5
Well, after few trials in the ball milling I quit. You can increase the smoothness of the chocolate by increasing the milling power (mass of balls) and also the milling time. However, as more smoth the chocolate more it sticks on the balls, separating them thus becomes a nightmare. I've turnned the grinder into a melanger. It is by far more fast and efficient. Very smooth chocolate in one day. I think the ball miller is not a good option for small productions like this. It follows a short movie of the grinder turnned into a melanger: youtu.be/MfnuZfxtPEc
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Post by Ben on Jun 26, 2017 12:01:02 GMT -5
Interesting. Ball mills are generally considered far more efficient than wet grinders, but maybe you're right that that efficiency doesn't translate to small quantities like this.
When you say that separating them becomes more difficult, are you referring to draining the chocolate from the balls? How are you attempting to do this. I've always wondered how this is done in the larger machines. With this small amount, I'd imagine that you could use a small vibrating sieve to drain the chocolate relatively efficiently.
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Post by marcelo on Jun 30, 2017 20:19:50 GMT -5
Interesting. Ball mills are generally considered far more efficient than wet grinders, but maybe you're right that that efficiency doesn't translate to small quantities like this. When you say that separating them becomes more difficult, are you referring to draining the chocolate from the balls? How are you attempting to do this. I've always wondered how this is done in the larger machines. With this small amount, I'd imagine that you could use a small vibrating sieve to drain the chocolate relatively efficiently. Well, perhaps I was too conclusive in saying that. I've also read that ball millers are more efficient. In this home made experience I did not play much with the variables involved, not only the mass ratio is important but also the design of the attitor, the combination of different ball sizes, velocity and so on. Regarding separation, I separate the chocolate with a hand sieve, thus, when it sticks hard to the balls it is a nightmare. I first separete in the liquid state and the rest of it when the chocolate is soft, not hard not liquid. But this second operation was nice just in one recipe. I liked very much the melanger option now, very fine chocolate with less effort of the engine. I milled for 48 h but I think it is possible to reduce the time if I add some weight on the wheels after some initial milling time.
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