Motorized Grain Mills: Time to show them off!

[TrickyDick]

Yessir. That was my old track car:

What's the new track car??

TD

 

[TrickyDick]

Here is mine. A little unsteady I'm afraid of an accident so I'm looking to get a cart of something for ease of use and ability to swap out the buckets when it gets full. 10gal batches often require more grain than will fit into one bucket..

TD
Oh, I cut the bottom off a plastic 5 gal water bottle and friction fit the neck through the hole on top of the hopper for feeding grain through.

I forget the revs per minute. I think it's around 300 rpm. Thought I read somewhere that was ideal speed. I get about 80% efficiency with this mill on my system.

 

[Irrenarzt]

What's the new track car??

TD

The new car is an E30 M3 chassis with an S54 in it. A friend of mine in Austin is doing the install currently but it is taking forever. The car should be a beast in theory when it's done. I run with my local Corvette club and they kick my ass routinely so this should help a bit...

 

[m00se]

total motor n00b here. Is a geared motor what I need if I don't want to use sheaves/pulleys? What do I look for in a geared motor? I'm also toying around the idea of using a harbor freight drill, but the pics in this post look too nice not to build one. I appreciate any help.

 

[AnOldUR]

What do I look for in a geared motor?

30 in-lbs minimum
150-300 RPM
Continuous Duty

 

[TrickyDick]

total motor n00b here. Is a geared motor what I need if I don't want to use sheaves/pulleys? What do I look for in a geared motor? I'm also toying around the idea of using a harbor freight drill, but the pics in this post look too nice not to build one. I appreciate any help.

When I was looking around, I thought that the gear motors available were significantly more expensive, even when you add the cost of the sheaves, which were not cheap either. The 1/2 HP appliance motors are relatively common and cheap, and are overkill for crushing grain. I understand the concern of using sheaves and a 1/2 HP motor turning the big sheave and the danger that poses.
I think the drill idea results in too much rpm on the mill, and probably impossible to dial in the rpm by hand on a reproducible basis. That being said, I did it for a while until I was able to finish my motorization and it worked. I don't really have any recollection of how good or bad my efficiency was back then, as I had other equipment problems that lead to poor efficiency, unrelated to the crush.

I bought all my parts through grainier I believe, (probably why they were $$). I couldn't seem to find the sheaves and related parts on McMaster or elsewhere.

Good luck.

TD

 

[Namako]

When I was looking around, I thought that the gear motors available were significantly more expensive, even when you add the cost of the sheaves, which were not cheap either. The 1/2 HP appliance motors are relatively common and cheap, and are overkill for crushing grain. I understand the concern of using sheaves and a 1/2 HP motor turning the big sheave and the danger that poses.
I think the drill idea results in too much rpm on the mill, and probably impossible to dial in the rpm by hand on a reproducible basis. That being said, I did it for a while until I was able to finish my motorization and it worked. I don't really have any recollection of how good or bad my efficiency was back then, as I had other equipment problems that lead to poor efficiency, unrelated to the crush.

I bought all my parts through grainier I believe, (probably why they were $$). I couldn't seem to find the sheaves and related parts on McMaster or elsewhere.

Good luck.

TD

Keep your eyes open on eBay... I picked up a Baldor 10:1 Speed Reducer for $75 (retails for $300), and coupled it (using the right Lovejoy couplers) between a Monster Mill and a 1/3 up Dalton motor that I also pillaged from eBay. It all works like a charm!

 

[jeepinjeepin]

I'm looking to eventually build a 10:1 gear drive overdrive unit to drive a tach for my mill. Why? Because I have the tach and who else has a tach on their grain mill?

 

[Huaco]

...and who else has a tach on their grain mill?

I like the way you think!

 

[day_trippr]

The new car is an E30 M3 chassis with an S54 in it.[...]

Ooooh! Retro!

Cheers!

 

[Namako]

I'm looking to eventually build a 10:1 gear drive overdrive unit to drive a tach for my mill. Why? Because I have the tach and who else has a tach on their grain mill?

Uh oh... I can see it now... A Kal-inspired control panel for the grain mill... Tachometer, temp probes in the grain bed and hopper, amp and volt meter, humidity... Where's my drawing pad???

 

[Hunky]

3/4" plywood should be more than sufficient. Just use common sense when putting it together. Use wide bases and box it off the make it stiff in all directions.

