Motorized Grain Mills: Time to show them off!

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I have the monster mill MM2-2.0 and it needs more power and slower speed than most. With gear drive, the torque goes up when speed goes down. I'm sure that is obvious but it means I had to be selective with surplus motors. This mill needs 160-180 inch pounds if you want to crush anything at any gap. Since I only have a motor with 140inlb, it stalls with a lot rye or carapils if I try to crush very fine. I'm running 63 RPM but would go to about 100 or 120 if I could hand pick. Again, a 2" roller runs grain faster than the 1.25 or 1.5" rollers at the same rpm.
 
^i fought some battles powering my mill as well (mm3 2.0). Pulleys wouldn't cut it.

My reducer is 15:1 which cuts RPM's to 116. It will start with a loaded hopper of whatever I throw at it.
 
Bobby_M said:
I have the monster mill MM2-2.0 and it needs more power and slower speed than most. With gear drive, the torque goes up when speed goes down. I'm sure that is obvious but it means I had to be selective with surplus motors. This mill needs 160-180 inch pounds if you want to crush anything at any gap. Since I only have a motor with 140inlb, it stalls with a lot rye or carapils if I try to crush very fine. I'm running 63 RPM but would go to about 100 or 120 if I could hand pick. Again, a 2" roller runs grain faster than the 1.25 or 1.5" rollers at the same rpm.
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At what RPM would you need the 160-180 inch-lbs? My thought was 300 rpm was preferred, but that would require like a 3/4 hp motor which nobody seems to be using here.
 
I've got a MM3-2.0 and I'm using a 1hp 1725rpm motor with an 10:1 reducer with output torque 515in lbs. At approx 172 rpm. I wired my setup with fwd and rev and can cold start with the hopper full.
 
Jpicasso, sorry for putting this here, but I couldn't upload the pics in the PM reply.

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Robg773 said:
I've got a MM3-2.0 and I'm using a 1hp 1725rpm motor with an 10:1 reducer with output torque 515in lbs. At approx 172 rpm. I wired my setup with fwd and rev and can cold start with the hopper full.
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+1 Same here...

M
 
chessking said:
You win. Close the thread.
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How can that be a winner? It is obviously photoshopped.
Sure, I'm a dirty bastard, but there is no way an actual milling station (never mind the house) that is that clean :)
I wouldn't even dare to use that, out of fear of someone coming rushing at me with the vaccum, cursing at me.
JK, that is a very sweet build @drunkenmonk !
 
So in the last 7 months I started milling my own grain for the first time. My roommate bought me a barley crusher as a gift to help expand our brewing and with my need to do everything a little over the top right away I wanted to motorize it and build a cart for it. It worked excellent for our 10 gallon batches just powered through the grain but I quickly realized the barley crusher wasn't designed for the amount of brewing we were quickly ramping up to. I then made the decision to upgrade kettles to 30 gallon and knew the little barley crusher would never last. I experimented and it took me over half an hour to mill the 55 lb of grain I needed for a 20 gallon batch. After that I decided to upgrade to a monster mill mm2 pro and build a whole new setup for it to improve on my first design. So enough with the talking here are the pics! The first couple are my first barley crusher mill and second couple are the new monster mill!

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Here is my grain mill build. I didn't want this taking up space when not in use, so I made it multi functional. table- grain mill station- bottle capping station. Made from wood pallets. The motor was an old washing machine motor. I got the sheave specs off a byo magazine website article. IMG_4256.jpg

IMG_4250.jpg

IMG_4237.jpg

IMG_4253.jpg The table was an aborted bar stool bench project I did for my keezer.
 
I'm currently in the process of motorizing my Monster MM2 with an American Ale Works Power Grinder and using an Ikea Stenstorp Kitchen Cart as my table.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70267473/

The Stenstorp kitchen cart's are available pretty regularly on CL for about half price of new and because of their flat pack construction, you can just lift off the top stainless shelf and remove the front bar so you can easily slide a 5 gallon bucket under your mill. Then you've still got the shiny stainless bottom shelf which looks great in the brewery.

I've seen these carts used on CL from $60 - $120 and I don't know an easier way to get a better looking mill table with a couple of integrated casters, stainless shelf and butcher block top. I haven't seen this done on here yet, but in the next 1 to 2 weeks I hope to be posting my pictures.

My only hiccup so far is just how high up the shaft of the PowerGrinder is off of the surface of the table- I'm having to raise the mill a good 3"; I'm afraid the Chinese supplier may have started providing slightly different motors than the original PowerGrinders because I haven't seen anyone else who's had to create such a huge spacer before. Note: These things appear to be drop-shipped straight from China, so anyone who's good at search criteria on Alibaba can probably find a beast of a motor for a good deal.


Adam
 
biertourist said:
You definitely win the most unique / interesting and probably "most compact" award!

Are those 1" rollers in that mill?? Give us the scoop on the motor you're using, too!


Adam
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Thanks.

The rollers in that mill are 70mm, about 2,75 inches. The advantages of such big rollers is that they don't need to be synchroniced by a gear cause the grain gets pulled in very nicely. The disadvantage is that you need quite a powerfull motor.

My motor is an SEW 400 Volts with 0,30 KW with about 150 rpm. It could turn faster since the producer of the mill recomeends up to 300 rpm.

