My newly electrified Barley Crusher

After a few years of using the cordless drill method, I decided to bite the bullet and pick up one of the ~170RPM surplus motors as many others here have done, and electrify the Barley Crusher!









A buddy of mine has a fabrication shop, so he "threw together" (I think it looks great) a stand for me out of scrap aluminum channel. I then wired up the motor today running in clockwise rotation, and we're good to crush!

I opted to just switch the outlet it plugs into rather than integrate a switch onto the unit. When it's got power, it's running. I decided a switchable reverse was simply not needed with the torque this motor can produce.

So there it is! This is the first electric step to what will be a Kal clone electric brewery in my basement. I'll start a separate thread for that, as it will be quite the build. Right now I brew in my detached garage on a gas system, but it will be a joy to have year-round heated space with running water to work in instead.

Nice. That should last a long time.

I'm trying to come up with a way to create an integral rubber skirt/chute under the mill that will both isolate the mill vibration from the stand as well as contain the dust heading into the bucket.

So far, I have not found the right kind of material though.

Another step along the way! I used cheap automotive rubber grommets as isolators. The center "stack" on each side actually has the mounting bolt running through the center of it. The rest are just for balance. Each stack is compressed about 1/8" max. by the mounting bolts. No integral skirt, but it's much quieter now.



And because there's no such thing as too much beer porn; the crush!