I FOUND A MOUNTAIN OF CANNON BALLS! (or did I?)

[@shelbyintheolds]

Chigs channel has become more educational then todays History Channel on cable. Learn something every episode.

[@dredrotten]

And Luuuuuven it!

[@shelbyintheolds]

To travel and enjoy the field as much as he does and make quality content like he does... Awesome is understatement

[@mikemarriam]

chig, i worked in an iron ore mine where they crushed rock with mills. the sound was deafening. they also had rod mills. each rod weighed 500 lbs. it was really something to be around. even with hearing protection it was loud.

[@livefreehobbies4326]

I found one next to a railroad track in a copper mining town in AZ and I was told the same thing. They are crusher balls for breaking up ore for processing.

[@briarmains1482]

That would make an awesome driveway material

[@Ucceah]

hell yes! but the rust stains everything nearby, if it isnt in a dessert climate. i have seen a border around a house graveled with ~1-6" hex nuts. the bottom 4' of the formerly white wall had taken on a "sunburst" look, fading to dark brown and black towards the rust-red bed of nuts. rather beautiful, but the stuff of nightmares for any "orderly" neighbourhood.

[@malicious1111]

Great now i can park my tank at home without the track breaking the driveway! thx!

[@NeonRaveHuskey]

as some one who works in a gold mine i knew those were mill balls from the thumb nail. glad you guys didnt try to tell people they were cannon balls.

[@corvusduluth]

In the 'Iron Range' in northern MN those are used in giant tumbler mills for the processing of Iron Ore into pellets (Taconite pellets),

[@CAPSLOCKON]

great vid chigg, i love little interesting topics like this that keeps the channel fresh.

[@scottvincent1596]

Ball mills are used in coal fired power plants to pulverize coal into dust to be blown into the furnaces. They are also used in the cement plants to pulverize limestone into dust. As a industrial contractor I see them often.

[@reelthing4u]

i would buy a mill ball , it is a piece of history.

[@CJoksch]

They can be both, sort of. I had a neighbor who worked for a cement company and I also had a (smooth bore) 3" ordnance rifle. We mic'd out a few of those balls used in the cement process and I fired them out of my cannon. Great fun.

[@antiquegeek]

The steel balls used in ball mills for a variety of fine grinding processes are a familiar sight in mining areas. In long term grinding operations you often find that they left the balls in the mills and the balls would wear down smaller and smaller so when a charge of mill balls was dumped you would find them right from original max size for the mill down to tiny. In some ball mills for specialty mineral processing the balls were porcelain/ceramic and I am sure some ebay entrepreneur has re-purposed those as something exotic. As kids, both the steel and the ceramic balls were popular to have when playing marbles. Like ebay they commanded a top price...at least in the economics of 8 year olds so those of us who had found the old ball mills and discarded treasure in balls were kings of the marble economy.

[@Riverratskippy]

real cool to know I had heard of ball crushing and wondered what it was now I know. that is why I love this channel man you entertain us and educate people. I hope to find a cannon ball one day.

[@IratePuffin]

Gives a new meaning to a ball pit.

[@Katelittlewolf]

This is my new to channel to learn something new daily! Fascinating! I lived in Alaska for years and never even heard of this! And I did not picture Nome like this, so interesting !

[@PinkBroBlueRope]

i like how the framerate slowed down at 3:20 as if the game was struggling to render all those balls

[@justinkleeberger5433]

LOL, thats what i was thinking too!

[@syron7996]

I wonder why they took such a high poly model for so useless things.

[@johannschmidt3389]

When the world lags

[@Ccccccccccsssssssssss]

This channel makes me SO HAPPY!

[@janetdoten4489]

You always have interesting things, history you share, love it! Thanks!

[@melissariley9327]

The chig was amazed by all the BALLS love the channel you have come so far with this channel love u and your friends and your family besafe and besafe love you

[@briangarrow448]

Built a copper ore crushing ball mill many years ago. I never got a chance to check out the actual balls that were used to crush the ore. Thanks for posting this.

[@fadedcake6547]

It look like a giant pile of Coco Puffs

[@kellyjackson7889]

I'm coo-coo for Co-co puffs I'm coo-coo for Co-co puffs I'm OW!!! my *$#@*ing teeth WTF??!!

