Hoppo's Rustic Motorized Grain Mill Cabinet and Grain Storage Bin

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Hello all! I'm going to use my grain mill for the first time this weekend. Despite the fact that it's not 100% complete from an asthetics perspective, it's fully operational. I have combed through the threads and have seen a very wide range of gap settings being used. It's appears as though several people with this mill (The Barley Crusher) like the gap setting at .035". I purchased a set of feeler guages today and will make some adjustments to the rollers tonight. Does this sound like a good starting point to all of you experienced grain millers out there? Any feedback would be great!

I'm doing 3 five gallon PM batches back to back to back on Saturday, starting at 6:00 a.m. I am trying to wrap up before my parents arrive to stay later in the afternoon, so I have my work cut out for me. I will also get to try out my new fermentation chambers, as I'm brewing 2 ales and my first lager! Wish me luck and let me know about the gap setting. :mug:
 
Your too kind....thank you for following along. :mug:

I'm still at work, but plan on running home once I get out and testing out the grain mill tonight. I have 3 batches to brew this weekend, so I may do a late night brew session tonight and 2 early morning brew sessions tomorrow. I'll post some pics of the crush to get some feedback.

I haven't gotten any responses on my mill gapping question, so feel free to chime in. Does .035" sound like a good starting point for my Barley Crusher mill?
 
I use a three roller Monster Mill and that's my gap. It's on the fine side but I've learned to make it work and get great efficiency.
 
Thanks for the feedback MaxOut! I milled grains on Friday night for the 3 partial mashes that I brewed over the weekend. This process did not go without a couple of problems. I see what you mean, the crush was pretty fine. I also found that during my first "test run" at .035, the mill would not pull the grain through at times. The Barley Crusher is just a two roller mill with one of the rollers direct driven and the other is passive. I had no problems with the drive side of the mill, with no slippage of the belts and no binding, but at times the drive side would keep spinning and the passive side would sit idle. So, with the smaller gap, the grain at times was not being pulled down between the roller. I was using a paint stirring stick to push the grain down and then it would start pulling it through. I started with 8 lbs. of grain and after the first trial test, which took about 10 minutes, and the frustration of having to keep agitating the grains downward over the roller. I decided to adjust the gap, so I opened it up another .005" and what a difference. The second round of grains made it through the mill very quickly with a decent crush and not once did stop pulling the grains through. As I sifted through the milled grains, I found a small percentage of the grains still intact, so I ran them through again and it looked much better. For now, I think that I am going to keep the gap .040" and do a double crush, since the mill works so efficiently at that gap.

I also found that my opening under the mill where the grains fall through sits futher back that I would like, so a little bit of grain was missing the bucket underneath. I used a little bit of ducting material and created a chute to direct the grains to the center of the bucket and then things were smooth sailing from there. I think that I am going to build a nicer chute and once I work a few bugs out, this milling process should prove to be very efficient. I'm still open to any feedback, as I am still new to milling my own grains. I am not very technilogically savvy, but I may try to make a video next time I mill some grains to show the HBT'ers how this thing works.

Here are a few pics....one with my daughter assisting. What can I say, she's a daddy's girl and is always eager to help out with my brewing. :mug:

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With my mill that is motorized in a similar fashion If I start the mill before dumping the grain in it tends to work just fine. But if I pour the grain in first it tends not to work. At that point I just turn the large sheave backwards by hand. Then start the motor it will start milling at that point.
 
Wait a minute, you finally brewed? Crap, I had my $5 on the first week of Jan 2013.
 
They do indeed make great brewing assistants! Mine love squeezing the trigger on the Dewalt to help grind the grain, and are even now brave enough to help out with some of the hop additions. Great setup, glad to see you we're finally able to take it for its maiden voyage!

Hoppopotomus said:
Here are a few pics....one with my daughter assisting. What can I say, she's a daddy's girl and is always eager to help out with my brewing. :mug:
 
Wait a minute, you finally brewed? Crap, I had my $5 on the first week of Jan 2013.

