I think anything will eventually crumble in a ball mill. The people
who use lead balls complain about media contamination and wearing of
the lead balls, so it does happen. I guess you could speed things
along by using steel balls to crush the lead.
SMD paste contains spherical balls of a specified maximum diameter. I
would not be surprised if the way to manufacture them was some tuned
up downsized shot tower process similar to what you propose.
Anyway, given the requirement to use things on hand, I think the
"heated metal paintbrush" idea would be most efficient. It's just a
matter of squeezing some brass or copper wool/strands in the end of a
metal tube and saturating the thing with solder. If the goal is just
to get the board tinned making solder powder is not really necessary.
ST
On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 2:15 PM, Donald H Locker <dhlocker@...> wrote:
> I suspect solder is too malleable for a ball mill to crumble. Hot inert-gas spray? I'd probably start with carbide paper/Wet-orDry abrasive sheets. Maybe just knife-scraping the surface with uneven pressure could make small enough particles.
>
> Donald.
> --