Grain Milling Station Design

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bradsul

Flyfisherman/brewer
HBT Supporter
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
4,889
Reaction score
44
Location
Ontario, Canada
Edit: I've posted the final design and sketckup files at post 19.

I've been staring at my monster mill and motor w/ VFD and wishing I had access to my shop so I could build something to actually USE them. Since I can't do that I thought I'd put my ideas on paper. Here is the milling station I came up with.

I plan to make the cabinet and hopper mounting plate out of 1/2" melamine for easy cleanup. The hopper will probably be 1/4" melamine though I drew it out as 3/8" because I was originally going to go with MDF - mostly it depends on the amount of scrap I have :D.

The hopper size should hold about 8KG (17.6lbs) of grain but the top of the hopper will be finished level and flat so an extension can be added easily if I want it (though I doubt I will). I may put a shelf in the other section as well.

cabinet_515336.png
 
I have a couple garbage cans I keep my grains in. I was thinking that would be just a handy little storage space for my scale and scoops etc. I mostly wanted the extra bit of counter-top space for measuring more than I wanted the storage.
 
It looks great, I would put a door on to keep the dust at bay. You also may have issues if you fill you hopper of too much pressure pushing the grain into the rollers too hard.
Here is how I did mine but I still want to address the dust issue, especailly now that is cold out and I dont want to mill outside, I dont want all the airborn dust in the garage where I will be brewing and filling carboys.

11999-grainmill003.jpg

11999-grainmill004.jpg
 
SuperiorBrew said:
It looks great, I would put a door on to keep the dust at bay. You also may have issues if you fill you hopper of too much pressure pushing the grain into the rollers too hard.
Here is how I did mine but I still want to address the dust issue, especailly now that is cold out and I dont want to mill outside, I dont want all the airborn dust in the garage where I will be brewing and filling carboys.
Yes I forgot to mention the doors, I plan to have that on the milling side for sure (probably both just so it looks nice).

I spoke to the engineers at my office (our company makes feeding equipment) a while back when I had the idea and they said 3.5" tall chute that results from the table-top -> mounting-plate -> hopper should take care of the grain weight issue. They say it will constrict the flow enough to counteract most of the weight issue. I'm one of those believe it when I see it types but with that assurance I'm not too worried about it.
 
Instead of building a hopper, just use a 5 gallon water bottle. Far easier solution. Also, consider a method to throttle the grain input, it can be a useful feature.
 
My friend, you have some mad auto cad skills! Best I can do is get a relative idea down on graph paper and hope for the best(educated guessing)!
 
Looks good Brad! I put casters on the bottom of mine to make it easy to move around. I haven't decided if I want to enclose the base yet with fiberboard or maybe just some canvas to control dust. I'm thinking of just using some canvas circling the mill and bucket would be real easy. Also it is hard to tell how much space you have between the motor and the mill. Are you going to use pulleys? If so, the pulley on the mill should probably be around 10 inches in diameter and you'll need to account for that bit of space with the motor location.
 
mr x said:
Instead of building a hopper, just use a 5 gallon water bottle. Far easier solution. Also, consider a method to throttle the grain input, it can be a useful feature.
I thought about the water bottle hopper but I like building so I decided to go with a constructed hopper, it's more fun. :)

jdoiv said:
Looks good Brad! I put casters on the bottom of mine to make it easy to move around. I haven't decided if I want to enclose the base yet with fiberboard or maybe just some canvas to control dust. I'm thinking of just using some canvas circling the mill and bucket would be real easy. Also it is hard to tell how much space you have between the motor and the mill. Are you going to use pulleys? If so, the pulley on the mill should probably be around 10 inches in diameter and you'll need to account for that bit of space with the motor location.
I decided against casters since mine will be sitting on carpet (apartment dweller here) and I already have a space cleared for it. They would easily fit behind the kicker if I decide I wanted them later. I've also been talking to the guys at the office about the motor and they said I don't need the mechanical advantage, 2 3" sheaves is more than enough because of the VFD/motor combination.
 
