Grain Milling Station Design

[DeepSea]

Here is my version. The sheeves and belt are all enclosed in a side compartment for safety. Holds more than enough grain for a 10 gallon batch. It's on casters for easy mobility. The motor is rather big and old but the price was right (free). I think the reduction on the sheeves puts it about 200 rpm. I believe thats what JSP recommended.

http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/vv320/DeepSeaToddMaci/MillWBucket.jpg

 

[Hang Glider]

Mine is simplistic, no enclosure yet, but very portable.
Right angle GearMotor, right-angled again with a 3/8" drill attachment, and I'm in business. Hums along at slowly (62 rpm) but with some serious torque.

Gearmotor was DC so I had to build the necessary electronics to convert. (thanks for the advice, Yuri!)

Of course the hopper is too small, but improvements will be made along the way...

 

[rico567]

Very impressive....I particularly like the somewhat space-efficient design of 'bradsul's' design. with the room for grain storage. But with the beer I brew (maybe 20-25 5-gallon batches a year), I can't even conceive of dedicating that much space to crushing. Even if I brewed 40 batches yearly -which would max me out legally, if my arithmetic is correct- I wouldn't consider it. Of course, I've read threads about guys who have dedicated buildings to our shared insanity, so maybe that's the answer.

 

[bradsul]

I don't brew as much as I'd like to but this project provided the perfect way to get some of the beer clutter cleaned up in a decent way. This actually takes up about the same amount of room as I had previously used for buckets and containers for storing my grains. But it definitely looks nicer! Provides a great countertop for doing the actual measuring as well.

Though true to form, I had planned to replace the water bottle hopper with a custom built one and that hasn't happened. The water bottle just works so well it seems pointless to replace it.

 

[Chriso]

I've been working on my handyman skills this summer, so I might finally assemble my mill sometime yet this summer. (The other weekend, I learned how to hang an accordion door!)

At first it was time that kept me away from brewing, but once the time freed itself up, I realized that I couldn't touch barley or barley dust anymore because the allergic reaction would lay me up in bed for a full day.

Guess I lost my tolerance to it. ... So I'll be making my mill a little more complex than I had previously planned, it will need to be a closed box type of system, with a vacuum port like pldoolittle mentioned.

If I can get that rigged up, then maybe I'll be able to brew again without becoming miserable 30 seconds after encountering the grain. Otherwise, SWMBO is going to kill me for going so long without a brew, and I'll likely just have to quit AG and take up extract for a while as I get myself de-sensitized to the dust.

 

[BeerCanuck]

Being allergic to barley dust would be a dilemma if you planning to mill.
Have you thought of Conditioning your malt prior to milling? You would figure that the extra moisture would have the side benefit of keeping the dust down.

Cheers
Steve