Grain mill roller question

Im switching over to all grain and plan on building my own grain mill. If I could drop the cash on milled steel rollers or a crankenstein I would, but being a poor student I need to improvise. Would using something like well pipe casing with a knurled surface work? Its about 0.25" thick, 4" diameter and hard as hell, so I doubt it would ever bend during crushing.

i dont know why it couldn't work with a little effort. i think also that with a large enough diameter, the roller would pull the grain through without having to be knurled anyway. not sure about that, but i would think 4" may be close to large enough. i though someone on here had smooth wooden rollers about that size, and i think it worked. cant remember where that thread was now though.

As much as it sounds like a good idea to use the well pipe it might be hard as hell to get a Knurl on it just because of the diameter. Maybe you could try going to a scrap yard and looks for some raw SS or cold roll for cheap. You'll need about 18-24 inches of 2" diameter. (Worked good for me at least)

think it could just be roughened any with a wire wheel, or maybe bead blaster. i have no idea, just kinda brainstorming. not sure if it would work in practice.

In theory I don't see why not. I'm not sure what the pipe is made out of. If I had to guess (due to lack of knowing) but aren't though pipe made out of a clay like material and not steel?

The pipe I have in mind is used for well drilling, and must have a rockwell hardness around 60 or more. Im pretty sure it is case hardened because I remember trying to punch a 1/4" hole through it using a titanium bit and drill press and it nearly melted the bit! A knurl might be out of the question due to its insane hardness, but this stuff does come in diameters up to 6-8 inches. At that width are knurls still nessisary, or is that wide enough to pull grain through?

Im thinking that if i decide to go this road, I'll make stubby rollers (6"?) and fill them with concrete with a 1/2" steel rod through the middle. That should give me some heavy and durable rollers. Then hook up an old 1/2 HP electric motor at home to power it, but I don't remember any of the specs so it may not be fast enough/enough torque.

You do have the right idea Optimal, if I can find any good cold rolled steel stock I'll defenitly pick that up and put a knurl on it. But when using round stock, do you need to mill the ends down to fit in the bearings or can you tack weld a bit of steel on.

I would think that a 4 or 6" diameter filled with concrete would be mighty heavy. It would take one hell of a motor to turn them with any decent speed, and would probably be loud as all get out.

Just my thoughts though...

I don't mean to hate on all the DIY in here, but if you're short on cash, why not just buy a $20 corona? They work just fine, despite not being as cool

Thought about buying a corona, but thats the easy way out! I'm a really big DIY kinda guy and this looks like a fun project. And the way I look at it, if I spend $20 on a few raw materials, with a little DIY creativity I should be able to build something more robust and durable then a corona.

Your probably right about the weight BrewSpook, Im just trying to think of ways to perfectly center the steel rod in the middle without access to welding equipment.

Jim, I'm not entirely familiar with grain mills, but unless they spin at ridiculous speeds, filling it with concrete would not really be a problem. The only thing (other than total weight) that concrete filled rollers would have much of an affect on assuming that your using some sort of capable bearing, would be spin up/down time. If you did want to do something like that and keep it lighter, you might be able to use something like Styrofoam packing peanuts as aggregate instead of gravel in your concrete.

If you have access to woodworking materials, you could easill cut some plywood ends or something with holes punched in the middle to keep it centered, or, you could fix the plywood disks to the cylinder and your rod and just use that as support, but that may be difficult depending on the materials you are using.

Good luck!

This is what I did. Most of the measurements aren't there due to the fact that a lot of it depends on the bearings and housing you use.

http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/8975/16840256.png

I noticed the other day that some seat posts for bicycles are knurled. Could probably scrounge a few behind a bike shop.... Personally I'm gonna go the pasta maker route. My wife gave me the go ahead to cannibalize her old pasta mill. She hasn't used it once I don't think in the 5 years we've been together...

Seen a few homemade concrete mills and the results have been fine. One point not clearly mentioned is the drive rod you put through should have some pins drilled or welded on leftover hardware or such to keep your rod from spinning loosely within the concrete. Also a slip clutch for the drive - I always used a copper tubing adaptor from the drive rod on the mill wheel to the drive pulley/etc. Once you hit a rock with large rollers you will know why. Copper with a hex screw fastener breaks away easily. Safety matters, especially when its cheap to implement. And keep your rotation speed to around 15 ips face roller speed. Large cement wheels are too easy to overspin.

the problem with a lot of the bicycle parts is that they are plated and would probably chip/peal with the abuse.

I had thought of find some SS bicycle peg though and rigging up some sort of bearing/axle thingy ma jiggy. But had the issue of still having to have them knurled.

RegionalChaos said:

I noticed the other day that some seat posts for bicycles are knurled. Could probably scrounge a few behind a bike shop.... Personally I'm gonna go the pasta maker route. My wife gave me the go ahead to cannibalize her old pasta mill. She hasn't used it once I don't think in the 5 years we've been together...

Click to expand...

A homebrew store here sold pasta mills as pasta mills/grain grinders. Didnt go over too well, but got some people making noodles. Which is great also. Now you have to figure out which beers go best with pasta. My suggestion: get her interested in making pasta. Fresh pasta is as enjoyable as homebrew beer. Need a sauce recipe, well, ask nicely. Make cement rollers and for cheap $ you can make a mill.

As soon as I posted that I though about using a cylindrical wooden block with the pipe as a sheath! Then I found this great thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/pr...wooden-adjustable-3-roller-grain-mill-152105/

I'm a pretty good woodworker and have a nice shop back home, so this looks like a nice design for me to attempt. Now to think about the rest of the design

As soon as I posted that I though about using a cylindrical wooden block with the pipe as a sheath! Then I found this great thread:

Project "WOODY 3.0XPR" worlds first wooden, adjustable, 3 roller grain mill

I'm a pretty good woodworker and have a nice shop back home, so this looks like a nice design for me to attempt. Now to think about the rest of the design

I would think it would be hard to get the rod perfectly centered if you were filling the pipe with concrete. I think welding caps on the ends and then drilling center holes would be easier and cheap if you had to pay a welder to do it.

It will work fine

After evaluating the amount of effort I'll have to go through to build a mill
The factory cost of a Malt Mill, a Barley Crusher, or a Crankandstein is not all that much. If you are so inclined you can just buy the Crankandstein rollers and make your own housing.

If however you find a supplier you like, you can just order your grains crushed.

What kind of electric motor would people suggest to drive a crankandstein mill? I have access to a few in the .5 - .75 hp range