Mill Hopper Designs?

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Bobby_M

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I received my Crankandstein barebones earlier than expected so I'm in a mad dash to design a suitable hopper. I've seen the designs using wood, which I'll fall back on if I can't figure something else out. Let me see your DIY hoppers.

I was thinking about grabbing an HVAC duct fitting of some sort and modifying it, but I do have some light gauge aluminum flashing 12" wide to work with also.

The givens right now are:

It's being top mounted to a piece of 1/2" MDF that will sit on top of a bucket. Obviously it will have a rectangular opening the length and width of the rollers to allow the grist to drop.

In general, how large of an opening do you guys usually make for the grain feed as compared to the roller size. The Crank uses 5" long x 1.5"D rollers. I'd assume the feed slot should be a little shy of the roller length, like maybe a 3" long slot to keep grain frags from fouling up the ends. I think I also read that some have used a water bottle turned upside down with the bottom cut off as a funnel style hopper. I suppose drilling a large hole in a 2x4 would work as a mount.

I also fancy the idea of using some 1/4" acrylic sheet to make a see-through hopper.

How many of you folks also enclose the sides? It seems it would help to control dust to have the entire operation sealed.
 
Bobby_M said:
I received my Crankandstein barebones earlier than expected so I'm in a mad dash to design a suitable hopper. I've seen the designs using wood, which I'll fall back on if I can't figure something else out. Let me see your DIY hoppers.

I was thinking about grabbing an HVAC duct fitting of some sort and modifying it, but I do have some light gauge aluminum flashing 12" wide to work with also.

The givens right now are:

It's being top mounted to a piece of 1/2" MDF that will sit on top of a bucket. Obviously it will have a rectangular opening the length and width of the rollers to allow the grist to drop.

In general, how large of an opening do you guys usually make for the grain feed as compared to the roller size. The Crank uses 5" long x 1.5"D rollers. I'd assume the feed slot should be a little shy of the roller length, like maybe a 3" long slot to keep grain frags from fouling up the ends. I think I also read that some have used a water bottle turned upside down with the bottom cut off as a funnel style hopper. I suppose drilling a large hole in a 2x4 would work as a mount.

I also fancy the idea of using some 1/4" acrylic sheet to make a see-through hopper.

How many of you folks also enclose the sides? It seems it would help to control dust to have the entire operation sealed.

I made a very proto-type out of scrap MDF and OSB that I had lying around. Check out the design in my gallery. It isn't anything special but works so far. I've got the hardwood pieces ready to plan and surface to make something similar but I will be changing my proto-type design to allow for an electric motor and pulley but those changes will only affect the table design. This was a quick 30 minute job just to see where the flaws in the design are. After I finish my hardwood design I'll post a picture and any comments that might help others.

My desire was to find a large, metal funnel and simply attach that to the top of the mill, I just couldn't find a large enough funnel for less than $20.

As far as the side, I used the thinnest OSB I could find and simply slid them into place as I assembled the hopper and base. I cut them out of cardboard first to make sure everthing fit. I removed the lock set screws and just place them and used the base to hold them in place. No dust other than what comes out of the hopper itself.
 
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