Motorized Grain Mills: Time to show them off!

[AnOldUR]

Almost done . . .

 

[day_trippr]

Wow. Look at those friggin' slabs of aluminum! Awesome!

Cheers!

 

[CoalCracker]

Looks great! What does it weigh?

 

[AnOldUR]

About 34 pounds. It's plenty manageable, but if I feel ambitious, I'll cut some lightening windows in the base and tombstone.

But a good part of the weight is in the gearmotor.

 

[+HopSpunge+]

Here is mine.

 

[Fordzilla]

I don't want to intimidate anyone with my overly technical setup, but here goes.

Nice! I've been wanting to build my own mill but roller mills are so damn expensive. How well does that work? I've been wondering if I could power a corona mill with the clothes drier motor I have.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Nice! I've been wanting to build my own mill but roller mills are so damn expensive. How well does that work? I've been wondering if I could power a corona mill with the clothes drier motor I have.

First of all you need to change your screen name. How do you expect people to take you seriously when they see "ford"? Ok, just kidding. Does that dryer motor have an ID plate? RPM and HP? Is the motor 120 or 240vac?

 

[Hoppopotomus]

Here is my "rustic" motorized mill and my grain storage bin. I also included a couple of shots of where they will be located in my brewery, which is slowly coming along as well. Links are located in my signature line if anyone's interested.

 

[AnOldUR]

After looking at the Hoppopotomus set-up I'm embarrassed to show the rest of mine. That's the stuff I dream about. Great job!

Anyway, here's my project ready to do some work. Made the coupling for between the gearmotor and mill. Had to change the electric enclosure to a Radio Shack project box. The large capacitor wouldn't fit in the small box. The upper switch is the on/off. The lower is forward/reverse incase it gets jammed.



Edit to add the crush picture with gap set at about .038. Looks pretty good to me.

.

 

[Fordzilla]

First of all you need to change your screen name. How do you expect people to take you seriously when they see "ford"? Ok, just kidding. Does that dryer motor have an ID plate? RPM and HP? Is the motor 120 or 240vac?

Lets have a tug of war with my F150 and your Jeep and see who's serious then! What a coincidence you are a bus mechanic. My brewing cousin is one too.

I know the drier motor is 120 VAC, not sure on RPM and HP though. Will have to check when I get home. Whats a good range for a mill motor?

Is a powered corona mill even worth the effort? Seems like no one goes that route.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Lets have a tug of war with my F150 and your Jeep and see who's serious then! What a coincidence you are a bus mechanic. My brewing cousin is one too.

I know the drier motor is 120 VAC, not sure on RPM and HP though. Will have to check when I get home. Whats a good range for a mill motor?

Is a powered corona mill even worth the effort? Seems like no one goes that route.

I sold my wrangler... Is your F-150 an automatic? That would have been the deal breaker. Otherwise I'd hook and pull it. Now that we have that out of the way...

Look up the "ugly junk" thread. Lots of motorized coronas. Roller mills are kept below 500rpm, usually below 300. I'd run the corona as slow as I could, maybe 100-150rpm.

Edit: I still have a Grand Cherokee, but that isn't exactly a grudge pull vehicle. Give it a few more years and it may be though...

 

[Huaco]

Enjoy...
Ugly Junk Corona mills lots have been motorized like Jeep-boy said...

 

[Fordzilla]

Excellent! Thanks for the info guys.

My F150 is a 2011, so auto is the only option. It does have fully manual mode on the tranny, a rear e-locker and 380 lb ft of torque, so it grabs pavement real nice!

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Excellent! Thanks for the info guys.

My F150 is a 2011, so auto is the only option. It does have fully manual mode on the tranny, a rear e-locker and 380 lb ft of torque, so it grabs pavement real nice!

Sweet! After I blew up one automatic and burnt up another I swapped a manual into my Wrangler. I think first gear was 4.01:1, plus 2.72:1 in the transfer case, and 4.56s with Detroit Tru-Trac LSDs in both axles. Needless to say, if the tires didn't slip something else would.

On your Corona get a bolt that fits the shaft and a nut driver that fits it to go in a drill. Done!

And a picture of my milling station since I don't think I've added one yet.

 

[Kyled93]

Ok I'm almost done with the grain mill build. The only question I have is how slow is to slow when it comes to milling? I finally located a gear motor with high torque , 90NM, but the RPMs are at 85. Are there any issues with going that slow?

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Ok I'm almost done with the grain mill build. The only question I have is how slow is to slow when it comes to milling? I finally located a gear motor with high torque , 90NM, but the RPMs are at 85. Are there any issues with going that slow?

What type of mill do you have? You might have enough power there to overdrive it and get some more RPMs.

Edit: I just saw you have a MM3. I feel sure you could overdrive it 1.5-2x and get your RPMs up in the 120-170 range with power to spare. Maybe higher? 3x would be as high as I would go if the motor will push it. I couldn't find any solid input torque requirements, just HP recommendations.

 

[Hang Glider]

@kyled93:
300 is usually max rpm - but slow shouldn't be a problem. My DC drive gear motor turns a snails-pace 63 rpm - I just load the hopper and go do something else for 10 minutes. Works just fine.

