Grain Mill Motor: 60 RPM's to slow?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

BVilleggiante

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2010
Messages
328
Reaction score
2
Location
Petaluma, CA
Hello,

I just found a grain mill motor built specifically for milling grain. It says it turns at around 60 RPM's. Is that too slow? Normally I see people who have them around 170 RPM's.
 
So that's one rotation per second.... yeah that is waaaay too slow. If you can hand crank faster why would you want that slow a motor? :confused: 170 is also too slow.


Rev.
 
So that's one rotation per minute.... yeah that is waaaay too slow. If you can hand crank faster why would you want that slow a motor? :confused: 170 is also too slow.


Rev.

WTH are you basing that on?


Lets back up for a sec. What kind of mill are you using?

Most mills do really well between 150-200 rpm's. The one thing to keep in mind while adjusting your mill, is that you will get a finer crush as rpm's increase. The downside is that husks also tend to get more shredded. This is why most mills do well in the stated range. You preserve husk integrity by going a little slower.

I would say you'll be very happy at 60 rpm's. My advice would be to mill 1/2lb at a time and keep tightening your gap until the husks start looking like they are the verge of being overly shredded. This will maximize your efficiency and ensure you have a smooth lauter/sparge.
 
Personally, I feel like that's going to be agonizingly slow and you're going to wish it were faster.
 
You could always drive it with belts and adjust with the pulley ratio. Like 1:3... Most people I think are using 1750rpm motors and 10:1 pulley to be around 175rpm. Just do it backwards :D
 
I like how everyone here is basing how much your milling on your RPM. If all the mill gear heads were the same sure. But the head is the main factor. I don't think the rpm alone can be used to say good or bad. The throughput can be higher independent of rpm.
 
LOL, yeah I meant to type one rotation per second. Man that's funny how that came out. The one time I hand cranked I did about 2 revolutions per second. Sorry about that. I should read before hitting the post button, I've corrected the post. Still think that's rather slow for a motor drive since most drills we run our mills with at an average of 300-500rpm.


Rev.
 
I like how everyone here is basing how much your milling on your RPM. If all the mill gear heads were the same sure. But the head is the main factor.

Good point. If the rollers are a lot longer and also thicker there's a big difference between how much is done at a certain RPM. He didn't say though so I guess most people are thinking small homebrewer mills like BC or Monster Mill.


Rev.
 
Back
Top