[@shelbyintheolds]

Faded Cake Hahaha. that was funnym

[@danielgiovelli8363]

I was literally ready to scroll through hundreds of comments to find this. Glad it was only the second one down lol

[@deanfulford69]

Its still a lot of $ in scrap metal

[@andreasbauer9116]

Dean Fulford And even more if you sell it as cannonballd

[@Cragified]

Not where it sits, as he said. The shipping costs kills the profit so it just sits around. You can even find old log liners and such left sitting around because getting them back from the nowhere wasn't worth it, they'd made the money and paid for themselves. It's still property owned by someone. If a mine where to open up they'd use the tumbler balls again. Or they get used as ballast in something.

[@rich1051414]

It's too bad someone couldn't open a foundry up there specializing in recovering scrap metal, but also having the fallback of processing raw ores from mines. Seems like it could be pretty profitable for a while, and would give a lot of people jobs.

[@enja001]

Cragified they might still make a profit. It's a high wear restanice manganese steel alloy = $$$

[@bigredc222]

Richard Smith When it's all said and done, it's still in Alaska, and your customers are thousands of miles away.

[@timetraveller9992]

I love the noise of them rattling together !

[@Whadaa72]

Steel balls used in rock crusher for mining. I worked on a super fund site above Yankee fork below Stanley Idaho. We repaired the 8 1/2 million gallon water tanks that the Hecla gold mine. We found these balls and sand blasted them. When we were there it was a ghost mine. There was a small crew to help out but it was pretty much deserted.

[@jeffhoser7717]

As a kid I used to have lbs of iron balls of various sizes from the old Edison Cement works which used one of the first, ( if not the first ) ball mill to pulverize cement rock prior to its being fired in kilns . Today, of course, local cement mills use jaw and rotary crushers for primary sizing and steel balls in the rotary kilns to crush the clinker.

[@spikeydapikey1483]

Wow, they could be so useful for a kick ass sculpture....

[@chernihivske]

These alaska videos are GREAT!!! Greets, Tom

[@Bohica-tq3ps]

I worked for a railroad and we would get gondola cars with these things in them. I assumed they were used to tumble something, but I never knew what. Great video, now I know.

[@RandomTorok]

I worked for the provincial road maintenance branch at one time, we got a call to an accident where a truck hauling mill balls collided with a truck hauling live fish. It was the middle of the summer and the road was covered in mill balls and dying fish. We just scooped them up with a front end loader and dumped them into a dump truck and hauled the whole works to the dump. Some of the guys were brave enough to take some of the fish home.

[@inadaze813]

this was the most helpful video cuz I found a round ball that I thought was grape shot at a mine in Colorado which I thought was strange and now I realize what it is. thank you very much

[@aquachigger]

A lot of "cannonballs" are actually mill balls for sure.

[@octjames2307]

Steve seems to be the man you want to be with if you want to see the 'real' Alaska. A no-bullsh!t tell it as it is kinda guy..

[@Katelittlewolf]

Steve is a real Alaskan, a no BS tell it as it is guy. Nice to meet you Steve.

[@EuanTodd]

the best way of checking to see if it is a cannon ball or mill ball through pictures is to check for a line /grove allong it's equator (this is a defect which pretty much all milling balls have due to how they are cast)

[@bigidiotdumbstupidguy9329]

Nowadays, I haven't heard of operations using steel (because it sparks) balls for crushers/tumblers. Most sites I've been on and that my dad runs use lead because it's a little softer and it can't spark off of itself.

[@Tyblorg]

Wow!! Almost 1 million subs Beau!!!!

[@buckwheat7424]

what makes them so good at crushing isn't because they are harder so much as they only have a pin point of contact against flat planes or crystals, pin point has so much more lbs per sq in.

[@proten40]

My father work for a graphite mine that used a rod and ball mills to process the graphite ore before it was shipped out for refining.

[@anitagarvey465]

I found one of these 20 years ago on our Sierra foothills property- always wondered what it was. Still think it's cool! We have mines near us.

[@rvarelichunters9310]

I use this video often as a reference to many people, who believe they hava a cannonball and I know they don't. Better you let them down then me, i just share the link 🤣 Great video as always!

[@tashalousdadful]

It's obvious most of what's sold on ebay are fakes. One seller in particular puts obvious milling balls next to rulers claiming they're from the Battle of Princeton etc. How are they allowed to get away with this? Crazy!!!

[@johnossendorf9979]

In 9th grade we toured a cement factory, all the boys went home with new hard hats and as many steel balls as we cold carry, about 25-30 pounds in my case. The girls had no interest in the free loot. That was in 1984. I still have the hard hat and a few of the steel balls out in the barn.