I know, I know.......It's been a while. I brewed 3 batches the weekend before last and really need to get on a 4th asap. I have a keezer with 4 empty kegs in it and an empty keg sitting in cold storage. Talk about piss poor brewing performance. :eek: On the plus side, my fermentation chambers are working flawlessly, so I'm happy about that.
 
With my mill that is motorized in a similar fashion If I start the mill before dumping the grain in it tends to work just fine. But if I pour the grain in first it tends not to work. At that point I just turn the large sheave backwards by hand. Then start the motor it will start milling at that point.

Do you mean that if you pour the grain in first and then turn it on that it doesn't have enough torque to turn the mill? or Do you experience what I was experiencing.....that the drive roller spins, but the passive roller doesn't, so the grain just sits and doesn't get pulled down through? I tried it both ways and had the same problem until I opened up the gap a bit, then it worked great. The motor has plenty of torque to start underneath a grain load without problems. Thanks for the comment. :mug:
 
They do indeed make great brewing assistants! Mine love squeezing the trigger on the Dewalt to help grind the grain, and are even now brave enough to help out with some of the hop additions. Great setup, glad to see you we're finally able to take it for its maiden voyage!

Thanks man! My daughter is much more interested than my son in helping out nowadays. When I used to bottle beer, both were eager to help with that process, now my son not so much. I installed a 100 amp. 20 breaker subpanel on Sunday afternoon, because my orginal 200 amp. 40 breaker panel is completely full. I need more power for the brewery and the boiler system that I'm having installed to heat the basement floors, so I had to add the subpanel. She was by my side during the entire process, handing me tools, etc., so she's a great little helper.
 
As far as your mill gap question goes, I don't have a scientific or measured way to do, well, really anything that I do, but I eye-ball gap my mill about the thickness of a quarter and run all of my grain through twice. It adds a few minutes to the brew day but that doesn't bother me. And it's worked well in the past, so if it ain't broke - don't fix it. My numbers are respectable and I have not had a stuck mash with the current gap. Took me 4-5 batches to get the distance dialed in, but it works well.

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The motor i use will start with grain in the hopper. It seams to start milling more consistently when it is started before I add the grain. I have it set at the factory gap.
 
This is looking great, like the way how you use wood as material.
I've seen you other projects and you are doing excellent work.
 
Thanks for all of the replies, kind words, and advice:mug:. I think I have the mill dialed in and I am taking Ted's advice and running the grain through the mill twice. Seems to be running smooth as silk with the slightly larger gap setting and I'm getting a good crush with good efficiency. Thanks again guys!
 
Hey Hoppopotomus,

I've been following this thread for the last week or so - awesome job! Awesome job on the keezer as well! :ban:

Question for you: Do you recall the distance and/or belt length between the pulleys?

Thank you,
perogi.
 
Thanks for the compliments. :mug:

I went with a 12" pulley on the mill with an 11.85" pitch diameter. I went with a 1 1/2" pulley on the motor with a 1.35" pitch diameter. I ended up using a 60" belt, which makes a distance between the mill shaft and the motor shaft 19.64 inches.

My motor is 1/3 hp at 1725 rpms. This pulley configuration yields and 8:1 ration, to slow the mill speed down to 215 rpms. Works great. Check out THIS document by Mike Dixon on how to motorize a grain mill. It has very specific formulas for calculating all of this stuff. I'm so glad that I came across this because it was extremely helpful during my build. Bear in mind that it's an older document, so the pricing isn't accurate for current rates through Grainger. Hope this helps......let me know if I can be of further assistance. Good luck!
 
Thanks for the compliments. :mug:

I went with a 12" pulley on the mill with an 11.85" pitch diameter. I went with a 1 1/2" pulley on the motor with a 1.35" pitch diameter. I ended up using a 60" belt, which makes a distance between the mill shaft and the motor shaft 19.64 inches.

My motor is 1/3 hp at 1725 rpms. This pulley configuration yields and 8:1 ration, to slow the mill speed down to 215 rpms. Works great. Check out THIS document by Mike Dixon on how to motorize a grain mill. It has very specific formulas for calculating all of this stuff. I'm so glad that I came across this because it was extremely helpful during my build. Bear in mind that it's an older document, so the pricing isn't accurate for current rates through Grainger. Hope this helps......let me know if I can be of further assistance. Good luck!