I can't help but tinker with designs so I've updated the original image. I was originally going to keep the whole thing fairly low to the ground but decided on a standard desk height instead (will be easier for measuring grains etc). The shelf under the bucket will be adjustable so I can get the bucket as close to the mill as possible and also allow for different containers to be used.

I decided not to picture the doors, they'll just be simple single sheet panels, nothing special.
 
Well it's been months since I got my mill from monster mills and I've been dying to get this thing built but never had time. Well this weekend the weather sucked for both fishing and brewing so I figured now was the time (which is to say I had nothing better to do on a long weekend, so sad).

I decided to build just a standard counter-top base cabinet, seemed like the simplest thing to do. So a bunch of 5/8" melamine, a vanity counter-top, an edging kit and an afternoon mucking around in the shop and I have this wee beastie.

I decided to keep the hopper simple and go with the water bottle approach, I also made use of a blast gate for a shop vacuum system to let me control the grain flow. I'll probably rebuild the hopper base as it's pretty ugly and I just dashed it off so I could use the stupid thing. :D

(sorry for the image quality, couldn't find my tripod)

station_outside.jpg

station_inside.jpg
 
Looks nice! I just had to get a new washing machine, and pulled the motor out of the old one before sending it off to be recycled... hope to turn that into a motorized milling station at some point in the future.
 
HOLY HECK that is gorgeous!!!! Mind posting me the SketchUp file? I've been wanting to cabinet-and-motorize my JSP!
 
Here is the final design. I lost the original sketchup files unfortunately so I had to rebuild it. I left out the hopper information since I'd have to take it apart to do the measurements and I don't really feel like doing that. :D

The cabinet is constructed out of 5/8" melamine and the countertop is a standard cheap vanity countertop you should be able to source from any of the big box home building suppliers. The shelves are all adjustable using simple plastic shelf supports.

Make sure you get an edging kit for your countertop unless you like sharp edges, veneer for the exposed melamine edges is a very good idea as well for the same reason.

cabinet2.jpg

I tried to attach the sketckup file but HBT doesn't allow that extension so I zipped up the main file (cabinet2.skp) along with a few supporting models.
 

Attachments

  • mill_station_sketchup.zip
    37.1 KB · Views: 257
Dude...yes. I am actually removing a portion of my kitchen cabinets to make room for a dishwasher and I think this would make a fantastic use of them. What rpm do you run your mill at?
 
I personally like the utility of being able to hang my mill/hopper up on the pegboard out of the way when I'm not using it. A dedicated station is quite the unitasker.

Is the fire extinguisher the only unitasker allowed in your kitchen/brewery? :)
 
I personally like the utility of being able to hang my mill/hopper up on the pegboard out of the way when I'm not using it. A dedicated station is quite the unitasker.
Can you hang a motorized mill on your pegboard?

I love it just for the storage if nothing else, but where I am going to put mine it will act as a table for my mash tun during brewing. Certainly not a unitasker if your setup is similar to mine.
 
I personally like the utility of being able to hang my mill/hopper up on the pegboard out of the way when I'm not using it. A dedicated station is quite the unitasker.
It's also my specialty grains storage which I also needed so I wouldn't call it a uni-tasker. And it fits my purposes perfectly which is of course my main concern. :)

As you can tell from the carpet underneath it's located in my apartment so I needed something that looked halfway decent as well.
 
No, the fire extiguisher doubles as a cranium crusher for people who ask dumb questions ;-)

I don't think I'd hang a motorized mill on the pegboard.. I use my Dewalt XRP cordless for the drive...
 
I'd be scared to press my "good" drills into use for a crusher. I do have a $10 p.o.s. that I picked up once that has some serious torque and I've been happy to have survive this long (years now). I've been debating the motor drive versus putting that thing into use.

