Best (inexpensive) Drill for Grain Mill - Harbor Freight?

Anyone had good luck with the 3/8" keyed chuck variable speed drill at Harbor Freight that runs $30 or so - for use with a grain mill (MM2)?

Wasn't sure if it's got decent torque to get going (not stall out) or if I need to be looking at a slightly more expensive drill.

I know this will work because it is what I am currently using. I milled over 200 pounds of grain with it in less than an hour.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=93632
This one may work but it is not geared as low:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47991

Look for sales

What about using some sort of motor and not a drill. Say this

Well there are several reasons not to go with a motor - 2 big ones are:

1) Pulley's for gearing - have to deal with getting that all setup correctly.
2) Requires you to have a fairly permanent "stand" or workbench setup

For us - hoping to have some freedom to bring our equipment to different locations with ease - a drill makes that simple.

I havent used it yet - just thought of it.
Next batch, my Corona is going to be seeing my old, low geared 'cement mixer drill'.

I bought this one on sale at HF for around $33. Works very well, variable speed, slow and strong as hell. +1 above, look for a sale. Either of the 1/2" drills listed above should work well.

I"ve been using one of the 1/2" drills from HF. Cost me about $30-35. It's great.

mplutodh1 said:

Well there are several reasons not to go with a motor - 2 big ones are:

1) Pulley's for gearing - have to deal with getting that all setup correctly.
2) Requires you to have a fairly permanent "stand" or workbench setup

For us - hoping to have some freedom to bring our equipment to different locations with ease - a drill makes that simple.

Click to expand...

Noirmally I'd agree but unless you do your homework and spec your needs upfront....



The motor spins at 173 RPM. Plans obtained at TastyBrew here. I bought the motor at http://www.electronicsurplus.com

McMaster Carr parts:
1 Each 6408K133 Flexible Spider Shaft Coupling Hub 3/8" Bore, 1-3/4" OD, Without Keyway (Same as 6408K13) $3.90
1 Each 6413K133 Metric Spider Coupling Hub 15 mm Bore, 1-3/4" OD, with Keyway (Same as 6413K13) $4.16
1 Each 6408K74 Buna-N Spider for 1-3/4" Outside Diameter Flexible Spider Shaft Coupling Hub $3.43

You might want to make part adjustments for your mill type/brand.

I hope this helps.... I dislike the exposed pullys and gears for the safety aspects alone. The slow motors are out there...

30 bucks? THIRTY BUCKS? damn, ok you guys can gloat!

--
nice gear motor. You going to shroud it for dust?

I barley get any dust on the motor or top of the unit at all. I guess some updated pics are in order.

wilserbrewer said:

I bought this one on sale at HF for around $33. Works very well, variable speed, slow and strong as hell. +1 above, look for a sale. Either of the 1/2" drills listed above should work well.

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The HF 1/2" drill shown above is one of the easiest and most economical ways to go when motorizing a mill. The only down side is it doesn't have the bling appeal and the hazards of a more sophisticated set up using big pulleys and belts.

I wanted something a little more elegant. I can't really explain why, but I got the gear motor for almost nothing, so why not I guess:



bottom view:

jtrainer said:

I barley get any dust on the motor or top of the unit at all. I guess some updated pics are in order.

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not to nit-pick, but I LOVE the typo!

brewmonk said:

not to nit-pick, but I LOVE the typo!

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Ya like that..... It was a special one for the board.

My friend found a similar motor to what I bought above... The specs are very similar.

http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2232010321224554&item=5-1098&catname=

* Speed 177.7 RPM
* Voltage 115 AC
* Amperage 1.9 Amps
* Torque 40 in - lbs.
* Gear Ratio 10.13:1
* ****BONUS Rotation Reversible BONUS****
* Duty Continuous
* Enclosure TEFC
* Mount 4 bolt on 2-21/32" centers
* Shaft 1/2" dia. x 1-3/16" w/keyway and flat
* Size 4-5/8" dia. x 8-1/8"
* Shpg. 13 lbs.

