Motorized Grain Mills: Time to show them off!

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If you look at the pictures you will see that I have removed the old switch and replaced it with custom controls. So there is one speed, on and off:)

Nick
 
Motorized grain mill complete.

Dayton 1/2h 1750rpm farm duty motor (a little overkill I know but the price was right).

2" pulley motor side, 7" mill side should turn about 500rpm. But damn, belts are expensive!

Coffin Keezer and my elec kettle in the works. Found some metal (greenlee) punches over the weekend for cheap to put perfect holes in the keg. Even if I dont get it automated, would still like to be able to use it elec (no propane!)

GrainMill.jpg
 
I built this a while ago. Everything from scratch, including the rollers.

3" x 7" rollers, 1/2 HP furnace motor.

I had to reduce the feed slot because the motor didn't have enough power, hence the red plastic baffles in the video in the link.

Mill in action

17 pulley mock up.jpg


22 brg setup on rollers.jpg


23 feed slot into rollers.jpg
 
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PuckeredPenguin said:
If you look at the pictures you will see that I have removed the old switch and replaced it with custom controls. So there is one speed, on and off:)

Nick
Click to expand...

Can you provide more information on the switch, it would be much appreciated?

I really like how clean it looks.
 
Been meaning to post this for a while. I used left over pieces (here's my system) of a top tier stand to build a mill station. It's a 1/2" monster mill with a 1/2 hp motor and a gear reducer (that I happen to pick up new for a song on ebay).

u8p1a.jpg


tIyAP.jpg
 
Mounted a HF drill to a stand and wired it to a switch controlled electrical outlet. Flip the switch and dump the grain. Cheap, easy, and works great!

image-3581839719.jpg
 
PuckeredPenguin said:
Here's mine:

After some help from DayTripper and inspiration from ClarnoBrewer I just got finished motorizing my AWESOME Rebel Brewer Mill. This thing is built like a tank and now thats it's powered it has no problem crushing grain!

Thanks to all who have provided me with inspiration and guidance!!
Click to expand...

could you post some pics/info on how you wired that. i also have the rebel mill and just scored that exact same drill on ebay for $33. i'd like to see how you wired it in that box.
 
I ended up going with a crankenstein Mill, but wanted to motorize this permanently. Since my Apartment is relatively small I needed it to store really compact. So this mill I made stores upsidedown inside of a 5 gallon bucket; is powered by a AC gearmotor and can hold 8 lbs of grain in the hopper

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I've some more photos on the webpage here along with other projects and documentation of my semi-automated setup
http://www.brewbot.ca

Note: Since taking these photos; I swapped to a chain drive to power the mill as my belt drive kept slipping (diameters were just too small for the torque required)
 
It's not 100% complete. I just have a few minor "eye pleasers" to do. I want to frame it all in and build a cover for the pulleys. It's a central air AC blower motor and I put in a belt tensioner. It works amazing!!

image-3906879687.jpg
 
BraxtonBrewery said:
Just got it done. A few changes to be made but Man does mine look a whole lot like smitty's
Click to expand...

Nice set up BB!

I think I have the same drill. My only issue is that it doesn't like up perfectly the way that you have it set up - the drill is slightly lower than the mill.

What model drill do you have and how did you fix that issue?

Also, if you have the Chicago Electric Power Drill Item#: 93632 - do you run it at the max (500 rpm)?

Thank you!
perogi.
 
About 34 pounds. It's plenty manageable, but if I feel ambitious, I'll cut some lightening windows in the base and tombstone.

But a good part of the weight is in the gearmotor.
 
ong said:
I don't want to intimidate anyone with my overly technical setup, but here goes.
Click to expand...

Nice! I've been wanting to build my own mill but roller mills are so damn expensive. How well does that work? I've been wondering if I could power a corona mill with the clothes drier motor I have.
 
Fordzilla said:
Nice! I've been wanting to build my own mill but roller mills are so damn expensive. How well does that work? I've been wondering if I could power a corona mill with the clothes drier motor I have.
Click to expand...

First of all you need to change your screen name. How do you expect people to take you seriously when they see "ford"? Ok, just kidding. Does that dryer motor have an ID plate? RPM and HP? Is the motor 120 or 240vac?
 
Here is my "rustic" motorized mill and my grain storage bin. I also included a couple of shots of where they will be located in my brewery, which is slowly coming along as well. Links are located in my signature line if anyone's interested. :mug:

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After looking at the Hoppopotomus set-up I'm embarrassed to show the rest of mine. That's the stuff I dream about. Great job!

