My New Milling Station

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.

John Beere

Deep Six Brewing Co.
HBT Supporter
Joined
May 31, 2006
Messages
2,033
Reaction score
71
Location
Valdosta, GA
So I took the day off and finally got off my arse to build a milling station for the new MM3-20 mill by Monster Brewing I bought back in May. I don't know why I'd been procrastinating, I've had everything I needed but just couldn't get motivated.

I only had a loose design in my head when I started - this is what I came up with. Its powered by a 1/2 hp GE motor I picked up off eBay.
DSC00508.jpg


I wanted the footprint as small as possible (it's 16" deep x 24" wide) and for one of my 15 gallon containers to fit directly under the mill. That couldn't happen due to the large sheave - so I built this little shoot that you see in the photo above attached to the mill.
DSC00507.jpg



Here is inside the hopper - not sure how much grain it will hold as I didn't do the math, but its pretty good size.
DSC00513.jpg



And a pic of it all from the rear.
DSC00512.jpg
 
Very nice! Much smaller than the one I built but I was looking for storage as well.

Out of curiosity, what speed are you running your mill at? I still haven't been able to settle on a speed I like, currently running at 190RPM. I should mention I have an MM-2 but like I said I'm just curious. :)

Edit: Also how is your dust kick-up with that design? I find I get a fair bit if I leave the door on my milling side open while it's running.
 
Its running at around 180~200 RPMs. I did the math back in May when I bought the sheaves, belt, and motor - but for get the specifics.

Don't know just yet on the dust kick up... will report back in a day or two.
 
Well, the stand consists of four 2x4s, one 3/4" 2'x4' sheet of sanded plywood, one 1/2" 2'x4' sheet of sanded plywood, and four casters - roughly $70. I got the motor off eBay for around $50 shipped. The sheaves and belt came from grainger.com for around $50. That is Monster's 3-roller 2" diameter. It was around $240 shipped.

So $170 for everything but the mill...
 
Used the milling station for the first time today. There was initially an issue with the shoot that took some time to understand. I made two modifications to the design of the shoot. The first was to cut 1.5" off the back side so I could get to the non-powered roller if it didn't catch. The second was to cut a 6" square piece of plastic wall board that slides through the back of the shoot which keeps the grain from falling into the mill before its up and running.

Man can this thing eat through some grain... TOTAL overkill. heh.

After I modified the shoot, its working perfectly. No noticable dust is being kicked up and nearly 100% of the grist is falling into the bucket.

Looking down through the hopper with the plastic stopper in place:
DSC00514.jpg


Backside of mill:
DSC00515.jpg
 
Wow that is really creative. I just got my Barley Crusher this week and will be looking to make a milling station pretty soon.
 
Took today off to brew... decided to take some video of the milling station in action. This is it eating through a 20 lb grain bill in under 2 minutes.

[youtube]zcCJoBb1b84[/youtube]​

Hmm.. looks like YouTube doesn't embed anymore? Here is the direct link to the video:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Have you thought about laminating some arborite to the inside surfaces of the hopper? You'd probably not have to manually feed the grain with a nice slick inside surface.
 
Hmm I wonder if you could put something on that would vibrate thus move the grain into the mill.

I was thinking the same thing. There's already a motor, you could unbalance the wheel but the whole setup would probably bounce all over the place. Or run another belt to a smaller wheel designed to vibrate the underside of the hopper.
 
The hopper is made with sanded plywood. Its not as slick as it could be, but it does a good job of dropping the grain into the mill. The next time I use it, I won't mess with the grain and see how much makes it way through by itself - I'd guess 80+%. But I do like to mess with stuff... besides, it is not like it's something that run 24/7 - only 2 minutes once every few weeks. heh
 
I was cringing as well. Get one of those cheap hand-held whisk brooms and just use it solely for the mill, hang it on a peg underneath. :)

Be very careful of that dust. If it builds up it can be explosive. I'm eventually going to build a station like that myself, but will roll it over to the garage door opening to do the milling if I don't enclose the bottom completely with a door on the front.
 
Be very careful of that dust. If it builds up it can be explosive. I'm eventually going to build a station like that myself, but will roll it over to the garage door opening to do the milling if I don't enclose the bottom completely with a door on the front.

I had a science teacher in high school that blew up a dust cloud of flour in the classroom. It was very cool!
 
what? please explain.. sorry for the noob question, but how does grain dust become explosive? i mean, if it builds up, can u light a match and run it threw the cloud and it will catch??
 
Conditions have to be right. Grain dust is flammable and when suspended in the air at the right concentrations, will go boom if ignited. Ever hear of a fuel/air bomb?
 
Or ever hear of a [ame="http://www.google.com/search?q=grain+elevator+explod&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:eek:fficial&client=firefox-a"]grain elevator exploding[/ame]
 
I just found these two photos on our camera of the crush from my last brew session... The adjustable gap was set to .037".

