Monster MM 3 G grind station build

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

I'm still a nube, I'm only 4 years into the hobby, I try to brew 2 -3 times a month, my latest step "up" is to grind my own grain.
So last Saturday, I took delivery of a Monster MM 3 G mill, originally , I had planned on using an electric drill ,milling over a bucket, upon reflecting, I got to thinking how arkeic this is and the potential for disaster real.
I decided to build a dedicated cabinet with a gear reduction motor.
after looking for motors on McMaster
Carr, Grainger, MSC and first electric motor, I settled on a 250 watt ,170 rpm variable speed gear motor on Amazon for $125, made in China, but so is the one Monster offers for almost $400.
The cabinet is 2x4 construction, 30: tall, 20" deep, 40" wide, fabricated with water proof glue and #20 biscuits and left over scrap lumber from my boat build .
The top is 2x6 pine "butcher block" construction.
The mill was mounted on the factory platform,then bolted to the top then leveled fore and aft, shimmed as needed, the motor mounted in a similar manner, coupler on the mill is .50" bore, the motor requires 15mm bore, they share a common spider.all purchased from McMaster Carr
I set the gap to .040," and marked the setting with a sharpie, a note on this, when adjusting the gap, the adjuster on the drive side is turned CLOCKWISE, to close the gap,the gap is adjusted on the opposite end by turning COUNTER CLOCKWISE,these adjusters are on an eccentric cam, if adjusted the wrong way, the larg gap will be bigger at one end than the other and will not feed properly ,adjustments are made on the driven roller..
Speed was measured with a hand held tachometer, ( and noted, %70 is 200 rpm, no.load) the picture is poor, it's for illustration only, I wasnt aiming at the reflective strip when I took the picture
I still need to finish the door,storage shelves on the right side and paint.
The grain chute was fabricated from a forced hot air duct and length of ventilation hose, the "funnel " is sealed with 1/2" × 1/4" weather strip foam and screwd down with # 10 ×1/2" pan gmhead screws.
The cabinet will be ventilated via a 3" x3," axial fan with a 24x12x1 merv 8 filter,hopefully I finish tomorrow so I can grind grain and brew Saturday. ( the paint may wait )

 

[shoengine]

That setup looks really clean.

 

[Tartan1]

I decided to build a dedicated cabinet with a gear reduction motor.

Nice setup, looks well thought out.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Finished the final details, 3 " ventilation fan is wired into the main.power,a Merv 11 filter affixed to the inner wall in front of the fan, should capture any fine dust.
I fashioned an acrylic gaurd oover the coupler from 1/8 lexan, and heated it to bend it into a "U". I made a cover for the hopper from scrap plywood , 2- 1"×1" pieces of lumber are used as a locating guide to keep it from sliding off,
Paint was some left over Perit top side paint from the boat build,and the wood work trim was brushed with some cherry stain left over from the boats bright work.
I finished by creating a pair of custom door pulls by tracing one of my labels then cutting it out on the scroll saw,,then splitting it In 2, they were through bolted with 10-24;stainless bolts, countersink so the doors will still latch, the decal was glued on and cut with a razor.
After breakfast tomorrow, I'll clean up my mess and cruise to the Local brew shop and pick up a few snacks of grain and test this puppy out.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

I should note, I left the back of the top platform open to provide ventilation/cooling for the motor

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Now that the tests are complete, here are my findings:
1) starting at 60% which is 200 RPM no load just jams the rollers. I moved it to 220 no load and it will start and mill with a full hopper.
2) as constructed with this motor, .040 is too tight, she is a shredder ,moving back to the factory setting of .045 makes a consistent crush, no shredded husks, no uncrushed grain I initially set up was Raher 2 row, once adjusted, I ran 2 row, light wheat and caramel malt, she ripped through the load ( 12lbs or so) in seconds from a dead stop- I'm happy.

 

[Konadog]

Nice build! You wouldn't happen to have the link to the motor you purchased do you?

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Nice build! You wouldn't happen to have the link to the motor you purchased do you?

I dont have the link, but, if you look up on Amazon, it's the YIYIIBY-US 0-270 RPM, 250 watt, variable speed gear motor, you want the 5k 0-270 not the 10 K 0- 135 Rpm motor.

 

[Konadog]

Thanks, the 135 RPM motor was what I kept was coming up with. Now I have the correct one.

Electric Gear Motor 110V 250W 5K Single-Phase High Torque AC Gear Reducer Motor 0-270 RPM Variable Speed Controller Gearmotor 20Nm Gear Reduction Electric Motor with Bracket

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Thanks, the 135 RPM motor was what I kept was coming up with. Now I have the correct one.

Electric Gear Motor 110V 250W 5K Single-Phase High Torque AC Gear Reducer Motor 0-270 RPM Variable Speed Controller Gearmotor 20Nm Gear Reduction Electric Motor with Bracket

It seems the default is the 10K, , I originally fell into the trap, then when checking on my order, realized, I had ordered the 10 K, once I figured out how the system worked, I clicked the 5 K, ordered it, then promptly cancelled the previous order , ya gotta live the simplicity of Amazon.

 

[Konadog]

I don't see an option to chose one or the other from the link I provided, and did see this in the description "110V250W5K"

Model Name	AC Motor
ASIN	B0C76Q7932
Model	110V250W5K
Brand Name	Gdrasuya10
Manufacturer	LianDu-US

Measurements

Item Weight	16 Pounds

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

It might be related to your search engine, as ling as you get the 5k your golden, in my search engine it had 2 buttons, the default was thev10K 135RPM, in the specs. It had both specifications, at first they didnt make sense, then when I re read it, I saw the 5K button, when I enabled it, the correct ZZRPM popped up, other than the RPM, the motors are identical, it's just the gear box ratio that is diffetant.

 

[Konadog]

Thanks for the warning, I was thinking it was an issue of why I couldn't find it to begin with.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

The motor has a 15mm shaft, McMaster Carr # 6408K11 , choose 15mm - the m

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

The motor has a 15mm shaft, McMaster Carr # 6408K11 , choose 15mm - the m

The mill shaft is 1/2" , same part # but choose 12", the spider p/n is 6408 K84

 

[Konadog]

Thanks for the info!