So, I've been building this thing for a while now, but with the weather warming up, I decided to get some bulk grain and finally kick it in the butt and get it done. Used it for the first time two weekends ago and it performed well, but with a couple of mods still planned.
The gap is adjusted by rotating the eccentrics, which moves the idle roller back and forth a small amount.
The grain was not being grabbed well, and even though we tried adding an O-ring to the idler roller, the grain dust instantly made it start slipping again. Perhaps a larger O-ring would have worked better, but I really didn't want an O-ring between the rollers anyway.
Gears would have been nice, but the price of the gears I could find were much more than I wanted to pay for a "free" project. I decided to try and do the friction gear method, but outside of where the grain was being crushed. Hopefully this will do the trick and prevent the roller from being eaten up, or slipping.
My corded drill was not quite up to the task, but even a hand crank was not very hard and didn't take too much time. I may look into adding a reduction gear on any future models, so that a drill would be a more viable option. Or I can maybe get around to rebuilding that 1/2" drill I have had sitting around that needs to be fixed.
It also has a butt ugly hopper that holds a bit more than 2 lbs., but I didn't want to post pics of that.
The gap is adjusted by rotating the eccentrics, which moves the idle roller back and forth a small amount.
The grain was not being grabbed well, and even though we tried adding an O-ring to the idler roller, the grain dust instantly made it start slipping again. Perhaps a larger O-ring would have worked better, but I really didn't want an O-ring between the rollers anyway.
Gears would have been nice, but the price of the gears I could find were much more than I wanted to pay for a "free" project. I decided to try and do the friction gear method, but outside of where the grain was being crushed. Hopefully this will do the trick and prevent the roller from being eaten up, or slipping.
My corded drill was not quite up to the task, but even a hand crank was not very hard and didn't take too much time. I may look into adding a reduction gear on any future models, so that a drill would be a more viable option. Or I can maybe get around to rebuilding that 1/2" drill I have had sitting around that needs to be fixed.
It also has a butt ugly hopper that holds a bit more than 2 lbs., but I didn't want to post pics of that.