Home made barley crusher? Ideas?

Does the crusher have to b made of stainless steel? I have 2 2 inch rollers but not stainless. Is 200 RPM fast enough? What about bronze bearings? How big of electric motor(110v)? Any ideas I would be grateful.

I wager most consumer-grade barley mills don't have any stainless steel components.

200 rpms at the rollers is perfect. Motor size per se isn't important, torque at speed is. You didn't mention roller length, but assuming 6 inches, with 2" diameter rollers at 200 rpm you'd probably want to end up with at least 80-100 inch-pounds of torque at the driven shaft. You could probably hit that with a typical 1750 rpm 1hp AC motor through a geared reducer or a belt-and-sheave setup...

Cheers!

Actually, I'm pretty sure one of the newer mills (rebel, crankstein, or monster) has stainless rollers.

For corrosion resistance that would be a plus, but I don't remember off the top of my head where 304/316 SS stacks up for hardness/ toughness versus a good hardened tool steel.

bdjohns1 said:

Actually, I'm pretty sure one of the newer mills (rebel, crankstein, or monster) has stainless rollers. [...]

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I said "most". A couple of mills offer optional stainless rollers, and there might even be one that has those standard, but that ain't "most"...

Cheers!

i was thinking of taking 2 of those frozen juice cans and filling it with concrete center a treaded shaft in the top and bottom few nuts washers and a gear or pully just im planning atm

bdjohns1 said:

Actually, I'm pretty sure one of the newer mills (rebel, crankstein, or monster) has stainless rollers.

For corrosion resistance that would be a plus, but I don't remember off the top of my head where 304/316 SS stacks up for hardness/ toughness versus a good hardened tool steel.

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Hardened steel (used for rollers, such as by Monster Mill) is tougher than the stainless used. I would only even consider stainless rollers IF you're in an area where corrosion is an issue, or where humidity is high most of the year (FL for instance).

Monster gives the buyer options/choices for the roller material (tool steel, stainless steel or hardened tool steel). Granted, the hardened is only an option for their 2" diameter rollers. Not sure if any of the other mill manufacturers offer the same options. Pretty sure BC rollers are just steel (assuming tool steel). Rebel offers stainless, but as already posted (in another thread) stainless rollers are not as wear resistant as hardened steel rollers. For my money, I'd rather have more wear resistance and need to take a little better care of the mill, than have softer (relatively) stainless rollers.

I think one of your bigger challenges will be to put the knurl pattern onto the rollers. That and the bushings used for the gap setting on the free roller. Sealed precision bearings should do well for the drive side, or oil impregnated bronze bushings/bearings. Just keep in mind they could wear faster depending on what material you select. If you think X will be sufficient, go one (or two) steps/grades higher. IMO, better to over engineer and never have an issue than think you hit the mark only to find out it falls short X pounds later.

Barleyman said:

Does the crusher have to b made of stainless steel? I have 2 2 inch rollers but not stainless. Is 200 RPM fast enough? What about bronze bearings? How big of electric motor(110v)? Any ideas I would be grateful.

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Hi

Grain isn't always grain. Sometimes there are odd things in the mix (like rocks). What ever you use does not need to be able to crush gravel. It does need to survive exposure to gravel....

If you ever decide to go crazy - corn is pretty tough stuff to put through a mill. Most other grains are harder than malted barley, but softer than corn.

Bob

does a grain mill have to b adjustable or can it b solid. what gap would b best?

Barleyman said:

does a grain mill have to b adjustable or can it b solid. what gap would b best?

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It's best to have a mill that you can adjust the gap setting on. Depending on your setup, your gap may need to be different than what mills could come set at (from the factory). Also, depending on if you condition the malt, you could need a different gap setting.

Common gap settings range from about .032" to .039" with some being tighter, or looser. In reality, the 'best' gap setting is the one that you find works best for your system.

I run a 90 volt DC gear motor @175 rpm with 78 in lbs of torque on a1/8 hp motor hooked up to a Dart controller. I have a Malt mill with my gap set at .39 standard hardened rollers they're 10in. long. I found that at 128 rpm gives me the best crush/speed/efficiency.