The original thread motor has the following specs (pasted from source site, typos and all):
GEC MACHINES BCPG1513 173RPM 115V 44-InchPounds $49.95
WITH RESET BUTTON - RFE 173 RPM Motor - 5nM = 44 In-Lbs = 708 In-Oz 0.5inch shaft. Beautifully constructed in Newcastle England AC Non-synchronous induction gearmotor, permanent capacitor, parallel output shaft, grease lubricated gearbox, fan cooled, totally enclosed. 115V 1.8Amp ( 4.5" Diameter x 12-1/2" long x 8 " WIDE) with Capacitor weighs 18# packed while looking at front face of motor it runs clockwise and is non reversable

They want twenty bucks to ship that thing.....I could persuade myself $40 for a used motor and maybe half that for shipping, but this is just too much. Also, my antique Craftsman 1/2" drill does a great job of driving my mill.

Since my cordless drill isn't doing it and I didn't order a hand crank with my monster mill MM2. I think one of the harbor Freight 1/2 drill is the way to go. All I have to do is mock up a stand No wiring or ordering of the proper sized lovejoy coupler and used motor and the shipping. The only question for me now remains which drill the 54 dollar one had gear reduction and up to 440 rpm the other one 37 goes from 0 to 800 rpm more room for error. Hmm

Elshauno said:

Since my cordless drill isn't doing it and I didn't order a hand crank with my monster mill MM2. I think one of the harbor Freight 1/2 drill is the way to go. All I have to do is mock up a stand No wiring or ordering of the proper sized lovejoy coupler and used motor and the shipping. The only question for me now remains which drill the 54 dollar one had gear reduction and up to 440 rpm the other one 37 goes from 0 to 800 rpm more room for error. Hmm

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IMO, you are making a good decision. The $54 model with the gear reduction would be the better choice. More of them torques and within reason, slower is better.

Cool then I know where I'm headed on the way home.

Elshauno said:

The only question for me now remains which drill the 54 dollar one had gear reduction and up to 440 rpm the other one 37 goes from 0 to 800 rpm more room for error. Hmm

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The D handle drill is also gear reduced and has a bigger motor. I would not spend 54 vs 37 for the spade handle. If you can get the D handle 1/2" drill that I posted earlier for 37 bucks IMHO you will not be disappointed at all. It is plenty of drill for powering a mill!

My error. I thought the "D" handle drill was the $54 dollar one. In any case, listen to wilserbrewer as he is speaking from direct experience.

Ok I looked at both of them They both have lockable handles the D handle does look nice as well the spade I guess is marketed better. The sales department almost had me. 37 dollar D drill it is.

Report back w/ a review...I'm curious what you think.

man, you guys are killing me.

here I am, trying to wait patiently until I can hook my corona up to some bike gearing, and at least PRETEND to be getting some exercise, and now I have sweet, little, innocent $40 price tags dancing in front of my wallet!

(the drill seems like a good buy, and that gear motor is beautiful. for 40 bucks each, I want both)

wilserbrewer said:

Report back w/ a review...I'm curious what you think.

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The Harbor Freight 1/2 drill 'D" handle drill seems very solid and probably will have no issues going through thick plate steel let alone running some grain through a Monster Mill MM2. I would guess the rpms to be in the 100 to 200 range at the lowest setting which seems just about right for milling. I crushed some grain from a stand still to half throttle and it didn't even wince with the hopper totally filled. In fact with the way its geared it idle down after I let go of the trigger instead of dying like other lesser drills I did have to retighten the chuck after some milling short of that I am planning on building a mount for this drill and will post back with pics when it is complete. Although I would never think of carrying this drill to a jobsite everyday, it will definitely have its way with some grain for years to come. As well as various odd jobs around the house that my little Dewalt can't handle like drilling plate steel. A good investment at 38 dollars.

Dem Chinese makes good stuff...

Catt22 said:

Dem Chinese makes good stuff...

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Hah...my thoughts exactly when I purchased this big ass HF drill...I have an old craftsmen 1/2" drill that works great...but for 35 bucks out the door I was tickled to purchase.

How Dem Chinese can make a drill like this and ship it here and retail it for 30 some bucks is amazing.

wilserbrewer said:

Hah...my thoughts exactly when I purchased this big ass HF drill...I have an old craftsmen 1/2" drill that works great...but for 35 bucks out the door I was tickled to purchase.

How Dem Chinese can make a drill like this and ship it here and retail it for 30 some bucks is amazing.

