superjunior

Recipes 

well my brewbuddies and I finally got around to building a set up for the barley crusher. we knew after the first time of crushing 18lbs of 2-row by hand this needed to be built its basically just an old nightstand powered by a corded drill from harbor freight ($18). the drill cord was shortened and hardwired to the switch. We had to mount the crusher on a spacer so it would be level with the drill shaft. we mounted a small peice of rubber weather strip at the top where the bucket goes to contain most of the dust. the whole build (less the cost of the crusher) was under $30 and only took a couple hrs. Works great! flip the switch, dump your grains and sip your beer

Suthrncomfrt1884

Recipes 

Looks great. I need to get around to doing something like this.

I'm a little concerned that you're buying gorilla glue in 5 gallon buckets. Did you build a house with it?

__________________
He who drinks beer sleeps well. He who sleeps well cannot sin. He who does not sin goes to heaven.

Another HERMS rig...

superjunior

Recipes 

the top of the box has hinges to open the lid and access the drill. you can't tell from the pic but the drill is sandwiched in with peices of rubber to minimize vibration and has a variable speed lock on the trigger. just lock it at the desired speed, than operate with the switch

superjunior

Recipes 

thanks
they were giving those buckets away at ace hardware

samc

Recipes 

Nice build - I like the sensible $18 drill motor which is more than enough to get the job done.

Catt22

Recipes 

Maybe yes, and maybe no. I tried motorizing my mill with a similar cheap 3/8" HF drill and smoked it. It worked for awhile, but soon overheated and died. This application is asking a lot from those drill motors. Time will tell for this one. It's not the same mill, so the loading may be different.

Displaced MassHole

Recipes 

I really like the idea of using that cheap drill from HB to run the mill. I've got a 3 roller mill that I've been looking into motorizing for a while and this looks like a really good idea.

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The name says it all

samc

Recipes 

How much grain are you running? I use my cordless Dewalt to plow through 30+lbs at a brew session, using an old not so great battery.

Catt22

Recipes 

The grain bills vary considerably, but 26 lbs at a crack is not at all unusual.

IMO, this HF drill would be a better choice:

http://www.harborfreight.com/power-tools/drills/1-2-half-inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html

I have since motorized the mill with a Bodine gearmotor which I think will outlast me.

superjunior

Recipes 

thanks for the comments guys. I've used it a couple times so far and the drill seems to have more than enough power. its only set at half speed and goes through grains very efficiently