Nothing particularly original here, just figured I'd toss up the design and eventual build when I get to it. Got a Crankenstein 3D in the mail today with an intent to build a hopper that can be stored in a bucket.
Regarding the design, I'm not too concerned with how much the hopper can hold -- I'll feed it as it churns away. However, I don't want to have to fill multiple buckets during milling if I can help it. My plan here is to use one of my retired primaries (8 gallon buckets). They're nice and big for this purpose vs a 5 gallon pail.
I'm a woodworker, or at least ... I can work with wood. I'll build this out of 1/2" birch ply for the base and structural bits. I might make the hopper out of 3/8" just to lighten it a touch (design shows 1/2").
Finally, I want to provide structure for the mill. If you're not aware, the plates that hold the rollers in place are floating. This design captures them both above and below so they won't move and bind once it's assembled.
The hopper is ~12" high with an 8" x 8" opening. I'll tweak it when I decide on exactly what pail I'm going to use. It funnels down to a 5" x 1" slot centered over the mill. Both the top and the bottom will have slightly oversized holes to attached to the mill and leave some room to adjust the alignment.
Taking a look at the grain path. My working assumption is that this is plenty of room that it won't get hung up or create little pockets of dust. I didn't add a "door" in the chute under the theory that I'll only add grain when it's running to avoid stalling it.
...and yes, I really did make a detailed mockup of the mill
Regarding the design, I'm not too concerned with how much the hopper can hold -- I'll feed it as it churns away. However, I don't want to have to fill multiple buckets during milling if I can help it. My plan here is to use one of my retired primaries (8 gallon buckets). They're nice and big for this purpose vs a 5 gallon pail.
I'm a woodworker, or at least ... I can work with wood. I'll build this out of 1/2" birch ply for the base and structural bits. I might make the hopper out of 3/8" just to lighten it a touch (design shows 1/2").
Finally, I want to provide structure for the mill. If you're not aware, the plates that hold the rollers in place are floating. This design captures them both above and below so they won't move and bind once it's assembled.
The hopper is ~12" high with an 8" x 8" opening. I'll tweak it when I decide on exactly what pail I'm going to use. It funnels down to a 5" x 1" slot centered over the mill. Both the top and the bottom will have slightly oversized holes to attached to the mill and leave some room to adjust the alignment.
Taking a look at the grain path. My working assumption is that this is plenty of room that it won't get hung up or create little pockets of dust. I didn't add a "door" in the chute under the theory that I'll only add grain when it's running to avoid stalling it.
...and yes, I really did make a detailed mockup of the mill