This mill will propably survive longer then me. They are hand made in germany and completly in stainless steel. Amazing customer support if ever something breaks. But as you propably already guessed, not cheap at all.
 
rossi46 said:
My mill is raised 2 3/4" and my motor is raised 1/4" for a grand total of 2 1/2". Pretty sure mine shipped out of Colorado.
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Thanks for posting this Rossi, makes me feel like I'm not all alone on my build. That picture alone gives me so much peace of mind!
 
I ended up getting a Cereal Killer mill for Christmas. I assembled it up and mounted it on a old microwave cabinet that I was going to throw out.




The other day I decided to try and motorize this beast. A friend of mine gave me a motor from a old furnace. I pulled it out and it ended up being a 1/2hp 1050rpm motor. I had a machinist friend make me a bushing to fit the Cereal Killer 10mm shaft with the OD of 1/2" to fit the 9" pulley I bought. I ran a 2" pulley on the motor and ended up with a 1.45 ratio and the large pulley running at 233.3 RPM's. Worked out pretty good, I had most everything I needed laying around the shop. The main expense was the belt and pulleys, about $51.00 from Grainger. Works like a champ! :ban:



 
On a very related subject; What are the best solutions you've seen for keeping dust down?


-Some sort of rail solution that the bucket slides on to?

I'm thinking of just buying a Gamma Seal Lid from Home Depot for about $8 and cutting a mill body-shaped, rectangular hole in the lid and screwing it onto the under side of the top and then screwing a bucket onto the ceiling, but I'm open to any real simple, real effective and real cheap solutions. (Particularly if they're attractive or visibly hidden.)

A full hopper of crushed grain unfortunately doesn't fit into a single 5 gallon bucket so I'd have to buy 2 gamma seal lids and swap buckets 75% of the way through a typical grist or else buy a $30 7 gallon bucket.

Why the @#$!@#%@# are 7 gallon buckets like 5x more expensive than 5 gallon buckets?


Adam
 
biertourist said:
A full hopper of crushed grain unfortunately doesn't fit into a single 5 gallon bucket so I'd have to buy 2 gamma seal lids and swap buckets 75% of the way through a typical grist or else buy a $30 7 gallon bucket.

Why the @#$!@#%@# are 7 gallon buckets like 5x more expensive than 5 gallon buckets?
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Cool idea, but I'm not sure the gamma lid could handle the weight/stress over time.

Also, U.S. Plastics has 10-gallon buckets for less than $10.

M
 
I used my garden shredder:)

I replaced the crushing wheels against a self-constructed mill wheels.
img107zjz.jpg


I tried with a gap of 0.8mm, but had to increase it to 1.5 mm for good results.

It is not fast, but I do not need to stand beside when it grinds.
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AnOldUR said:
Mobility is not creating a Monster. :D
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Man, that is a sweet stand. Need to check out my scrap stock.

day_trippr said:
Requirements depends on the mill - the number of rollers, roller diameters and roller length are going to dictate how much power is required to get things started with a full bin of grain.

But, fwiw, my two-roller 1.25" BC mill gets along with a 177 rpm 40 inch-pound gear motor...

Cheers!
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Looking to motorize my MM-3, I recently picked up one of these https://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-AC-Gearmotor-115-230-Nameplate-1LPW6. (I'll dispense with the sermon on mixing Jameson and EBay) Pic below among other in-progess stuff.

Anyway, I got concerned about using 156 RPM / 77 inlb after seeing all the 1 HP brutes folks are building.
You both have given me hope.:mug:
Another question for everyone. I see a pretty even mix of single multi-pole switches and and separate power/direction switches.
I was leaning toward a toggle for power and rocker for direction and then got thinking I could slam it into reverse under power. Guess you could eff up with single switch too, but wondered about experiences/preferences.

Thanks, Dale

bench.jpg
 
The guys at monster recommend 1hp motor for mm3. I wired for reverse because i could and I've heard of mills getting stuck on a rock or hard grain although i haven't experienced it. I used a drum switch so i would only have one switch and also both directions. Believe it arounf $70. Hope that helps.
 
Robg773 said:
The guys at monster recommend 1hp motor for mm3. I wired for reverse because i could and I've heard of mills getting stuck on a rock or hard grain although i haven't experienced it. I used a drum switch so i would only have one switch and also both directions. Believe it arounf $70. Hope that helps.
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Appreciate the input, it kind of helps. Just hoping the Monster guys advocate overkill to reduce tech support load from folks trying to use automotive power window motors:) Good to know reverse is not a frequent mode.
I'm still on the fence regarding switches, but pretty certain I'm not postured for a $70 model in the event I go with single switch.
Thanks, Dale
 
You could use an on/off light switch. Cheap and efficient. Just depends on your setup.
 
I just ordered a Monster Mill3 yesterday. Since I will be buying everything to motorize this. Can someone provide the recommended size motor, pulley sizes etc.

Right know, I'm leaning toward pulley drive, but I would like to have the information for a direct drive with gear reduction just to help make a better decision.

I have a old motor off a Craftmans wood lathe laying around somewhere and while it's been several years since I've messed with it, I think it's a standard 1/4hp motor. Not sure if this would work or not.

Initially I was just going to use a drill, but even then I would have to buy it. For just a few bucks more, I could pick up a Harbor Freight motor I think.

Anyway, any suggestions on what I should be looking for would help me out a bunch.

Ken
 

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