Grain hopper size???

I just purchased an MM3 grain mill and I'm about to build a hopper and basefor it, but I don't know how large to make it. I'd like it to hold enough for a 5.5 gallon batch, say 13 - 14 lbs of grain. Does anyone know how many cubic inches or meters that is? Should I go larger or smaller?

Thoughts???

I built mine w/ enough room for a homer bucket to fit underneath the mill chute. I put a guide bar to one side to keep the bucket in place

I built a sheet-aluminum extension for a Barley Crusher 7 lb standard hopper so I can fit 15 pounds, which matches their rather pricey optional high-capacity hopper...

Cheers!

You're going to be somewhere close to 2.5 gallons for 14 lbs of grain, so I would make sure your hopper holds at least 3 gallons. There are 231 cubic inches in a gallon so you should be safe if you have a hopper with a volume of 700 cubic inches.

That is exactly what I was looking for!

I'm planning to make my hopper out of wood and I found a very interesting web page (https://jansson.us/jcompound.html) that helped me figure out the angles perfectly.

I'll post a pic when I'm done.

Thanks!

My original setup for my MM3 included a hopper I built out of wood. Now it has the MM3 hopper with extension, much better setup IMO, and holds 27 lbs.

5 gallon bucket with the bottom cut out and a funnel riveted to it works very well and was essentially free since it was stuff I had laying around I haven't used in years.

5 Gallon water jug with the bottom cut off.

Well I've finished putting together the hopper and base for my new MM3 Grain mill. As promised below is a couple pics.

I made the hopper out of some pine and plywood that I had laying around. The hopper is made so it slides over the grain mill and doesn't need to be permanently attached. I made it this way so I could easily clean and adjust the mill. It seems very sturdy and it holds just over 15 lbs of grain. I haven't decided if I'm going to finish it or not. If I do I'll use tung oil or polyurethane on it. I just haven't made up my mind.

Thanks for your help!

Bob

What is the volume in cubic inches?

Now that is good question...

The top part of the hopper is 7.25"W x 11.25"L x 7.5"H = 611.7 cu inches (all inside dimensions). Figuring out the volume of the bottom or funnel section of the hopper is more complicated due to all the angles, but I'd say its about 200 cu inches. So all told its about 811 cu inches.

BungBrewing recommended that I'd need 2.5 gallons of hopper space for a 5 gallon batch and that equates to 577 cu inches, so thats why I made the upper portion on the hopper as large as I did. I wanted to ensure that I could fit all the grain for a hefty 5 gallon batch. So I used a 1X8 lumber for it instead of using 1X6. The extra width helped.

I hope this helps.