Finished my motorized mill

[Walker]

Nice. What's the RPM of the motor?

177.7 rpm

https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?catname=&qty=1&item=5-1098

 

[Runyanka]

It has slowed me down a little, but hasn't stopped me.

My buddy had a better bottle with a crack in the the bottom. I pulled it out of his recycling bin and did this with it. 6 gallon hopper.

Great idea, just curious though, what the heck did he do to his BB to crack it. I have dropped mine full, empty, partially full, and nothing.

Back on topic, lets say you put roughly 20 lbs in your hopper, how long would it take you to mill it? Reason I'm asking, is that I was thinking about mounting, and motorizing my mill, but it would just be another thing that would be stationary in my garage. I mean, I can grind roughly 24lbs in under 10 minutes with my current hand drill setup, and it takes up little to no space. Just wanted your pro/cons of motorizing.

 

[Reelale]

177.7 rpm

https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?catname=&qty=1&item=5-1098

That's a really good price on that motor. Did you have to order the coupler on-line or were you able to source it locally?

 

[Walker]

what the heck did he do to his BB to crack it. I have dropped mine full, empty, partially full, and nothing.

I have no idea how he cracked it.

Credit where it is due: HBT member "Boston" brought over a motorized mill for a group gathering we had last year, and he had used a 5 gallon water bottle as the hopper. I didn't come up with any of this crap on my own.

Back on topic, lets say you put roughly 20 lbs in your hopper, how long would it take you to mill it? Reason I'm asking, is that I was thinking about mounting, and motorizing my mill, but it would just be another thing that would be stationary in my garage. I mean, I can grind roughly 24lbs in under 10 minutes with my current hand drill setup, and it takes up little to no space. Just wanted your pro/cons of motorizing.

I haven't used it yet, so I don't know how long it will take.

The reason I wanted to motorize was because the mill was taking it's toll on my cordless drill. The drill is a cheap piece of junk and the gears were getting stripped. Plus, the battery sucks and would barely make it through the milling of 12# of grain.

Plus... it's f**king cool.

 

[Walker]

That's a really good price on that motor. Did you have to order the coupler on-line or were you able to source it locally?

Grainger carries the lovejoy couplings, but I just ordered them from McMaster. Shipping was only $5, which I would have spent on gas to drive to Raleigh and back to get them.

 

[Reelale]

Grainger carries the lovejoy couplings, but I just ordered them from McMaster. Shipping was only $5, which I would have spent on gas to drive to Raleigh and back to get them.

I wonder if they have additional square footage? That's my problem now. I don't think I could fit another thing in the garage. I need a brew building.

 

[kegtoe]

Let me know how you convince your wife of that

 

[chezhed]

Nearly finished mine....just some finishing work to do. I'm going to attach a swing leg under the motor so the whole thing will sit right on my grain bucket.

Wired with a SPDT switch so that it's off or forward or reverse

IMAG0038 by chezhedgeo

 

[chezhed]

I removed the rubber pads from the original board and put them under this one so it sits in the bucket just like the other one. That's why all my electrical is on top as well. This way I store it and it doesn't take up much more room than the mill did...board measures 12" x 24". I fabricated the capacitor mount from a 2" pipe clamp that attaches to slot racking. I just bent it to fit. You could also buy a capacitor mount from your local HVAC repair shop and mount it directly on the board. Mine is elevated.
Switch bracket is a plastic corner protector from strapping skids.

My motor is mounted "upside down" as the nameplate is underneath. This way I only had to add a piece of 1x to elevate the shaft on the mill.


IMAG0039

 

[TheCHICompany]

Ok, This guy has it rght!
Same Mill, Same Motor...
Tried pulleys and belt; no good.
Tried sprockets and chain; no good.
Found this thread and this one on this thread:
http://www.lamabrewery.com/the_mill.htm

WORKS GREAT!!!!!
Had machine shop next door mill a 1" stainless spacer below the mill to line up the motor output shaft to mill input shaft heights.
We wanted 400 rpm but will settle for 177rpm BECAUSE IT WORKS!
Wired the same way with fwd & rvrs switch.

If you are contemplating this project....DO IT!

 

[Toecutter]

Motor and capacitor arrived yesterday. already have the direct drive parts. next a trip to Lowes for the switches. Plenty of excess lumber in the garage. i'll be putting this on a MM-3 roller

 

[D-Boss]

very nice the surplus center is like 20 min from my house

 

[Walker]

Thought you guys might like this.

I am not brewing until tomorrow, but decided to go ahead and try the mill out tonight... just in case. I didn't want to start off tomorrow evening's brewing with a debug session on the thing.