[@pepeledog]

BOY OH BOY! Those rock crushers rolling around with rocks must make one AWESOMELY NOISY PROCESS!!!

[@sloanchampion85]

I like the Alabama diving flag hat...my father was a Scuba pioneer in the state of Alabama

[@reedsartofadventure]

I got a bunch of all different sizes in my yard that I found out here in the Nevada desert, but I never saw a pile that big.

[@timdouglass9831]

I wonder what the quality of the steel in those balls is. It might be a pretty hard alloy to hold up in the crushing operation.

[@magnus9296]

I work at a mine. We go through thousands of these a week in our mills.

[@QuestForDetails]

cool! kinda want to weld them into some crazy art thing

[@ruthwalton3457]

corrrr never even thought about cannon balls much before just as projectiles in a battle. thanks for sharing 😆

[@aserta]

These could be sold as ballast for boats. As shapes go, it's pretty compact. I remember hearing about an old frigate that used actual cannon balls as ballast.

[@WeeabooShipPoster]

this is exactly why they say in my home country "an old man's wisdom is worth more than a million"

[@confuseatronica]

nice, it's like a natural resource. Anyone needs to set up a NEW ball mill I guess could just grab a bunch of those, maybe free maybe give the owner some small $, and just run them in a tumbler till the rust stopped coming off and there u go. Nome is set for tumbler balls for the next couple hundred years.

[@ngneer999]

The loudest sound I've ever heard was an empty ball mill running at a cement plant. These mills were about 10 ft. diameter and about a third full of balls. Running without cement powder in them, the balls strike the steel wall of the mill as the whole thing turns about 100 rpm..

[@enja001]

ngneer999 I would have to agree. with you. the 90mm/3 inch ball are probably the worst

[@woundeddove]

I am curious, wonder if those round balls could be used to make a solid cement constructed wall?

[@Audioobscure]

it's such a shame that these aren't recycled or reused. but kinda cool that their industrial history is on display in nature like a free museum.

[@robertdunn7913]

I see a lot of comments about how much $ in scrap this would be but in Alaska it usually cost more to get it to the scrap yard than you will get in return.

[@lesahanners5057]

Thanks for the heads up on this, I'll bet it saves some collectors some money.

[@Peter-nz9et]

A cannonball for everyone ! Price ofold cannonballs about to drop. Very interesting, Thank you.

[@goneutt]

how would such a pile form? I mean, it's not like the balls wouldn't still work in a mill, would they? Surely someone in the region is running a ball mill, or built a new one, and could use a few tons of the old ones instead of shipping in new.

[@faainspector9699]

They are grinding media from a ball mill used at a copper or gold mine............they are cast and are high manganese content so that they work harden the outer surface and stay high abrasive and anti wear........

[@maxmilian294]

but the real question is, can you shoot it out of a canon?

[@buckwheat7424]

yes

[@samlomb2093]

no. As Chigg said many are deformed so they would jam the barrel and turn it into a pipe bomb

[@darecofreedomfarm3]

i would shoot em out of mine 1.6" 3 3/8" or 4 1/2" balls would work. I'll buy a few for my mountain howitzer, napoleon gun. or golf ball shooting swivel guns. 4 1/2" steel balls are expensive to make. I could even weld a chain between a couple and fire them out of the howitzer for some real target damage

[@IratePuffin]

Dareco Freedom Farm can I come play?

[@MiltonTucker]

I believe the term was a ball mill. While those balls were all different size, they probably started life the same. The smaller balls just had more hours of running time on them.

[@CatPenny]

Enjoying watching your trip to AK.

[@340360mopar]

Chigs ball vids are the best.

[@bobmngr]

Mill balls. I know where there's tons (literally) of them here in Nevada. Yeah, they come in sizes. These are new, the worn out ones are oddball shaped.

[@imperialfragments]

why are they disposed OF? can they still be used for crushing?

[@MikeeVee]

another great video, thanks for sharing.

[@smde1]

Balls from a ball mill. Used to pulverise ore for processing.

[@carwashvnvmc]

In the 60's down in So. Calif. we would walk the train tracks looking for 'cannon balls'. Of course they were only weights used to hold down the coverings on the train loads but it was an adventure to us kids.

[@carwashvnvmc]

Ebay is 'loaded' with them...LOL

[@mindofmadness5593]

Wish I could find some of those in a pile. I'd reuse them for their original intent on a smaller scale. Also wish i could find lots of Aluminum and lead as I do metal casting-all those lead chunks and weights you find? They'd be melted down into Ingots for future projects.