I've got a good deal going with my brother where I give him kegs of homebrew and he makes me stuff. He's working on a CFC for me now, and I thought I might go for one of these next. I'd pick up the mill myself, and if I wanted a motor I'd probably pick that up as well, so I could get him to do the rest for 2 kegs or so (something I can brew up in a weekend).

I'm bookmarking this thread for that beautiful cabinet setup.

Are you worried about milling on carpet? The dust gets into everything...
 
...Are you worried about milling on carpet? The dust gets into everything...
This mill actually generates very little dust and what little there is gets completely contained within the cabinet. Sometime during the resulting brew day I've just taken the dust-buster to it to get whatever dust is laying around. If you wanted to get really nuts about it you could put some kind of weather strip on the door on that side.

One of the things that helps contain the dust is the adjustable shelf on the mill side. I raise it up as high as I can to get the bucket as close as possible to the mill.
 
Sorry for the late post. Excellent project! On my to-do list very soon...

I woodwork for a hobby. Cut a 2.5" (or appropriate size for your unit) hole in the cabinet and plug a shopvac hose into the hole. The negative pressure in the cabinet will draw all the airborne dust into the vac. Don't worry about being precise with the cut or sealing holes elsewhere. You don't want to create a plenum, just a slight negative (inward) pressure gradient.
 
Here is my version. The sheeves and belt are all enclosed in a side compartment for safety. Holds more than enough grain for a 10 gallon batch. It's on casters for easy mobility. The motor is rather big and old but the price was right (free). I think the reduction on the sheeves puts it about 200 rpm. I believe thats what JSP recommended.

Mill.jpg


MillHopper.jpg


MillMotor.jpg


MillRollers.jpg


http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/vv320/DeepSeaToddMaci/MillWBucket.jpg
 
Mine is simplistic, no enclosure yet, but very portable.
Right angle GearMotor, right-angled again with a 3/8" drill attachment, and I'm in business. Hums along at slowly (62 rpm) but with some serious torque.

Gearmotor was DC so I had to build the necessary electronics to convert. (thanks for the advice, Yuri!)

Of course the hopper is too small, but improvements will be made along the way...

grainmill.jpg


Millinaction.jpg


Millpowercontrolbox.jpg
 
Very impressive....I particularly like the somewhat space-efficient design of 'bradsul's' design. with the room for grain storage. But with the beer I brew (maybe 20-25 5-gallon batches a year), I can't even conceive of dedicating that much space to crushing. Even if I brewed 40 batches yearly -which would max me out legally, if my arithmetic is correct- I wouldn't consider it. Of course, I've read threads about guys who have dedicated buildings to our shared insanity, so maybe that's the answer.
 
I don't brew as much as I'd like to but this project provided the perfect way to get some of the beer clutter cleaned up in a decent way. This actually takes up about the same amount of room as I had previously used for buckets and containers for storing my grains. But it definitely looks nicer! Provides a great countertop for doing the actual measuring as well.

Though true to form, I had planned to replace the water bottle hopper with a custom built one and that hasn't happened. The water bottle just works so well it seems pointless to replace it. :D
 
I've been working on my handyman skills this summer, so I might finally assemble my mill sometime yet this summer. (The other weekend, I learned how to hang an accordion door!)

At first it was time that kept me away from brewing, but once the time freed itself up, I realized that I couldn't touch barley or barley dust anymore because the allergic reaction would lay me up in bed for a full day.

Guess I lost my tolerance to it. ... So I'll be making my mill a little more complex than I had previously planned, it will need to be a closed box type of system, with a vacuum port like pldoolittle mentioned.

If I can get that rigged up, then maybe I'll be able to brew again without becoming miserable 30 seconds after encountering the grain. Otherwise, SWMBO is going to kill me for going so long without a brew, and I'll likely just have to quit AG and take up extract for a while as I get myself de-sensitized to the dust.
 
Being allergic to barley dust would be a dilemma if you planning to mill.
Have you thought of Conditioning your malt prior to milling? You would figure that the extra moisture would have the side benefit of keeping the dust down.

Cheers
Steve
 
Back
Top