Turned the motor on, dumped the grain into the hopper, and everything went beautifully. As an afterthought, I pulled out the cell phone to take a video. I didn't record the entire grind, but I would estimate that it took less than 3 minutes for 8.5# to go through the thing.

sorry for the crappy quality.... chinsy blackberry video...

 

[Reelale]

Nice. Just keep your hands away from the moving parts. But you already knew that....

 

[tolip_ck1]

Stupid question, but how do you get the gallon jug to balance so nice? Is there a fitting holding it?

 

[Walker]

I used a 2-1/8" hole saw to cut through a piece of wood that forms a lid for the mill.

The better bottle has a couple of big ribs around the neck. The top rib was pushed through the hole all the way with some decent, but not excessive, force.

That leaves the 1st rib securely under the wooden top of the hopper and the 2nd rib on top of the wooden top. The ribs hug the wood pretty good.

With a little force, I can take the bottle off and re-insert it.

I was expecting to have to do some more work to attach the bottle, but it just worked out really well and stays there with no extra parts.

 

[Toecutter]

Finished motorizing my MM-3 today. I was all set to build a cabinet, and I stumbled on an old Oak computer stand we bought at Costco some 20 years ago, when we bought our first PC. its perfectly sized for the Mill, has casters. I removed the slide out keyboard shelf, and the printer shelf. It was a nice piece of furniture so we never got rid of it, wife was just storing junk in it, so I hijacked it. I rigged it up like the examples on this thread, and ran a pound of wheat malt through it. it cut through it like butter, the motor never slowed, and the grind looked good

 

[tolip_ck1]

I used a 2-1/8" hole saw to cut through a piece of wood that forms a lid for the mill.

The better bottle has a couple of big ribs around the neck. The top rib was pushed through the hole all the way with some decent, but not excessive, force.

That leaves the 1st rib securely under the wooden top of the hopper and the 2nd rib on top of the wooden top. The ribs hug the wood pretty good.

With a little force, I can take the bottle off and re-insert it.

I was expecting to have to do some more work to attach the bottle, but it just worked out really well and stays there with no extra parts.

Thanx Walker, this will be my newest upgrade.

 

[WarriorBrew]

oops.

 

[kappclark]

Gotta do this!! While the corded drill works fine, I'd like to make a little grain milling station.

What corded drill do you use ?? Mine is a sears @ 600 RPM, which I understand is too high..it is non-variable

 

[Dgonza9]

Thanks for your reply. I will probably go the same route.

As I clicked through your build I came across THIS BUILD. I figured I'd post it here since it has good wiring diagrams and mcmaster part numbers.

Thanks.

 

[Harvestsmiles]

You think that somewhere like Grainger would have those style rollers? Instead of buying the whole barley crusher?

 

[Huaco]

Honestly, I bet if someone would use a set of calipers to give us the gap and roller size it could be made fairly easy. Get some SS round bar knurled and cut to length... Press in some shafts and mount in some bea
rings. Add a drive system...
The kicker is, you could just buy the darned thing new cheaper than sourcing all the components and fabricating them...

 

[Harvestsmiles]

@ Huaco, The price I saw for the crusher was around $100, I can't see rollers being that much, but I have not found them. Talked to someone about an old pizza dough roller that if it gets scapped I could use those rollers and then I could attach a nice large hopped to...

 

[Pfloraday]

I can't seem to find the motor in stock anywhere. Has anyone had luck finding a comparable motor lately? I'd love a link or any help.

 

[KES]

I'm on the same search you are. Here is the item # on Ebay that is the only source I've found. 350446197617 $125 shipped, but best offer option.

 

[Walker]

I'm on the same search you are. Here is the item # on Ebay that is the only source I've found. 350446197617 $125 shipped, but best offer option.

That appears to be the exact same "second choice" motor that surpluscenter.com was selling for $40. It has 30 in-lb of torque and 106 RPM (I think surplus center listed it as 107, but whatever).

 

[riored4v]

Definitely curious about the motor as well. Really wanting to motorize my Monster Mill. Seeing the parts list above really helps with what i need, so finding a motor for cheap would be awesome.

 

[LandoLincoln]

This is a cool project. I'm getting a little tired of hooking up my drill. Subscribed.

 

[Walker]

I have a buddy who put a garage door opener motor on his mill. He said it works fine, and you can probably find those for cheaper than the ebay one.

I would think that perhaps a washing machine motor might also work?

You just need enough torque to move, and RPMs that are not crazy high.