[@dawsonevans320]

woah i live in nome and i see those when i drive to school and i noticed the background mountains and i wondered if you were here. thats cool whatre you here for?

[@LarsonFamilyFarm-LLC]

point taken...start a Recycling Center in Nome, Alaska

[@gaerich1]

I have one of those from a local rock mill but it is about 10 inches in diameter, I can hardly pick that thing up it is so freaking heavy

[@MrGaiden100]

get one of those huge car crane magnets over there! that would look awesome!

[@therickiestjames3842]

'If your name starts with private lay out this pile in rows of ten.' The pile lays there to this day

[@wygold]

Oh man I haven't been up to Nome in decades. Before George Massey passed away, if you know who he was which I'm sure you do know who he was. I can't wait to see how much gold you brought back down to the lower 48

[@pychohobo1832]

That is the first time I heard of steel balls use in rock crushing. Just use a jaw crushed, roll crushed, impact crusher or cone crushed. Steel ball seems expensive and slow to me. But hey some People insist to move water up hill

[@ChillBill1]

Brilliant!

[@joelhill4107]

you would be right!! I worked in a gold mill in northern ontario canada years ago, we had a ball mill in the plant. Jaw crusher, cone crusher, ball mill, drum filter, sock press. In that order to extract the miniscule amount of gold within the ore. When the price of gold went down, everything was shut down and sold to share holders for a song! Hopes of some day reopening? Not likely! Just another mine opened on the hopes of prosperity and the only ones that got rich were the geologists that were paid off in the first place to high grade (or selectively choose ore with high amounts of gold per sample) Anybody else lose money on shares with Muscocho Explorations? Magnacon or Magino mines? I'll stop there. Good video

[@lakemanson8051]

hey chig, if we payed for all of our own expenses would we be able to come out and metal detect/dive/cave explore with you?

[@smgri]

interesting,,,i would have never known that...so is that pile abandoned ?

[@whowhophoenixaz.2583]

It takes a lot of BALLS to make a video like this !!!😎🔮🏉🏈🏀🎳🎱⚽

[@kamatong]

any idea what type or quality of steel this is?

[@rolleric68]

you guys were so cool doing this shotgun video amung a hole bunch of other videos your grate

[@MrMcGoo-rm3yu]

This is a great video, interesting and informative.

[@adamedward205]

There still in common use also for cement production.

[@doogiediggler5274]

Some old truck scales rode on similar steel balls or some would call bearings as well .

[@mistersmith3986]

DAM! THAT'S A LOT OF BALLS!!!

[@Uniquelyyours1]

Cool vid, Beau.

[@randlerichardson5826]

Wow that whole pile is tumbling balls??? Dang that’s a lot of them

[@silverwheelspatriot1764]

the metal scrapper in me just went nuts..... I'm trying to figure a way to get those to scrap yard...... hmmmmmm

[@MrThenry1988]

They came from the earth and will return to the earth. Awesome

[@OutdoorsygalO]

I loved you being "flabberghasted!"

[@crazyhorse4705]

Can you do more video with Steve? I really enjoy him.

[@Jane_Dow]

at first glance I thought that was the neighbor guy that was always looking over the fence on " Home Improvement "

[@downunderdan5132]

Grinding media for ball mills. Not really perfectly round to begin with and even less round once they are worn or 'scat'. Size depends on mill and product size. 😊😊 perfect for repurposing or upcycling

[@WiIdbiII]

about 27 years ago I had a guy at an antique shop sell me 4 steel balls that weighed 100 LBS. each ( 10 inch diameter) He tried to tell me a Bullshit story of how they came from a Ranch that was owned by Clint Eastwood and that they were CANNON BALLS used in California. When i told him they were Mill Balls , it busted his dreams of them being Valuable. I wound up giving him 80 dollars for all 4. And they sit in my garden still today.

[@carpii]

why did they need so many? How big was this tumbler they were in?!

[@matthewmusser5313]

it kinda looked like a big pile of rocks\dirt\gravel with the rock crusher balls on the surface

[@-HustleUnion-]

a million different welding projects sitting there in that pile

[@milesbennetdyson5]

Those are still cool. I would have grabbed a few.

[@destroyer4416]

I have one of these lying around didn't know what it was for till now

[@thelaughinghyenas7962]

If the prices were decent would they make good cannon balls for muzzle loader cannon shooters?

[@Mercmad]

ball Mills have big balls. We have tons of them here too but most go to China to made into stuff for walmart.