What's the width of your monstermill? Fit hopper to Schmidling attempt.

I'm trying to order the hopper from monstermill, and trying to get the measurement of the width of different models.
What I have here is a Schmidling, and want to fit the hopper from monstermill because it seems to have the best engineering. I'll use rivets instead of the #8 screws to assemble it - assuming I can find one that is 3.5" wide.
I'll be replacing the particle board sides with aluminum. Why aluminum instead of stainless? This has the corn option, which means I can adjust the case hardened rollers so wide they will grind up against it. Better to have them eat through aluminum than destroy them on stainless. It also means they can also be adjusted so close that they will contact each other.
The only reason I might go with stainless is in case I need to weld. I don't have the resources to weld aluminum.
I'll put a small port on the top to easily inspect and measure the gap which will double as a shop vac attachment point for cleaning.

-Cheers

Exchanged message with Fred, very helpful. It won't work as is, but I may try it with some mod's. Need to find the width of one of the 2.0 mills. If I only had room for a sheet metal brake.

Except the aluminum shavings will end up in the mash, don't think I'd go there. I used Lexan on my fully adjustable malt mill. I have run corn through mine no problems.

good idea, scraped any lexan off yet?
is your bird prone to hangovers?

My mill

This is one of the most beautiful DIY projects on here; so cool to be able to watch the milling up close and personal; great job!

Afraid of what this cost, though. (I love the directly driven 2 roller option, but the cost of entry is steep.)



Adam

That is a very nice build! How does the lexan next to the rollers hold up to scratching?

Completed everything but the motor mount.
The project was a pain in the something, should have just made it from all stainless so it could be welded with what I have on hand - DCEN TIG.

Anyone have any suggestions besides simply drilling into the base board? I would like a little adjustment to allow for a change of pulley or belt size. Two to three inches of travel is what I have in mind. Only option I've seen pre-made is $150 range. I can manufacture most things, but don't have a lathe / mill. Enough scrap steel around that something should be possible. Again, a sheet metal brake would be useful.

Some rivets were a good idea, but doing the entire thing with them was like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Went to a specialty store and had them tell me which rivets to use, the ones that came with the HF rivet gun were useless for my application.


Used a router to cut a circular groove in the base so it fits over a bucket.

Went with polycarbonate on one side - the adjustable one.

I'll have an extra aluminum / polycarbonate set for sale to a Schmidling maltmill owner that is interested in replacing the factory particle board.

No scratching after 600lbs of grain and 250lbs of corn. The poly doesn't touch the rollers it's close but doesn't touch.