What's the best way to drive a home made mill?

[PagodaBrewingCo]

I have a mill that my Dad and his friends made for me at work.
It has two inch stainless steel knurled rollers, and it's half inch drive.
I was wondering how I could gear it to have both rollers turn against each other. I also don't know where I would go to buy gears/motors.

Any advice, or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Pappers_]

I'm not picturing what you mean - it has no gears on it now? One of the rollers is direct driven? Maybe a photo would help. Or someone who can picture this better than me will come along, I'm sure.

 

[Catt22]

Generally speaking, with most mills, only one roller is driven. The other roller is turned by the friction of the grain as it passes through the gap. The cheapest way to power a small malt mill is with a low RPM drill motor. Harbor Freight has them for about $30 or so if you catch them on sale which is not difficult to do. The best way, IMO, is to use a gearmotor. I think Science Surplus is the usual source for these, but you can sometimes snag one at a reasonable price on Ebay. New gear motors can be very pricey.

 

[hooks]

If you really want to drive both rollers, get an o-ring that spans the gap between the rollers enough so that the driven roller drives them both... that's probably the easiest other than using 1 motor for each roller... which is probably the most expensive... as others have said, just drive one roller and the other will turn as the grain passes through. I don't know how long your rollers are but you may need quite a bit of torque if they are a foot long or so....I made some that were 2"SS x 12" and I needed about
70'#'s of torque..

 

[PagodaBrewingCo]

I'll try to get some pictures happening tonight.

One roller is direct drive. I have a 1/2 inch drill but the RPM's are way too high. Also for some reason the friction of the grain at this high of a speed is not enough to turn the other roller. If I get a motor, what's the best way to attach it to the drive shaft? Should I use belt drive, chain, or will it just fit directly on?
And the final question, what is a good RPM?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Catt22]

I'll try to get some pictures happening tonight.

One roller is direct drive. I have a 1/2 inch drill but the RPM's are way too high. Also for some reason the friction of the grain at this high of a speed is not enough to turn the other roller. If I get a motor, what's the best way to attach it to the drive shaft? Should I use belt drive, chain, or will it just fit directly on?
And the final question, what is a good RPM?

Thanks for the help.

1. This one from HF works well. 0-500 rpm: http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html

2. Maybe widen the gap a bit and try the slower speed drill motor.

3. IMO, the best way to couple a gear motor is with the Lovejoy jaw type. With a non-gear reduction motor, you will want to rig it up with belts and sheaves or maybe chain drive with sprockets.

4. IMO, somewhere between 100 & 300 rpm usually works well. Mine runs at 115 rpm. That's on the slow side, but it produces almost zero dust and it will still chew up a couple of pounds per minute, so even a large grain bill doesn't take very long to mill.