Motorize your grainmill for under $100

[simba123]

Folks,
I wished about motorizing my grain mill for a long time. Finally got it done.

Components:
$45 - Broan Attic Fan motor(1140 RPM, 120V) - Amazon
$25 - 12" inch v-belt pulley(Mill side) - Ebay
$10 - Plywood board or Cutting Board that is lying around
$6 - 2" inch v belt pulley (Motor side) - Ebay
$1 - Home depot bucket lid washer for belt
$10 - Misc, Screws, switch, cord etc.

Hopper is custom made with salvaged wood,
Mill is Crankandstien 2S 5" mill.

Grain milling was excellent with about 180RPM. Maybe a little slow but it took about 1 minute per 8 pounds. Way better than manually holding on to a drill that smells burnt.

Use 10” pulley for faster speed.

Cheers!

 

[-CHRIS-]

Nicely done, any plans to cover the pully/belt with a guard?

Chris

 

[simba123]

Yep! plans are in progress.

 

[IslandLizard]

Very nice build! The hopper looks great too.

That 12" sheave is a good size, wouldn't go smaller. 180 rpm is about the right speed for 1.5" rollers. I think the target/norm is around 12-15" per second face milling speed, under load.
Yours comes out to around 14" per second as it stands. Now the mill may even slow down a bit due to the load, which gets you closer to what I find ideal on a 1.5" 2 roller mill (12"/sec).

2-3 minutes of good milling is a very acceptable investment during a 4-6 hour brew day. I always weight and mill my grain while heating up strike water. What else is one gonna do during that time?