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.
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Originally Posted by jdoiv
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.
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)!
This is actually just Google SketchUp. I started playing around with it and ended up doing the whole design. It's very easy to use. http://sketchup.google.com/
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.
(sorry for the image quality, couldn't find my tripod)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Linear Mode