 

[Kyled93]

@kyled93:
300 is usually max rpm - but slow shouldn't be a problem. My DC drive gear motor turns a snails-pace 63 rpm - I just load the hopper and go do something else for 10 minutes. Works just fine.

So it may take longer, but 85 rpm ought to be fine?

As far as the torque the conversion from 90 N*m to ft lbs it's approximately 66 ft.lbs.

I assume that should be sufficient for a MM3?

 

[jammin]

Ok I'm almost done with the grain mill build. The only question I have is how slow is to slow when it comes to milling? I finally located a gear motor with high torque , 90NM, but the RPMs are at 85. Are there any issues with going that slow?

that seems REALLY high for torque (which would be awesome).

Are you sure about that?

Can you post a pic of the motor and list the model etc ?

85 rpm's will be fine crush-quality wise. It will be a little on the slow side but who cares if it's automated.

 

[Huaco]

I would like to know the source of this motor as well... Any chance there are more where you got them?

 

[brewyourown4life]

 

[jeepinjeepin]

So it may take longer, but 85 rpm ought to be fine?

As far as the torque the conversion from 90 N*m to ft lbs it's approximately 66 ft.lbs.

I assume that should be sufficient for a MM3?

Yeah I got the ft.lb conversion and I know what pulling that on a torque wrench feels like. Comparing that to a pull on a hand crank for a mill doesn't even compare. A normal person would be spent in just a few rounds. I was trying to find a required torque instead of a recommended HP. Somebody that knew what they are doing might could convert N*m or ft.lbs to ft.lb/hr to HP. I was just trying to figure how much you could overdrive.

Short answer: 66 ft.lbs is a gracious plenty. And 85rpm while a bit slow will crush just fine.

I've been thinking about how to attach a torque wrench to my MM3 input shaft. Maybe I have a broken drill chuck somewhere? If I do I'll load up some wheat and give out some numbers.

 

[Hoppopotomus]

After looking at the Hoppopotomus set-up I'm embarrassed to show the rest of mine. That's the stuff I dream about. Great job!

Anyway, here's my project ready to do some work. Made the coupling for between the gearmotor and mill. Had to change the electric enclosure to a Radio Shack project box. The large capacitor wouldn't fit in the small box. The upper switch is the on/off. The lower is forward/reverse incase it gets jammed.



Edit to add the crush picture with gap set at about .038. Looks pretty good to me.

.

Thanks man, I appreciate the compliment! Your's is much better built than mine for sure. I'm just using a simple Barley Crusher mill with a big azz 12" pulley on the mill and an old GE 1/3 hp motor (1725 rpm) with a 1 1/2" pulley to get my rpms down to 215 ish. I just hid everything in a cabinet dressed with knotty pine, cedar logs, and stone tops to match my other brewing related projects. It's just lipstick on a pig!

 

[ong]

Nice! I've been wanting to build my own mill but roller mills are so damn expensive. How well does that work? I've been wondering if I could power a corona mill with the clothes drier motor I have.

It works... OK? I'm sure it doesn't compare to a roller mill, but for BIAB where I'm not worried about stuck sparges, it's fine! It definitely takes quite a bit of torque, especially on the cornmeal like crush setting I've been using.

It's a old US made mill that I bought on eBay for about 20 bucks shipped. The drill is a crappy harbor freight number that I've had sitting around for a few years. For that price, I'm not complaining. The drill smokes like crazy and stinks up the house, but I'm about to stink up the house with wort anyhow, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

 

[Huaco]

ong
If your drill is smoking and "stinking up the house" there is something wrong! Please don't risk catching it, yourself, or your house on fire! Drills are cheap. New skin and Houses - not so much...

 

[ong]

ong
If your drill is smoking and "stinking up the house" there is something wrong! Please don't risk catching it, yourself, or your house on fire! Drills are cheap. New skin and Houses - not so much...

Eh, it's just the ineffable magic of disposable Harbor Freight power tools! This drill has smoked since I bought it... Just crappy motor windings. Eventually it will stop working, but it's held out surprisingly long. I had a Cuisinart stick blender that smelled of burning plastic every time I used it, and that lasted 14 years.

 

[Slow_Day]

Here is my new mill. MM2 powered by a vintage 1/2" drill. The drill runs about 400 rpm, so I am using a belt drive to reduce to 200 rpm.

Most everything but the mill, one pulley and bronze bushings is made from material I had laying around. The belt tensioner consists of two 2 x 4s, a drill bit and a bronze bushing.

This thing busted through two 11 pound grain bills in the past week. I will probably clean it up a little more, but I am pretty happy with it.

 

[Hang Glider]

Vintage drill, yes. Vintage treadle sewing machine base, yes. cool? YES!

 

[dcbc]

Here's mine. Sure beats my old hand crank or drill.

 

[AnOldUR]

Looks like the same gear motor I'm using (177rpm 40 in-lbs) except there's a shaft extending out the back of mine. Did you get that from Surplus Center? Got mine quite a while ago. Don't believe they have it anymore.