My DIY grain mill

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HDbrewer

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Just finished up the machining on my DIY grain mill. I just need to get a base and hopper made for it now. Hopefully, I will get some free time this weekend and can finish it up!

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Wow, nice! :mug: I'd be interested to hear more about how you sourced materials, how you did the machining, final cost, etc. Is is adjustable? Looking forward to seeing the results of the milling.
 
Wow, nice! :mug: I'd be interested to hear more about how you sourced materials, how you did the machining, final cost, etc. Is is adjustable? Looking forward to seeing the results of the milling.

All the materials used in the mill was scrap that I found at work. I did all the machining on free time. The rollers are adjustable. They are 6" 1.500" 1018 barstock that I knurled and turned down on a lathe. The frame is .500" aluminum plate. As far as price, it didn't cost me anything since it was all scrap. I would like to rig up an electric motor to drive it since I don't have anything in it so far.
 
Did you make it adjustable? I have a lathe I'm rebuilding and thought this would make a decent project....as far as I can tell, the adjustment requires some sort of cam action/eccentric movement of one roller. Not sure how that might work....
 
It does. The knobs that stick out are the eccentrics. They are simple to make. You just machine the bore for the bushing off center. Then the knobs rotate in the frame itself. The long bolts that stick out are used as a set screw to keep the knobs in place once the gap is set allowing the roller to turn in the bushing.
 
Hi HDBrewer, the mill looks good :). I'm in the process of making one myself. Even am not sure how the eccentrics work for adjustments. Can you post a few more pics of the plates with the bushing/bearing.

Thanks!! :)
 
I finished up the hopper last night. I just used some scrap plywood that I had left over from another project. Overall I am very happy with this project.

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mrbeerin said:
Hi HDBrewer, the mill looks good :). I'm in the process of making one myself. Even am not sure how the eccentrics work for adjustments. Can you post a few more pics of the plates with the bushing/bearing.

Thanks!! :)

The two knobs that stick out rotate within the frame. They are locked in place with a set screw to keep them from rotating after you set the gap. Inside those knobs, there is a hole machined in .035 off center with a bushing pressed inside of it for the roller to rotate. I will see if I have any pics of this furring the build.

beaksnbeer said:
Have you tried it yet the knurling looks a little fine (not criticizing just asking) making one myself so wondering. Nice work

It is a medium knurl. If I could do it again, I would use a little more course of a knurl
 
HDbrewer said:
The two knobs that stick out rotate within the frame. They are locked in place with a set screw to keep them from rotating after you set the gap. Inside those knobs, there is a hole machined in .035 off center with a bushing pressed inside of it for the roller to rotate. I will see if I have any pics of this furring the build.

It is a medium knurl. If I could do it again, I would use a little more course of a knurl

But it does work, but I think it would be a little faster if it was more aggressive.
 
I made one similar, but with larger diameter, but shorter rollers.(I too used scrap from work and that was what I could find...) Even with a fairly coarse knurl and the larger diameter rollers, it soon started slipping on the grain. I tried a few things, but settled on adding a pair of gears to force the idle roller to rotate with the drive roller. Otherwise the grain would just sit there. as the drive roller spun.
 
Just finished up the machining on my DIY grain mill. I just need to get a base and hopper made for it now. Hopefully, I will get some free time this weekend and can finish it up!

Nice! Here's my Weider treadmill conversion:
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