**EDIT** - I guess these were taken right after I shot the video...

DSC00586.jpg


DSC00587.jpg
 
Did you notice an increase in efficiency with the 3 roller mill? I have a 2 roller Monster Mill that is motorized in the same manner as yours and the gap is also set at .37. I get good efficiency but looking at your crush yours seems to be much more broken up. All pieces are cracked after running through mine, but some look whole until you pick them up and rub them in your fingers, then they fall apart.
 
Wow that is really creative. I just got my Barley Crusher this week and will be looking to make a milling station pretty soon.

My Barley Crusher docs say not to attach a belt to the drive shaft. I don't know if this includes sheaves or not, but I'm going to contact BC, Inc to see what they say.
 
Did you notice an increase in efficiency with the 3 roller mill? I have a 2 roller Monster Mill that is motorized in the same manner as yours and the gap is also set at .37. I get good efficiency but looking at your crush yours seems to be much more broken up. All pieces are cracked after running through mine, but some look whole until you pick them up and rub them in your fingers, then they fall apart.

I've also been modifying my process quite a bit, so its hard to say exactly, but I expect 80% efficiency now. Before, with my two roller JSP MaltMill and a simpler mash schedule, I was at around 66%~68%.
 
My Barley Crusher docs say not to attach a belt to the drive shaft. I don't know if this includes sheaves or not, but I'm going to contact BC, Inc to see what they say.
I would guess that the bushings they use aren't suitable for all the lateral force that a drive belt would require. You could set it up in such a way that the drive shaft itself is direct driven and have the pulley attached to an intermediate shaft of some sort. Extra complexity for sure but better than destroying your mill.
 
Attach a LoveJoy coupler to the mills shaft and a your motor provided the motor has a reduction gearbox for the proper rpm's. This would prevent any bushing side loading except the grain crushing plus correct for any minor misalignment of motor to mill shafts.
 
I would guess that the bushings they use aren't suitable for all the lateral force that a drive belt would require. You could set it up in such a way that the drive shaft itself is direct driven and have the pulley attached to an intermediate shaft of some sort. Extra complexity for sure but better than destroying your mill.

I know this is an old post but I just ordered a MM3-2.0 and will run it off a Industrial fully sealed Baldor 1/3 hp motor with a worm drive gearbox as a manufacrured unit. This will be geared up from the 28.75 RPM ro 89 onto a 6 1/2" ling 1/2" diameter jackshaft mounted with two pillow bearings. At the other end of the jackshaft a LoveJoy drive coupling that will couple directly to the MM3-2.0 mill without any bushing side loading. Low speed will also keep the bushings heat and wear to a minumum as well the flour making.
I have the motor/gearbox from a disability chair lift which was free from a realitives business. Totoal cost will be two 1/2" bore pillow bearings at $20, the mills cost with shipping at $240 and a LoveJoy coupling drive with a spider, the rest is free. I have the #40 chain and sprockets so the wood hopper material in the shop with a smooth white plastic sheeting contact cemented to the wood for the grain to slide down on. There's a reason why i'm a pack rat, it pays off.
 
Not sure what all you are talking about in your post but you can still make a build thread without being a paid member. If you aren't a paid member this site just won't host your photos, if you host them on another site you can still post them here.
 
"Extra complexity" as in "more complicated than" a direct connection to the drive shaft from the mill. The statement had nothing to do with the overall complexity of the project in question, merely the relative difference between the two methods.

Cheers! :mug:
 
"Extra complexity" as in "more complicated than" a direct connection to the drive shaft from the mill. The statement had nothing to do with the overall complexity of the project in question, merely the relative difference between the two methods.

Cheers! :mug:

I'm just picking on ya boss as the wife will hit back, ouch that's going to leave a mark.
 
I would guess that the bushings they use aren't suitable for all the lateral force that a drive belt would require.

That would be a radial force against the bushing with the shaft only pulling off to one side of the bushings by the tension of the belt the torque of the motor overcoming the resistance of the driven rollers bushing friction plus the resistance of the grains being crushed down to the reduced thickness matching that of the preset gap of the mills rollers.
 
All the gear I could save - milling station included - from the flood last month is now locked away in storage... so it will be several months before I could get any specific info for you. sorry
 
All the gear I could save - milling station included - from the flood last month is now locked away in storage... so it will be several months before I could get any specific info for you. sorry

Wow! Sorry to hear about the flood John. I hope it works out well in the end.

I came here with the intention of posting how you inpired me to build my own milling station. Shown here is the freshly glued-screwed and stained wood frame with all the moving parts removed.
MillStation1_small.jpg


I just put the casters on the bottom and started putting the first coat of spar varnish on it. I don't have a planer or a jointer so I had to use the expensive pre-finished 1x4 which I laminated together on the motor side.

It'll look pretty decent when all the milling parts are back on it.

Thanks John! You inspired me!
 
Back
Top