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Years ago I bought a huge machinists vice for my workbench. It must have weighed about 65 lbs. IIRC, I paid only $35 for it. Same thing. How can they acquire the steel, forge the thing, ship it here, sell it through multiple middle men who each mark it up substantially and yet it's only $35. i would think the steel and shipping alone would be a lot more than that for such a big chunk of iron.

we send em all the old cars back that we bought (from overseas) and rusted out.

I'm assuming all that stuff (bandsaws, grainmills, car parts, knives, lead painted toys, you name it) is reverse engineered from something an american company is paying to have forged/assembled/fabricated at the next factory over.

I know that the only difference between some tools (craftsman v.s. MAC for e.g.) is a tooling change, a steel change, or none. (of course I heard that THAT was in a Korean factory)

heck, not just a DRILL, they can send a drill-PRESS here for that!

who wants to make 50 bucks a day? we can do that here too!
(sorry for the rant)

Do you guys have any thoughts on how to control the speed with one of these drills without having to stand there and hold the trigger the whole time.
Call me lazy, but I would love to have some sort of dial or knob to adjust the speed and walk away.
I could also use this with my peristaltic pump head.
Any cheap ideas?
This way I can walk inside and fill up my glass while the mill is still running!


Would a Rheostat work or would that just burn up the motor?

i think that a u-shaped piece of wood (or something else) that would pinch in the trigger just enough, might be an easy imperfect rpm focuser (NOT controller).

The HF drill has a button for "constant" on. You just need a way to hold it next to the mill.

I stumbled upon this thread and bought this the 1/2" Heavy Duty Low Speed Drill from harborfreight, item 93632, the blue one with the extra handle. http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html

You can set the RPM nice and low and lock it in. We usually use just under 100lbs of grain per brew day, this drill had no problem and didn't heat up at all. I'd highly recommend it.

Yep this is the one I use. Great drill, great price. Highly recommended.

sniperd said:

I stumbled upon this thread and bought this the 1/2" Heavy Duty Low Speed Drill from harborfreight, item 93632, the blue one with the extra handle. http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html

You can set the RPM nice and low and lock it in. We usually use just under 100lbs of grain per brew day, this drill had no problem and didn't heat up at all. I'd highly recommend it.

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Ordered one from HF, but was backordered... wonder how long this will take.

A lot of guys like this one - bigger motor, cheaper...

http://www.harborfreight.com/power-...le-speed-reversible-d-handle-drill-47991.html

I really like that you can set the other one's trigger to stop at a desired RPM.

I saw both of them at the Harbor Freight store, I ended up with the blue one because I believe it allows for lower RPM. It's also designed to run for a long time at lower RPM without getting hot or wearing out, it's made to bore through metal/stone. One of the first times we tried milling we did a pound at a 'high' rpm and it came out very dusty and flour like so we knew that part of the solution would be to lock in a low RPM to make it all work.

In the end both drills are a great deal for milling, clearly both better than anything else in this price range. I think the price is so close that I wouldn't count that, there is always a 20% coupon you can use with HB too.

since so many people went with the harbor freight drill above...I was wondering if it had enough oomph to start the mill with grain in it, or if you had to start the mill first, and then add your grain. in some other threads, people with a 1/2hp motor reported that it pooped on starting the mill if grain was already in the hopper.

I use the regular speed one and even that can run the mill with grains preloaded. With the low speed I'm sure it will do great. A couple of my friends here have it and they have no complaints.

ssgross said:

since so many people went with the harbor freight drill above...I was wondering if it had enough oomph to start the mill with grain in it, or if you had to start the mill first, and then add your grain. in some other threads, people with a 1/2hp motor reported that it pooped on starting the mill if grain was already in the hopper.

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I always load up my hopper and then pull the trigger. Works for me. Using HF 1/2" heavy duty low rpm model.

I have a low speed angle drill. Its RPM is around 350 and works great. The handle was easy to thread a bolt and mount it to the plywood base. Looked at buying a motor and gear reducer, but the drill saved me money. I bought it for $35. I would look at their 2 speed angle drill. It might be more money, but the motor on low speed would be perfect. The drill would be easy to mount. I hate holding the drill when I'm doing large grain bills. I've actually had decent luck with cheaper HF tools.