Motorized Grain Mills: Time to show them off!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Fordzilla said:
Is a powered corona mill even worth the effort? Seems like no one goes that route.



image-3133473084.jpg



image-4190799344.jpg



image-850392950.jpg



image-3338760629.jpg



image-4093537758.jpg

Here are some pics of my motorized Corona mill at this point I've been using it for almost a year and have run prob 500+ lbs of grain through it with no problems.
 
I've got a couple 1/2" electric drills in stock and a speed reducer coming so will give that a shot until I rig up something a bit better.

I'm curious what kind of forces would be on a 12" sheave (pulley). I'm thinking I could build one out of 3/4" plywood since buying one seems to be in the neighborhood of $37 plus about $30 in shipping (I'm rural Alaska). My lathe motor is 1725 rpm and has a 2" pulley as smallest diameter on a cluster of larger pulleys.

/jd
 
Hunky said:
I've got a couple 1/2" electric drills in stock and a speed reducer coming so will give that a shot until I rig up something a bit better.

I'm curious what kind of forces would be on a 12" sheave (pulley). I'm thinking I could build one out of 3/4" plywood since buying one seems to be in the neighborhood of $37 plus about $30 in shipping (I'm rural Alaska). My lathe motor is 1725 rpm and has a 2" pulley as smallest diameter on a cluster of larger pulleys.

/jd

3/4" plywood should be more than sufficient. Just use common sense when putting it together. Use wide bases and box it off the make it stiff in all directions.
 
I have a motor from a grinding wheel my Dad used. It is a 1/4 HP type KH motor rated at 1745 RPM.

I bought two pulleys, a 2 inch and an 11 inch, but I'm worried that the speed reduction won't be enough for my Corona mill to handle.

Can I use a dimmer switch to slow the motor, or will that burn it out?
 
Just finished mine today. I have to say that it took me an embarrassingly long time to get the motor leveled and squared up to the mill itself. What a PITA.... :cross:

Anyway, I haven't run any grain through it yet, but I'm anticipating good things.

I basically stole jpalarchio's design. I like the idea of it being portable and easily hung on a wall, rather than taking up floor space. Thanks J!

malt mill 1.jpg


malt mill 2.jpg
 
Bodine gearmotor off e-bay, DC, converted to AC. A lovejoy and a right-angle attachment for a power drill - sits on the bucket, goes anywhere, doesn't take up much space. The rpm is low, torque is high, bet it would crush rocks.
grainmill.jpg


Millinaction.jpg


the DC to AC converter box I built (with a little help from an electronics forum)
Millpowercontrolbox.jpg

Wow! Gotta mark this one for when I get ready to motorize my mill. Love the very small footprint.
 
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!!

Sweet idea!!!
 
The motor I have has slotted mounting holes in its base bracket. I merely tapped an appropriate bolt pattern in the top plate and I tighten the bolts accordingly once I've snugged up the belt. I've been using it for about 2 years now and it hasn't slipped once. I only had to adjust the tension once after removing the mill for maintenance and re-gapping my rollers.
 
Used an old 1/2HP 1725 RPM motor that came from a planer in my grandfather's wood shop. I used to use a high-torque low-speed D-handle drill from Menards but that bogged down too often even with a 0.45 gap. I don't have that problem anymore.

IMG_5445.JPG
 
dcbw said:
Used an old 1/2HP 1725 RPM motor that came from a planer in my grandfather's wood shop. I used to use a high-torque low-speed D-handle drill from Menards but that bogged down too often even with a 0.45 gap. I don't have that problem anymore.

Correct me if my thinking is wrong, but for easy math say you have a 1" pulley on the motor and a 10" pulley on the mill is the 1/2hp motor exerting 5hp at the mill? That would explain the difference.
 
Correct me if my thinking is wrong, but for easy math say you have a 1" pulley on the motor and a 10" pulley on the mill is the 1/2hp motor exerting 5hp at the mill? That would explain the difference.

Actually 1.5" on the motor and 12" on the mill to get RPM down to about 200-something. But it was also hard to keep the drill speed consistently low enough to mill well but high enough not to bind, and since I had the 1/2 HP motor I was like "how hard can it be?" Turns out it wasn't that hard...
 
dcbw said:
Actually 1.5" on the motor and 12" on the mill to get RPM down to about 200-something. But it was also hard to keep the drill speed consistently low enough to mill well but high enough not to bind, and since I had the 1/2 HP motor I was like "how hard can it be?" Turns out it wasn't that hard...

So that's an 8x reduction in speed. Is it also an 8x increase in torque? The motor is now inputting 4hp? Honest question.
 
Just completed motorizing my MM2. Made it out of some free Ikea door faces I picked up at a local thrift store.

Monster Mill Stand.jpg
 
Here is mine. A little unsteady I'm afraid of an accident so I'm looking to get a cart of something for ease of use and ability to swap out the buckets when it gets full. 10gal batches often require more grain than will fit into one bucket..

TD
Oh, I cut the bottom off a plastic 5 gal water bottle and friction fit the neck through the hole on top of the hopper for feeding grain through.

I forget the revs per minute. I think it's around 300 rpm. Thought I read somewhere that was ideal speed. I get about 80% efficiency with this mill on my system.

image-1728800440.jpg


image-1398501335.jpg


image-1684302755.jpg
 
What's the new track car??