Anyway, here's my project ready to do some work. Made the coupling for between the gearmotor and mill. Had to change the electric enclosure to a Radio Shack project box. The large capacitor wouldn't fit in the small box. The upper switch is the on/off. The lower is forward/reverse incase it gets jammed.



Edit to add the crush picture with gap set at about .038. Looks pretty good to me.

.

millars_07.jpg


millars_08.jpg


millars_10.jpg


millars_13.jpg
 
jeepinjeepin said:
First of all you need to change your screen name. How do you expect people to take you seriously when they see "ford"? Ok, just kidding. Does that dryer motor have an ID plate? RPM and HP? Is the motor 120 or 240vac?
Click to expand...

Lets have a tug of war with my F150 and your Jeep and see who's serious then! What a coincidence you are a bus mechanic. My brewing cousin is one too.

I know the drier motor is 120 VAC, not sure on RPM and HP though. Will have to check when I get home. Whats a good range for a mill motor?

Is a powered corona mill even worth the effort? Seems like no one goes that route.
 
Fordzilla said:
Lets have a tug of war with my F150 and your Jeep and see who's serious then! What a coincidence you are a bus mechanic. My brewing cousin is one too.

I know the drier motor is 120 VAC, not sure on RPM and HP though. Will have to check when I get home. Whats a good range for a mill motor?

Is a powered corona mill even worth the effort? Seems like no one goes that route.
Click to expand...

I sold my wrangler... Is your F-150 an automatic? That would have been the deal breaker. Otherwise I'd hook and pull it. Now that we have that out of the way...

Look up the "ugly junk" thread. Lots of motorized coronas. Roller mills are kept below 500rpm, usually below 300. I'd run the corona as slow as I could, maybe 100-150rpm.

Edit: I still have a Grand Cherokee, but that isn't exactly a grudge pull vehicle. Give it a few more years and it may be though...
 
Excellent! Thanks for the info guys.

My F150 is a 2011, so auto is the only option. It does have fully manual mode on the tranny, a rear e-locker and 380 lb ft of torque, so it grabs pavement real nice! :)
 
Fordzilla said:
Excellent! Thanks for the info guys.

My F150 is a 2011, so auto is the only option. It does have fully manual mode on the tranny, a rear e-locker and 380 lb ft of torque, so it grabs pavement real nice! :)
Click to expand...

Sweet! After I blew up one automatic and burnt up another I swapped a manual into my Wrangler. I think first gear was 4.01:1, plus 2.72:1 in the transfer case, and 4.56s with Detroit Tru-Trac LSDs in both axles. Needless to say, if the tires didn't slip something else would.

On your Corona get a bolt that fits the shaft and a nut driver that fits it to go in a drill. Done!

And a picture of my milling station since I don't think I've added one yet.

image-3804597009.jpg
 
Ok I'm almost done with the grain mill build. The only question I have is how slow is to slow when it comes to milling? I finally located a gear motor with high torque , 90NM, but the RPMs are at 85. Are there any issues with going that slow?
 
Kyled93 said:
Ok I'm almost done with the grain mill build. The only question I have is how slow is to slow when it comes to milling? I finally located a gear motor with high torque , 90NM, but the RPMs are at 85. Are there any issues with going that slow?
Click to expand...

What type of mill do you have? You might have enough power there to overdrive it and get some more RPMs.

Edit: I just saw you have a MM3. I feel sure you could overdrive it 1.5-2x and get your RPMs up in the 120-170 range with power to spare. Maybe higher? 3x would be as high as I would go if the motor will push it. I couldn't find any solid input torque requirements, just HP recommendations.
 
@kyled93:
300 is usually max rpm - but slow shouldn't be a problem. My DC drive gear motor turns a snails-pace 63 rpm - I just load the hopper and go do something else for 10 minutes. Works just fine.
 
Hang Glider said:
@kyled93:
300 is usually max rpm - but slow shouldn't be a problem. My DC drive gear motor turns a snails-pace 63 rpm - I just load the hopper and go do something else for 10 minutes. Works just fine.
Click to expand...

So it may take longer, but 85 rpm ought to be fine?

As far as the torque the conversion from 90 N*m to ft lbs it's approximately 66 ft.lbs.

I assume that should be sufficient for a MM3?
 
Kyled93 said:
Ok I'm almost done with the grain mill build. The only question I have is how slow is to slow when it comes to milling? I finally located a gear motor with high torque , 90NM, but the RPMs are at 85. Are there any issues with going that slow?
Click to expand...

that seems REALLY high for torque (which would be awesome).

Are you sure about that?

Can you post a pic of the motor and list the model etc ?

85 rpm's will be fine crush-quality wise. It will be a little on the slow side but who cares if it's automated.
 

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