Homemade mill - for DIY'ers

I have no intention of making this project as I have enough going on. However I came across this at Harbor Freight and immediately saw a very cheap DIY mill as it has 2 knurled rollers and a nice frame. Just needs some creative input - who will take it on first?

FWIW - I think you might have to tighten the gap a bit - LOL

Cool. You might be onto something.

How much is it??

linky linky my friend. We need the details on it.

It appears to be made of aluminum, including the rollers. I don't know how well knurled aluminum rollers will hold up to milling grain.

It seemed pretty beefy to me at the store, but as Catt22 says it might not hold up - not sure. Someone needs to drop $29.99 or wait for one of the 15% off coupons that come in the mail.

btw -My original post had the link, I am not that cruel !

First problem is that there's no direct way to drive the rollers. You'd have to rig up some sort of friction drive, or mill the end off one of em to be able to get a gear on there.

MacBruver said:

First problem is that there's no direct way to drive the rollers. You'd have to rig up some sort of friction drive, or mill the end off one of em to be able to get a gear on there.

Click to expand...

or get Yuri to do a little machining/welding for us...

MacBruver said:

First problem is that there's no direct way to drive the rollers. You'd have to rig up some sort of friction drive, or mill the end off one of em to be able to get a gear on there.

Click to expand...

Too soon to say. We need to see one of these disassembled completely before coming up with practical mods. I want to see someone build a mill with one roller fixed in place and the other roller mounted in milled slots on the frame. A yoke could be made with an adjusting screw that would move both ends of the rollers together and ideally, on the fly while the mill is running. We don't know what kind of a shafts the rollers have, but it shouldn't be too hard to modify them even if they have to be drilled out. The machining tolerances need to be fairly tight, so this is above my home shop DIY level.

I already have a mill that works just fine for me, but I can't resist taking a look at this kind of stuff.

comon you cheapskate yanks - buy one.
If I can get one here is Australia I definitely will.
Someone with a set of precise calipers - check that the rollers are actually pretty round - that would be my first test - and you could do that in the store!

yeah they sell digital calipers a few aisles over. I will take a look at this the next time I'm in there. Driving it would be the first step, then figuring how to adjust it.

i bought some calipers from harbor freight i wouldnt trust 'em. man they read all over the place. thats a use once and trash the the tool place.

chris1979 said:

i bought some calipers from harbor freight i wouldnt trust 'em. man they read all over the place. thats a use once and trash the the tool place.

Click to expand...

This is why you never buy moving or electric parts from Harbor Freight.

We have a couple of conveyers at work with about 300 rollers in them.....All I ever see when i look at them is 150 huge grain mills.

hmmm. i got a digital caliper there that does a fine job. that's what HF is though, a hit or miss tool place.

Anyways, are the shafts removable or welded in place?

You could also say you have 30.00 saved for a real mill.

come on guys a maltmill isnt but 125 not like were talking bout converting a ford pinto in to a ferrari for 30 bucks

where do you see the maltmill for $125?

B

wow i thought DIY was what allot of us are here for.