TD

The new car is an E30 M3 chassis with an S54 in it. A friend of mine in Austin is doing the install currently but it is taking forever. The car should be a beast in theory when it's done. I run with my local Corvette club and they kick my ass routinely so this should help a bit...
 
total motor n00b here. Is a geared motor what I need if I don't want to use sheaves/pulleys? What do I look for in a geared motor? I'm also toying around the idea of using a harbor freight drill, but the pics in this post look too nice not to build one. I appreciate any help.
 
m00se said:
total motor n00b here. Is a geared motor what I need if I don't want to use sheaves/pulleys? What do I look for in a geared motor? I'm also toying around the idea of using a harbor freight drill, but the pics in this post look too nice not to build one. I appreciate any help.

When I was looking around, I thought that the gear motors available were significantly more expensive, even when you add the cost of the sheaves, which were not cheap either. The 1/2 HP appliance motors are relatively common and cheap, and are overkill for crushing grain. I understand the concern of using sheaves and a 1/2 HP motor turning the big sheave and the danger that poses.
I think the drill idea results in too much rpm on the mill, and probably impossible to dial in the rpm by hand on a reproducible basis. That being said, I did it for a while until I was able to finish my motorization and it worked. I don't really have any recollection of how good or bad my efficiency was back then, as I had other equipment problems that lead to poor efficiency, unrelated to the crush.

I bought all my parts through grainier I believe, (probably why they were $$). I couldn't seem to find the sheaves and related parts on McMaster or elsewhere.

Good luck.

TD
 
TrickyDick said:
When I was looking around, I thought that the gear motors available were significantly more expensive, even when you add the cost of the sheaves, which were not cheap either. The 1/2 HP appliance motors are relatively common and cheap, and are overkill for crushing grain. I understand the concern of using sheaves and a 1/2 HP motor turning the big sheave and the danger that poses.
I think the drill idea results in too much rpm on the mill, and probably impossible to dial in the rpm by hand on a reproducible basis. That being said, I did it for a while until I was able to finish my motorization and it worked. I don't really have any recollection of how good or bad my efficiency was back then, as I had other equipment problems that lead to poor efficiency, unrelated to the crush.

I bought all my parts through grainier I believe, (probably why they were $$). I couldn't seem to find the sheaves and related parts on McMaster or elsewhere.

Good luck.

TD

Keep your eyes open on eBay... I picked up a Baldor 10:1 Speed Reducer for $75 (retails for $300), and coupled it (using the right Lovejoy couplers) between a Monster Mill and a 1/3 up Dalton motor that I also pillaged from eBay. It all works like a charm! :)
 
I'm looking to eventually build a 10:1 gear drive overdrive unit to drive a tach for my mill. Why? Because I have the tach and who else has a tach on their grain mill?
 
jeepinjeepin said:
I'm looking to eventually build a 10:1 gear drive overdrive unit to drive a tach for my mill. Why? Because I have the tach and who else has a tach on their grain mill?

Uh oh... I can see it now... A Kal-inspired control panel for the grain mill... Tachometer, temp probes in the grain bed and hopper, amp and volt meter, humidity... Where's my drawing pad???
 
3/4" plywood should be more than sufficient. Just use common sense when putting it together. Use wide bases and box it off the make it stiff in all directions.

Just in case someone has some woodworking skills (looks like most of you do) and wants to build a sheave (pulley) for some reason, here's a good link:
http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/wheels.html

The first part is pretty quick about building a pulley, then the rest is spent on building bandsaw wheels. /jd
 
Namako said:
Uh oh... I can see it now... A Kal-inspired control panel for the grain mill... Tachometer, temp probes in the grain bed and hopper, amp and volt meter, humidity... Where's my drawing pad???

This ain't any plain old car tach. It's a diesel test tach and it's pimp.

image-862454340.jpg
 
So...you'll get to the first two or three blips (x100). I wonder if there's a way to re-calibrate to x10 for a little more "show"
 
Hang Glider said:
So...you'll get to the first two or three blips (x100). I wonder if there's a way to re-calibrate to x10 for a little more "show"

Yeah, I'm not gonna mess with it if its only gonna show ~30rpm. The plan is to build a 10x overdrive so it shows ~300rpm.
 
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!!

I know this is a year old thread but this is rad and I would love to get more details on this build if you're still out there. How'd you take the handle off and wire it, how'd you mount it? Any info would be greatly appreciated!
 
Here is my set up, not motorized yet but set up for a drill. I used an old shipping crate, some casters from my kegorator and about $20 worth of hardware. I am satisfied with it and plan on painting it soon! Eventually I want to put a direct drive gear motor on it, which will require some modification.

image-1117142143.jpg



image-2458993608.jpg
 
I am planning my mill right now, and I have a question about the driven pulley. (on the mill) I can't find a 3/8" bore pulley any larger than 4" OD anywhere. But I see a lot of people in this thread with huge pulleys on their mills. Where are you guys getting them? Grainger has 9" OD (what I need) with 1/2" bore, is there some kind of shaft sleeve I can get to step it up?
 
Any idea on where I can get those shims or what they're called? I've not come up with much on google, and I have a feeling it's because I'm not using the right terms.
 
Back
Top