Need help designing the best mill ever!!!!!

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sanch

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My brew rigg is nearing completion, and my brother (who's pockets are far deeper than mine) has offered to buy my 1st $300 in grain in exchange for puting together his keezer and filling it up. he allready has all the parts, just not the time. This has got me thinking that I desperately need a mill.

I have a few friends that work at a production machine shop, the friend that has been helping on my riggs dad owns the joint. (he put gum in my hair in JR high) so he owes me one or two!!!

Anyways I am planing to build a mill from scratch. I have read through as many mill diy threads as my eye balls can bear and have looked at a lot of commercial units. I just need a little input. We are thinking of building these to sell because once the program is writen it can be cut at the push of a button.

I am thinking 6"wide x 3" or 4" diameter rollers, 304 stainless or 1144 steel depending on what the supplyer has remnants of. sealed needle bearings on eccentrics for adjustment and three rollers for a two stage crush. I would like for the infeed rollers bolth to be gear driven set at .060" like the monster mills , but that gets expencive. Is it benificial? Also is the knurling nessasary at these diameters if not how big do I need to go, to avoid it? (for crush quality)

I would greatly appriciate any input. :mug:

Yes I know I can get a mill for $60 - $300 bones but where is the fun in that!
 
Yes I know I can get a mill for $60 - $300 bones but where is the fun in that!

You'll actually get something that works the first time and you can start brewing immediately. That's where the real fun starts.


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Although I would personally rather just buy a new one, I disagree with wildwest. If you've got the means to get the parts I say go ahead and try and build one. There is a ton of fun in that!!! For me the equipment is just as fun as brewing and drinking the beer. Unfortunately I can't offer any technical advice...but brew on brotha :D
 
If you get that into mass production, what would cost per unit run?

The 3" ss bar stock for the rollers is about a hundred bucks, as a remnant plus bearings set screws bolts 3/4" aluminum plate for the ends plus the machine and assembly time = alot. But there is no overhead the machine and assembly time is tacked up to hobby time, all the tooling nessasary has been job costed elseware so my guess is a few hundred bucks for the baddest mill around.
 
Although I would personally rather just buy a new one, I disagree with wildwest. If you've got the means to get the parts I say go ahead and try and build one. There is a ton of fun in that!!! For me the equipment is just as fun as brewing and drinking the beer. Unfortunately I can't offer any technical advice...but brew on brotha :D

My thaughts exactly we cant all just throw money at it.
 
Don't forget about the big motor you need to drive 3" rollers. A cordless drill won't cut it.

+1 The 3" rollers will require a lot of torque to turn and the 4" even more. Yes, you will want to use a corded drill and a big a$$ one at that.
 
We are planing to use a minigun motor and gearbox it should have enough torque if not he said we could rewind or regear it. The 3" rollers weigh about 36 lbs the 4" about 64 lbs. I am leaning more twards the 3" mainly for cost reasons, but we will see what the scrap hounds can come up with.
 
I think you shouldn't need bar stock for milling grain. Thick wall SS, or maybe 4130/4340 tubing should be more than strong enough, and would cut down your cost substantially, not to mention the weight of the machine.
 
We are planing to use a minigun motor and gearbox it should have enough torque if not he said we could rewind or regear it. The 3" rollers weigh about 36 lbs the 4" about 64 lbs. I am leaning more twards the 3" mainly for cost reasons, but we will see what the scrap hounds can come up with.


noooooooooooooooooo! please leave the motor on the mini gun,it would be a shame to defile such a weapon.;)

you don't happen to work for dillon do you?
 
I think you shouldn't need bar stock for milling grain. Thick wall SS, or maybe 4130/4340 tubing should be more than strong enough, and would cut down your cost substantially, not to mention the weight of the machine.

I have been thinking on using tubing, it would be far cheaper I think (I have not priced it out yet) I wonder if the rotating mass of the solid bar stock would be benificial? and if so by how much? I know it makes a world of difference on my band saw.
 
noooooooooooooooooo! please leave the motor on the mini gun,it would be a shame to defile such a weapon.;)

you don't happen to work for dillon do you?



My friend that is doing all my welding and machine work is a sub contractor for Dillon they happen to make the electric motors among outher things. they have a few rejects or scratch and dent items that I might be able to get my hands on. (And yes I would not defile such a weapon even in the name of beer) :ban:
 
I have been thinking on using tubing, it would be far cheaper I think (I have not priced it out yet) I wonder if the rotating mass of the solid bar stock would be benificial? and if so by how much? I know it makes a world of difference on my band saw.

Tube/pipe does not need to be exactly round, I would be careful of this especialy if you plan to sell these. The weight would be benificial in the rotating mass with help chew through grain once you add it to the hopper.
Just a not that you had 304 SS, but 303 is the machining grade I would think that most bar stock would be this but it is also something to check on.
Good luck, I just put my mill together last week, just need to sort out stiffing my bearing blocks up and setting the gap - then mounting plate and hopper and its all go!
 
How about some 3" SS pipe for roller skins, cheaper carbon steel inner supports for bearings, tig welded together to keep parts connected and aligned. As long as the SS skins are thick enough to stand the load between support disks it should be easier and cheaper to build. Let me see what I can turn up for skin material for this experiment, if I do not have some material in the warehouse I should be able to acquire some from other sources.
 
I have been thinking on using tubing, it would be far cheaper I think (I have not priced it out yet) I wonder if the rotating mass of the solid bar stock would be benificial? and if so by how much? I know it makes a world of difference on my band saw.

The weight would be beneficial as long as the rotating speed is high enough. I would eventually put (if needed) a wheel on the motor shaft (which is gonna be rotating much faster than the rollers). Depending on the ratios you use, just a few Lbs on the motor would make a helluva difference on the rollers. Besides, that way you can use a cheaper material for the inertia wheel, like iron (or, if you want to make it heavier than lead, you can use gold ;)).

Tube/pipe does not need to be exactly round, I would be careful of this especialy if you plan to sell these.

True, but that can be easily solved on a lathe, which he will need regardless, if he uses round stock.
 
How about some 3" SS pipe for roller skins, cheaper carbon steel inner supports for bearings, tig welded together to keep parts connected and aligned. As long as the SS skins are thick enough to stand the load between support disks it should be easier and cheaper to build. Let me see what I can turn up for skin material for this experiment, if I do not have some material in the warehouse I should be able to acquire some from other sources.

Thats a great idea I think the sleeve is way more economical than buying solid bar stock!! If we wanted to we could fill the tube with babbit or lead to create more rotating mass (if nessassary?) Maybe try it hollow and then fill the tube and see if there is an exponential change, than we would at least know.
 
The extra labor would more than offset the material costs, just stick with the stainless. If I was doing the job for you I'd pay the extra for the materials myself to save the pain in the ass of trying to do the job like that.
 
That is a good point . but the cost of the stainless bar stock off the shelf is more than double the cost of the remnants and scrap material I have priced out. also this is kind of a prototype just to experament with the larger rollers I have not talked with my machinist/weldor to find out what would be easier in a more production setting. I also want to try the tubing method just because I have not seen it done.
 
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