Motorized Grain Mills: Time to show them off!

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SAMPLER

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I'm building my first DIY motorized grain mill this weekend and I'm looking for some inspiration. I have a Barley Crusher, 1750 RPM motor and some pulleys. I'm ready to get started, so show me what you got.

Thanks for sharing :)
 
Heres mine.

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I have a 10 inch pulley for the Barley Crusher pulley but it is cast iron. I was wondering if there would is a need for concern that the weight of the pulley would or cold effect the performance and life of the mill itself?

What materials are people using for their pulleys?
 
Starting the assembly today, any idea about the weight of the pulley/sheave? If I was to guess I would say that the pulley weighs in about 3.5#.
 
Here is some of the progress I made today. Still concerned about the weight of the pulley but otherwise things are looking good.

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It looks like you have enough flywheel mass with that large iron pulley.
The SWMBO know a hunk of her kitchen counter is missing?
That had me thinking about the couple of granite slabs I have laying around
I can put to use.

LOL... so far I have acquired no cost in the build. The motor I had lying around in the garage, cabinet and counter top came out of my buddies kitchen, and the pulley was given to me by neighbor.

I figured I would give it a shot and if the pulley starts to cause issues I'll spend the $24 for a zinc die cast 10". But so far so good.
Not bad for nearly FREE.
 
Here's the mill I made entirely from scratch:

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And here's what I'm currently using. 12" rollers were fun for a while, but it takes a ton of power to turn them, and a full hopper would easily stall motors up to 1/2 HP. Rather than redesigning and re-machining, I broke down and bought a 3 roller Monster Mill.

millingstation.jpg
 
I like the current rig of "Yuri Rage" a lot. It could also be easily adapted for a non-furniture (something that doesn't occupy permanent floor space) configuration. I definitely wouldn't have any of the belt drive units I've seen. No guard = accident waiting to happen, and more difficult to adapt to a non "furniture" install.
 
These are all really cool. Ive probably got most of this stuff just laying around, except for the "rollers" (?). Where could I find? Could I make?
 
I built mine back in 1994 or '95 and finally got around to building a dedicated cabinet for it last year to help contain the dust from milling. The mill is mahogany and white oak body with white oak roller support slider for gap adjustment. Mahogany plywood hopper. 2" x 8" hardened tool steel rollers powered by a 200rpm gear motor. The torque on the motor is unreal. I'd like a bigger hopper, but it mills as fast as I can pour the grain in, so it's not that big of a deal for me.

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Here's V2.0 of my former Valley Mill. Paint and wiring in the switch comes tomorrow.
I heated the bottle neck up and narrowed it up in the vice and made it twice as wide. Not brewing till next weekend, so we'll see how it goes then.


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The last hopper wasn't steep enough and didn't distribute the grain along the roller very good.

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Bodine gearmotor off e-bay, DC, converted to AC. A lovejoy and a right-angle attachment for a power drill - sits on the bucket, goes anywhere, doesn't take up much space. The rpm is low, torque is high, bet it would crush rocks.
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the DC to AC converter box I built (with a little help from an electronics forum)
Millpowercontrolbox.jpg
 
Question for the group. Is there a point where mill speed becomes too slow?

Other than the obvious of taking more time. I have a dayton motor and some sheaves. According to my math I will get 132 rpm with 47 in/lbs of torque on the mill shaft. Acceptable?
 
Question for the group. Is there a point where mill speed becomes too slow?

Other than the obvious of taking more time. I have a dayton motor and some sheaves. According to my math I will get 132 rpm with 47 in/lbs of torque on the mill shaft. Acceptable?

Yes, perfectly acceptable. Lower mill speeds generate less dust. I'm running mine at only 115 rpm. Plenty fast enough for me.
 
Mine's turning at 62. Of course if I go pro, that will be too slow...

you should be fine.

IIRC, that right angle drill attachment you are using is geared at a 2:1 reduction. You could easily double the mill speed by eliminating it, provided the gear motor puts out enough torque without that reduction.
 
just upgraded from a corona hand crank mill
i work at a john deere dealership and found a customer who had a roller mill he was no longer using.
a mechanic friend at work mounted it on a table with a 1/3 hp motor.
i made the chute and shields but the motor was too weak - could only put a handful of grain in at a time or the roller jammed.
i got a free 1 hp motor from another mechanic at work and hooked it up today.
just need a belt and a welder to weld the drive sprocket( i tried to braze but failed)
and its ready.
the rollers are joined by a chain so they run at slightly different speeds.

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just upgraded from a corona hand crank mill
i work at a john deere dealership and found a customer who had a roller mill he was no longer using.
a mechanic friend at work mounted it on a table with a 1/3 hp motor.
i made the chute and shields but the motor was too weak - could only put a handful of grain in at a time or the roller jammed.
i got a free 1 hp motor from another mechanic at work and hooked it up today.
just need a belt and a welder to weld the drive sprocket( i tried to braze but failed)
and its ready.
the rollers are joined by a chain so they run at slightly different speeds.

Rod,

I am running a roller mill that looks very similar, except that it is belt drive driven by a 1 hp motor with a 2 speed switch. I ended up torching out the dampening springs and making the adjustment screw solid. I was getting some variation out of the crush and found out on mine the spring would compress and not push the roller back. Since then it is working great and delivering a great crush, got the rollers currently set @ .030 but going to open up to .035 to soften it a little and help my sparge. I'll try to slip out and take some photos and add it to this thread.

I used to work at a JD dealership as well. I went to the JD Tech School in NE Iowa for 2 years then worked at a dealership in Missouri. Mainly worked on engines, powertrains & electronics of the large chasis and 4 wheel drive tractors (7, 8 and 9000 series). At times I sure miss those days.:mug:
 
yes - i think i will move the 2nd pillow block closer to the drive gear.
i have a reversing switch but could't figure out how to attach it
see:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/electrical-help-needed-162830/

edit for update:
moved the pillow block and hooked up the drives - works great - even chewed through the test handful of birdseed with whole corn and sunflower seeds like it was nothing.
did a barleywine -22 lbs of grain -under 5 minutes to crush it - took an hour with my old corona hand crank
 
Nice builds everyone. MrH, I like how you have the scale and scoop holder integrated.

Here's a pic of mine before I mounted to the wall. It's Monster Mill MM3 with a 180 in/lb 154 RPM gearmotor made in 1974. Found the motor off of surpluscenter.com. It starts up easily even when fully loaded with wheat.

Motorized_Mill.jpg
 
So I am starting the build of the Monster Mill for my store. I am using a 1725 rpm 1/4 HP "C" face sealed motor. I am going to a right angle industrial Falk gear box @ 7.5/1 will spin at 230 rpm. I will post up a few picts tomorrow eve when I get it all set up and running. I test ran the motor/gearbox tonight and I think I could run a 12" with this set up. It has so much torque, it's crazy.
 
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