Motorized Mill with Cabinets?

[mpjay2000]

Good evening and Happy Thanksgiving everyone,

I need some help designing and building a set of cabinets that I can place a motorized mill on and mill grain down though an opening on top into a bucket contained in one of the cabinets. Basically I want to be able to use this thing to mill grain, store things in the cabinets and also use the top as a table/ bar when I remove the mill. I'd like it to be about 6' long, about 2' wide and about 38" tall with three cabinet doors.

Has anybody already made something like this? I don't want to reinvent the wheel if possible. I have a barley crusher mill that I power with a cordless drill, but I'm thinking of using something like this for the mill on this station:

https://www.morebeer.com/products/motorized-maltmuncher-pro.html

Thanks for any help or if you see major flaws in my thinking, stop me before I waste time and money.

Thanks!
Jay

 

[day_trippr]

I like the concept, can't recall seeing it executed here.

fwiw, my maternal grandparents were tailors and a couple of their sewing machine cabinets allowed the machines to be rotated so they stored up-side-down, and then a table-top surface could then be flipped on top. I could see a similar scheme with a grain mill, with the potential fly-in-the-ointment being the height of the grain bin requiring a fairly wide table to clear its frame when inverting.

That could be mitigated by making the bin easily removable, which would greatly reduce the max height of the mill and motor thus a narrower table could be used...

Cheers!

 

[govner1]

I have my motorized mill on a cabinet with casters but no doors.
I think you’ll find the amount of dust generated will make it pretty much useless for storage of any items other than your grain bucket.
I incorporated some sheet metal ducting to direct the milled grain into my bucket but the dust is unavoidable

 

[grampamark]

I have my motorized mill on a cabinet with casters but no doors.
I think you’ll find the amount of dust generated will make it pretty much useless for storage of any items other than your grain bucket.
I incorporated some sheet metal ducting to direct the milled grain into my bucket but the dust is unavoidable

View attachment 654733

One of these will turn on a shop vac when the mill is turned on. Install a hose nipple through your mill cabinet, put a door on the front, and most of your dust will be contained.

 

[AkTom]

Hmmmm. I don’t know that there is an elegant solution for what you want. You now have me thinking about it. I too would like something similar to you. A motorized mill on a drop top... Should be doable.

 

[mpjay2000]

Thanks for the help so far guys. I'm thinking of using two of these side by side:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Project-So...d-Unfinished-Sink-Base-Stock-Cabinet/50134984

That would get me the dimensions I want and it would have separation between where the grain is being milled/ dumped and where I could store other stuff. I still have no idea on the top though.

Thanks,
Jay

 

[govner1]

Be careful with grain dust and potential spark from switches in an enclosed space. Definitely hazardous.

 

[Beer:30]

I have my motorized mill on a cabinet with casters but no doors.
I think you’ll find the amount of dust generated will make it pretty much useless for storage of any items other than your grain bucket.
I incorporated some sheet metal ducting to direct the milled grain into my bucket but the dust is unavoidable

View attachment 654733

Where did you source the motor from?

 

[govner1]

Where did you source the motor from?

All American Ale Works. They also have the Lovejoys you’ll need.

 

[Beer:30]

Thanks!

 

[grampamark]

Be careful with grain dust and potential spark from switches in an enclosed space. Definitely hazardous.

FWIW, I’m both a grain farmer and a 40+ year veteran volunteer firefighter. Since I’m in a rural, agricultural, area grain storage facilities are common here. Over the decades I’ve been to numerous training sessions on grain elevator fires. These always involve a simulation, using an enclosed box, some grain dust, and an electronic igniter. To generate a decent, small, explosion requires a concentration of grain dust so thick that one literally can’t see through it.

The chances of causing a fire/explosion at the homebrew scale are vanishingly small.

 

[day_trippr]

No doubt you are correct, but I'm sure all agree it's best not to build overtly stupid designs just to test your theory

Cheers!

 

[grampamark]

No doubt you are correct, but I'm sure all agree it's best not to build overtly stupid designs just to test your theory

Cheers!

Well, you see, there’s this thing called air:fuel ratio...

 

[govner1]

 

[mpjay2000]

Thanks for the concerns. Just to clarify, the motor and entire mill would rest on top of the cabinet. There would be a hole in the top of the table/ bench area for the milled grain to dump into a bucket contained in the cabinet. I'm small scale, so we are talking about enough grain to brew a 5 or 10 gallon batch. I clean my current mill after every use by brushing it clean with a brush and then hitting it with compressed air, so that stays pretty clean and build-up free.

Thanks,
Jay

 

[mongoose33]

Here's another version--I can envision a setup where mill and motor are on a flippable/invertible base, where it can be turned down under into the cabinet and a piece of countertop installed above it when it's inverted.

That would let you "remove" the mill and motor by inverting it, which would be much nicer than having to uninstall it each time then install it the next time.

Mine is on a rolling frame but the top is hinged at the back so I can lift it up and get underneath and clean it out. It's narrower than a cabinet would be front-to-back.

If the cabinet is deep enough front to back, and you had a way to remove a large hopper (assuming you'd use one), it'd be easy to mount the thing to an axle or some such in the middle so it would invert.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Notice, he only used 2 grams of Corn Starch... even in a grain bill for a 5 gallon batch, you could be setting yourself up for an accident in an enclosed grain mill configuration.

 

[grampamark]

You have to keep in mind that the demonstration in the video is, essentially, a parlor trick designed to show what can happen when a very particular set of circumstances occurs. That’s why, in a previous post, I suggested using a shop vac to evacuate a cabinet used for milling. Think of a dust collection system in a woodworking shop.

In the real world, the amount of dust created by milling a batch of grain, with even a modest amount of air circulation, isn’t something to lose sleep over. Unless, of course, you’re one of those folks who lay awake at night worrying about being killed if your house is struck by a meteor while you’re hiding under the bed during the zombie apocalypse.

 

[HOPtuary]

This is my setup. Easy to move around the garage. The belt and fly wheels are exposed out the back.

 

[BenhamBrewing]

I'm still working on mine, but it has a flip down top that closes everything up, and then fits under my workbench.

 

[Tom R]

Clever!

 

[ITV]

I purchased an old buffet cabinet cheap, well built with dovetail joints and has storage drawers.

 

[Beer:30]

I’m thinking of using an idea I’ve seen on here and installing a shop vac beneath the cabinet that will turn on with the mill. That dust can be brutal when inhaled.

 

[beechnut]

I have a shop vac next to my mill. It makes for easy clean up with less dust.