Thank you! I have the same size motor and sheaves so I was thinking that your dimensions would work for me. I have a 48" belt laying around so I am going to give that try first.

Looking at your set up, I really like how you used the weight of the motor to help keep tension on the belt. I noticed that you used some springs but they don't appear to be holding any tension. Are they used to keep the board that the motor is mounted on from flipping over? Any chance you can take some close up pics of that area?

Thank you so much!
perogi.
 
The springs actually do provide tension, so that the belt doesn't slip. I tried it without the springs at first and although there was no belt slippage, there was some excessive vibration and light bouncing of the motor. Once I put the springs on as tensioners, it has been smooth as silk with no motor jumping or excessive vibration. I'm at work now, but I can update some closer pics. later if needed. I stole the idea of using the motor weight as the tensioner from my grandpa, who was an avid woodworker and had a similar setup for his antique wood lathe, with step pulley system of course.
 
VERY nice looking mill Hoppopotomus! Makes my new grain mill station seem rather boring! I too used motor weight to tension a la my table saw, but I like your spring tensioner addition. I think I may have to borrow that! :D
 
Thanks for the compliment. I added the spring tensioners just to cut down on the bit of chattering that the motor was doing without them. Go for it. :mug:

perogi....I'll try to shoot some pics later today. I would have preferred my tensioner springs to be more vertical, but they were a little too long, so I had to anchor them out laterally, which gives them the appearance that they aren't holding tension, but they are.
 
FWIW here's a pic of my mill setup. My motor is sitting on a longer board that's "hinged" at the front where it's held in place with 3 long wood screws and washers that pass through oversized holes and are loosely attached. I'm thinking I could drill through the board just in front of the motor and drill through the bottom of the cabinet. Then I could pass a long bolt from underneath such that it extends a few inches above the board, place a compression spring over the bolt, and then use a washer and nut to apply spring tension. Do you think that'd do the trick? Thanks, Kevin

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FWIW here's a pic of my mill setup. My motor is sitting on a longer board that's "hinged" at the front where it's held in place with 3 long wood screws and washers that pass through oversized holes and are loosely attached. I'm thinking I could drill through the board just in front of the motor and drill through the bottom of the cabinet. Then I could pass a long bolt from underneath such that it extends a few inches above the board, place a compression spring over the bolt, and then use a washer and nut to apply spring tension. Do you think that'd do the trick? Thanks, Kevin

That's a great looking setup and a solid plan to provide tension.....go for it!
 
That's what I was thinking too. I'm sure there will be a few arguments against using it, but for now that's my plan. Thanks man! :mug:

I am not sure what the issue was with the wood you lined the inside of the hopper with getting wet, but this might present a minor issue if you ever decide to do Malt Conditioning. Sorry if you have already thought of this or addressed it somewhere else.

Nice work!
 
My only words are Wow and Fantastic!

Thanks for the pictures of your brewery and talents

ButchV12
 
I am not sure what the issue was with the wood you lined the inside of the hopper with getting wet, but this might present a minor issue if you ever decide to do Malt Conditioning. Sorry if you have already thought of this or addressed it somewhere else.

Nice work!

Sorry, it's been a while Jeebas. The inside of my hopper is lined with a laminate hardwood flooring material left over from when I built the house. I seriously doubt if there would ever be any issues, even with malt conditioning. I certainly don't think that a little bit of moisture in the grains would leach anything harmful from the laminate, espicially with just a couple of minutes worth of surface contact while milling. I've read some of the grain storage threads, especially about using non-food grade buckets (like HD homer buckets), and the debates get pretty heated. Although I lean toward the camp of using food safe buckets for longer term grain storage, I seriously don't see any harm in my laminate flooring application for the hopper. Again, I'm sure some would disagree and that's why I posted many moons ago early in this thread that I didn't want to start any debates. :mug:


.....and THANK YOU Butchv12, you're far too kind. :mug:
 
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