Just in case someone has some woodworking skills (looks like most of you do) and wants to build a sheave (pulley) for some reason, here's a good link:
http://woodgears.ca/bandsaw/wheels.html

The first part is pretty quick about building a pulley, then the rest is spent on building bandsaw wheels. /jd

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Uh oh... I can see it now... A Kal-inspired control panel for the grain mill... Tachometer, temp probes in the grain bed and hopper, amp and volt meter, humidity... Where's my drawing pad???

This ain't any plain old car tach. It's a diesel test tach and it's pimp.

 

[Hang Glider]

So...you'll get to the first two or three blips (x100). I wonder if there's a way to re-calibrate to x10 for a little more "show"

 

[jeepinjeepin]

So...you'll get to the first two or three blips (x100). I wonder if there's a way to re-calibrate to x10 for a little more "show"

Yeah, I'm not gonna mess with it if its only gonna show ~30rpm. The plan is to build a 10x overdrive so it shows ~300rpm.

 

[lpdjshaw]

Here's mine:

After some help from DayTripper and inspiration from ClarnoBrewer I just got finished motorizing my AWESOME Rebel Brewer Mill. This thing is built like a tank and now thats it's powered it has no problem crushing grain!

Thanks to all who have provided me with inspiration and guidance!!

I know this is a year old thread but this is rad and I would love to get more details on this build if you're still out there. How'd you take the handle off and wire it, how'd you mount it? Any info would be greatly appreciated!

 

[blefferd]

Here is my set up, not motorized yet but set up for a drill. I used an old shipping crate, some casters from my kegorator and about $20 worth of hardware. I am satisfied with it and plan on painting it soon! Eventually I want to put a direct drive gear motor on it, which will require some modification.

 

[Fordzilla]

I am planning my mill right now, and I have a question about the driven pulley. (on the mill) I can't find a 3/8" bore pulley any larger than 4" OD anywhere. But I see a lot of people in this thread with huge pulleys on their mills. Where are you guys getting them? Grainger has 9" OD (what I need) with 1/2" bore, is there some kind of shaft sleeve I can get to step it up?

 

[Irrenarzt]

You can shim down a larger ID bore to a 3/8" shaft easily.

 

[Fordzilla]

Any idea on where I can get those shims or what they're called? I've not come up with much on google, and I have a feeling it's because I'm not using the right terms.

 

[Irrenarzt]

Here ya go. They have a variety of 3/8' ones on this page.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-sleeve-bearings/=mv3f9t

 

[TrickyDick]

Finally got around to getting a cart for the malt mill. Inexpensive steel cart from Amazon. Used the same wooden base I had it all mounted to. Now I can drop a bucket on the shelf below and swap in a new bucket when it gets full. Fairly sturdy on the cart. I have another shelf I might modify to fit around the hopper as act as a shelf and further stabilize the hopper. A final step will be to shim or bolt the wooden baseboard to the wire shelf to keep it from moving. So far hasn't been an issue.

TD

 

[BaldApe]

I used sleeve bearings. I was lucky to find the right inside diameter and outside diameter, and improvised the rest.

 

[drunkenmonk]

Motorized Monster Mill MM3-20 with 1 HP gear motor.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/motorized-monster-mill-build-373083/

 

[Brezentski]

Finally got my mill done this past Father's Day!

 

[lpdjshaw]

Very nice! Motor and gear reducer details for those of us who are technically challenged?

 

[Brezentski]

The Motor is 1/3 hp, turns 1725 rpms and the gear reduction is 10:1. Here are some pics.

 

[bluedog_Brewing]

I'm pretty sure that steppers motor require electronic commutation just like a brushless DC motor. If the motor has more than 2 or 3 wires, it usually requires an external controller to send pulses of power to each of the separate windings in the correct order and timing to run at a giving speed.

In other words, you cant apply a constant voltage and get a constant speed.

So... they get a signal from a computer (cnc controller) that tells it how many steps to take and how fast those steps need to be? Hmm... I bet there are some Sparky's out there that could make it work. I however, am not one.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

I'm pretty sure that steppers motor require electronic commutation just like a brushless DC motor. If the motor has more than 2 or 3 wires, it usually requires an external controller to send pulses of power to each of the separate windings in the correct order and timing to run at a giving speed.

In other words, you cant apply a constant voltage and get a constant speed.

Correct. Someone explained it to me on here, maybe earlier in this thread. They need switched polarity on pairs on wires to move in steps.

 

[dcbc]

Can't recall if I posted this already. Simple, but works like a charm.