Ball Mill (Die Kugelmühle) by Magic Workshop, Wolfgang Grosskopf

The first time I saw this wonderful effect, invented by the talented German Inventor and Craftsman Wolfgang Grosskopf, was when Olaf Güthling shared with me his stunning version. This version, created by Germany’s Magic Workshop, is not quite as impressive, or authentic looking, but nevertheless it really is a beautiful item.  In the world of 3D printed and resin items we often find these days anything made in real wood is always a treat 🙂

Magic Workshop  is a small magic manufacturer and dealer that was opened by magician and craftsman Laszlo Madaras in 2017. This is the first time I have purchased directly from them and the order was shipped on Monday and arrived on Thursday – that was quite magical itself and I look forward to purchasing more items in the future from this dealer.

The effect is great and easy to do.  If you’re in the 60+ club you’ll probably need the crib sheet to remember where to turn the handle to get the correct ball, but with that in hand you can be performing this the same afternoon it arrives in the mail.

One issue I had was that there was not enough padding in the drawer so it was pretty noisy. If you watch my Speed Demo there is barely any sound now. Also for some reason the routine suggests you produce the black ball first – since the inside of the drawer is also black I think using a more contrasting color (e.g. red) makes a lot more sense.  You don’t want to open the drawer the first time and not have them notice the ball!!!

If you are wood guy like myself I have no doubt you will love this clever and well produced item 🙂

Effect: Using a beautifully crafted grinding mill, the performer is able to magically reverse the grinding process and transform small colored balls into large ones! The spectator can choose any color at random and the performer can grind the small balls Into a large ball of that choice.

Presentation:
The performer presents a beautifully crafted old coffee grinder (ball mill). as well as seven playing cards with photos of large, colored balls. He then removes the drawer from the mill which contains clear tubes with small colored beads.

He explains that the ball mill – in contrast to other mills – does not crush the material, but reverses the grinding process and “ungrinds” a large ball from small balls.

As an initial demonstration, he puts the empty drawer back into the ball mill and pours the small black balls from the corresponding container into an opening below the crank. The crank is turned and the drawer is opened. There is now a large black ball inside, which can be fully examined.

The spectator now chooses a color dot card, which is placed face down on the table, sight unseen.

The performer, looks away and gives the spectator the following instructions:

• Look at the selected card, pick up a container with the matching beads according to the color
  of the photo, and pour them into the opening of the mill besides the crank.
• Turn the crank, i.e. “grind”. The performer turns back to the action and asks the viewer to pull
  out the drawer.
• Inside is a large ball whose color corresponds to the one chosen by the spectator.

Finally, the performer proves that the mill can create a large ball of any other randomly selected color.

• He pours a large amount of plain wood-colored beads into the mill.
• He selects a color at random and starts cranking – clockwise and then counter clockwise.
• The performer claims that the large ball has now been created but he doesn’t open the drawer. The performer then asks the spectator to choose another color at random.
• The same grinding process is repeated i.e. clockwise rotation – switching to – counter clockwise.
• Finally, when the drawer is opened, there are two large balls in the colors freely chosen.

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