barley crusher build

well my brewbuddies and I finally got around to building a set up for the barley crusher. we knew after the first time of crushing 18lbs of 2-row by hand this needed to be built its basically just an old nightstand powered by a corded drill from harbor freight ($18). the drill cord was shortened and hardwired to the switch. We had to mount the crusher on a spacer so it would be level with the drill shaft. we mounted a small peice of rubber weather strip at the top where the bucket goes to contain most of the dust. the whole build (less the cost of the crusher) was under $30 and only took a couple hrs. Works great! flip the switch, dump your grains and sip your beer

Looks great. I need to get around to doing something like this.

I'm a little concerned that you're buying gorilla glue in 5 gallon buckets. Did you build a house with it?

the top of the box has hinges to open the lid and access the drill. you can't tell from the pic but the drill is sandwiched in with peices of rubber to minimize vibration and has a variable speed lock on the trigger. just lock it at the desired speed, than operate with the switch

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

Looks great. I need to get around to doing something like this.

I'm a little concerned that you're buying gorilla glue in 5 gallon buckets. Did you build a house with it?

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thanks
they were giving those buckets away at ace hardware

Nice build - I like the sensible $18 drill motor which is more than enough to get the job done.

samc said:

Nice build - I like the sensible $18 drill motor which is more than enough to get the job done.

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Maybe yes, and maybe no. I tried motorizing my mill with a similar cheap 3/8" HF drill and smoked it. It worked for awhile, but soon overheated and died. This application is asking a lot from those drill motors. Time will tell for this one. It's not the same mill, so the loading may be different.

I really like the idea of using that cheap drill from HB to run the mill. I've got a 3 roller mill that I've been looking into motorizing for a while and this looks like a really good idea.

Catt22 said:

Maybe yes, and maybe no. I tried motorizing my mill with a similar cheap 3/8" HF drill and smoked it. It worked for awhile, but soon overheated and died. This application is asking a lot from those drill motors. Time will tell for this one. It's not the same mill, so the loading may be different.

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How much grain are you running? I use my cordless Dewalt to plow through 30+lbs at a brew session, using an old not so great battery.

samc said:

How much grain are you running? I use my cordless Dewalt to plow through 30+lbs at a brew session, using an old not so great battery.

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The grain bills vary considerably, but 26 lbs at a crack is not at all unusual.

IMO, this HF drill would be a better choice:

http://www.harborfreight.com/power-...inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html

I have since motorized the mill with a Bodine gearmotor which I think will outlast me.

thanks for the comments guys. I've used it a couple times so far and the drill seems to have more than enough power. its only set at half speed and goes through grains very efficiently

Instead of just using an ON/OFF switch I recommend adding a variable voltage regulator with an external potentiometer (knob).

You can install it clean with the knob on the outside of the box and have variable speed adjustment for the motor (drill).

At Harbor Freight you can get this regulator in the picture for 19.99 but I saw similar ones on eBay for less than $10.

Of course, this would only be helpful if you had the desire to use different speeds (on the fly) for your crusher; I think when I build mine I will use a regulator.

Example:
http://www.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html



Ben