Another Milling Station (inspired by John Beere's)

**3 Dog Brew** · 11-11-2009, 03:42 AM

So after seeing John Beere's "Deep Six" Milling Station, I thought "Hey, that's a great idea! Then I wouldn't have to lug that heavy thing around and try and balance it on a bucket while it's running."

My dad actually helped me the last time I used it. In hindsight, I'm surprised h didn't make us wear safety goggles and screw the mill to the top of the bucket while he lectured on power tool safety.
Oh, wait. He was also the one that had me climbing in a tree 12 feet off the ground with a chainsaw when I was 13. My mother nearly fainted. But I digress.

Shown here is the freshly glued-screwed and stained wood frame with all the moving parts removed. The top is 14" x 24" and the mill sits underneath the table top and on top of the runners. It's hard to describe so you'll have to wait and see.

I put the casters on the bottom and started putting the first coats of spar varnish on it.
I don't have a planer or a jointer so I had to use pre-sanded 1x4 which I laminated together on the motor side.

It'll look pretty decent when all the milling parts are back on it.

After 2 coats of Spar Varnish (semi-gloss, but it's still a little wet).

I should be ready to start putting the mill and motor back onto the cart before Friday. I'll post here as I make updates and with some more specifications.

Limited Visibility · 11-11-2009, 04:32 PM

Looks sweet! Keep up the good work... and those pics!

**3 Dog Brew** · 11-12-2009, 03:13 AM

Update:
Varnish is dry and the Maltmill went back on the cart tonight.
I took a series of pictures so you could get the idea of how it was designed and how it went together.

This image shows the reinstallation of the JSP Maltmill, mostly where it goes.

Showing the throat of the Maltmill. Those ramps look like almuminum in the picture, but they are clear plastic (the flash reflected off them).

This shows the JSP funnel adapter (which keeps fingers out of the grindy bits)

This is the final view of the Maltmill in place. Note that there are 1/4" machine screws going from the top plate (funnel adapter) to the mill body and from the runners underneath the mill up into the body of the mill.

The motor installs with four 3/8" bolts and washers to the top of the cart. The motor mounting plate has slotted bolt holes allowing the motor to be loosened and slid toward the mill for belt installation and away to tighten the belt on the sheeves. I had to use an adapter on the mill shaft to fit the proper sheeve on it. All of these parts including the belt were purchased from Grainger. The motor has a rubber mount to absorb any shock from sudden starts or loading of the mill. The motor was sourced from eBay and already had starting capacitors installed. I don't know what that means, but I didn't want to have to learn how to install them.

This is the completed assembly. To demonstrate the scale of things I wanted to show how a 5 gallon bucket fit underneath the mill. The switch is just a standard 120 volt decorator light switch I had laying around. The funnel shown is a 5 gallon Ozarka water bottle that I pulled out of a dumpster at Lowes. The bottom was busted out of it so it wouldn't hold water anymore. Not knowing what had been in it before I washed, scrubbed and rubbed down with rubbing alcohol before actually using it.

So there you have it. Inspired by John Beere and the Deep Six Brewing Co. Using a Schmidling Malt Mill a couple of sheeves from Grainger and a 1/3 HP motor from eBay.

I plan on "Conditioning my malt" to keep the grain dust down. We'll see how it works in the next couple of weeks.

ClaudiusB · 11-12-2009, 03:45 AM

Looking good

What about a safety guard over the drive mechanism?

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

**3 Dog Brew** · 11-12-2009, 04:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ClaudiusB

Looking good

What about a safety guard over the drive mechanism?

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

That's not a bad idea. Some hardboard, a few screws, some glue, I'll see what I can do.

**3 Dog Brew** · 11-12-2009, 04:22 AM

Now that I look at this again, why didn't I mount the motor under the table? I may have to revisit this a little.

**paulthenurse** · 11-12-2009, 09:18 AM

I'd keep the motor above the table, if only to keep it away from the source of dust. It's possible (but unlikely) that the fine dust created by the milling and the nearby electric motor could combine to ruin your brewing day. Why chance it? Explosions at home are only fun if you plan them.

PTN

**3 Dog Brew** · 11-12-2009, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulthenurse

I'd keep the motor above the table, if only to keep it away from the source of dust. It's possible (but unlikely) that the fine dust created by the milling and the nearby electric motor could combine to ruin your brewing day. Why chance it? Explosions at home are only fun if you plan them.

PTN

I looked at it again after posting last night. There's no way to do that without a lot of modification to the cart. The motor sheeve would get in the way of the cross brace and I'd have to modify that and by that time, what's the point. I'm leaving it as is wile I look at covering the sheeves to keep fingers out of the moving parts.

Nice outfit, BTW.

tedski · 11-12-2009, 05:14 PM

Call me a wuss. Its ok. I would fab up a safety shield for the driveline. One day you'll be Relaxing, Not worrying, Havin' some Homebrew, milling away... and maybe your finger fits along that pulley, maybe it doesn't. It'd be dirt cheap to have one fabricated at a metal shop I'm sure.

**MultumInParvo** · 11-12-2009, 05:27 PM

Ohhh, looks good. Nice, simple, but certainly gets the job done with class.