My Ugly Junk- Corona Mill Station...

[Revvy]

DING, DING, DING, DING! I believe we may have our new winner folks!!! Nice Job!!!!

I think we do. I think it's gotta be the 2011 winner.

Though it hasn't knocked laughing gnome's off the all time junkiest platform.

 

[CidahMastah]

haha too funny.


Hey guys who have put a motor on their ugly junk - what rpms are you running at? I have an 1140 rpm motor I use for apple shredding for my press. I was thinking about using it for grain. Right now I have it on a Vbelt with pulleys that gears it down to about 316rmps. Does that sound ok?

 

[wyzazz]

haha too funny.


Hey guys who have put a motor on their ugly junk - what rpms are you running at? I have an 1140 rpm motor I use for apple shredding for my press. I was thinking about using it for grain. Right now I have it on a Vbelt with pulleys that gears it down to about 316rmps. Does that sound ok?

General consensus is that 150-300 RPM's is about the right range for a motor on a mill. I did see a guy that hose clamped (with a piece of vinyl reinforced tubing) a motor to the shaft of a Corona Mill. Don't know how it's held up but my el-cheapo Harbor Freight variable speed drill does me just fine.

 

[CidahMastah]

General consensus is that 150-300 RPM's is about the right range for a motor on a mill. I did see a guy that hose clamped (with a piece of vinyl reinforced tubing) a motor to the shaft of a Corona Mill. Don't know how it's held up but my el-cheapo Harbor Freight variable speed drill does me just fine.

Yeah I have a heavy duty milwaukee drill that works well - but it seems like even with a stainless hex bolt over time I am rounding off the corners. I wanted something a little more permenant. Since I have the motor already...

I have some extra pulleys in various sized (1.75'') that would bring me down to about 221.66 RPMs. Maybe that is the best place to start. Thought I still need to figure out what I need to mount the pulley to the corona drive shaft (i/e 5/16'' hex bolt!)

of course the main goal of this project is... spend no money to complete it!

 

[wyzazz]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/index63.html

Bingo, found it! I knew I'd seen it (since I quoted and fixed the pics)!

I shot him a PM to see how it's holding up...

And the Answer:
It has about 50 lbs of grain through it and the braided tube twists some but it still works. I can see it needing replaced in about 5 more brews. But, its about $0.90 per foot and it only needs 4 inches. So, rather cheap!

 

[camiller]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/index63.html

Bingo, found it! I knew I'd seen it (since I quoted and fixed the pics)!

I shot him a PM to see how it's holding up...

And the Answer:
It has about 50 lbs of grain through it and the braided tube twists some but it still works. I can see it needing replaced in about 5 more brews. But, its about $0.90 per foot and it only needs 4 inches. So, rather cheap!

What post#? I only ask because if someone views the forum with a different than default number of posts per page that link won't really take them to the page you think.

 

[CidahMastah]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/index63.html

Bingo, found it! I knew I'd seen it (since I quoted and fixed the pics)!

I shot him a PM to see how it's holding up...

And the Answer:
It has about 50 lbs of grain through it and the braided tube twists some but it still works. I can see it needing replaced in about 5 more brews. But, its about $0.90 per foot and it only needs 4 inches. So, rather cheap!

Nice!

That gives me an idea for how I can evenly (relatively anyhow) fatten up the motor drive shaft to it can accept my pulley. See my deal is, I can't go direct drive like that or it would be 1140rpms... way to freakin' fast.

 

[camiller]

General consensus is that 150-300 RPM's is about the right range for a motor on a mill. I did see a guy that hose clamped (with a piece of vinyl reinforced tubing) a motor to the shaft of a Corona Mill. Don't know how it's held up but my el-cheapo Harbor Freight variable speed drill does me just fine.

I think that consensus is based on experience with roller mills. These coronas, or at least my victoria version, have a plastic sleeve bushing that the handle end of the shaft rides in. I think 300 rpm is too fast for long term life of the mill. I also wouldn't use pulleys for speed reduction due to sideloading on that same plastic sleeve bushing. In my humble opinion, direct drive with a gear motor, with either a cheap piece of tubing for stress relief or a full blown spider coupling is probably the best way to go. My plan is to build with a wiper motor which would turn the mill about the same speed I would hand crank it, call it 50-60 RPM. I think you would probably be OK approximately doubling or tripling that to 100-150 or so. I just need to get off my duff and order the damn motor. Yeah, it'll crush slow, but I'm in no hurry.

Edit: This is the motor I intend to use (only $16): http://monsterguts.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=4

 

[CidahMastah]

camiller - you sure that that motor has the sand to even crush grain? I wouldn't imagine that a wiper motor has that much torque.

Working Torque - 3.98 foot pounds (5.4 N m) - seems to be cutting it pretty close. You probably won't be able to start the mill up with grain in it, at a minimum.

I didn't notice (or don't remember) a plastic bushing on my victoria - will have to check.

Never used a gear motor before, any help with me picking a proper setup? Based on a quick google they seem ridiculously $$

 

[Getafix]

My first Blue Ribbon, too cool. Thanks guys, happy grinding!

 

[camiller]

camiller - you sure that that motor has the sand to even crush grain? I wouldn't imagine that a wiper motor has that much torque.

Working Torque - 3.98 foot pounds (5.4 N m) - seems to be cutting it pretty close. You probably won't be able to start the mill up with grain in it, at a minimum.

I didn't notice (or don't remember) a plastic bushing on my victoria - will have to check.

Never used a gear motor before, any help with me picking a proper setup? Based on a quick google they seem ridiculously $$

I put a bar type torque wrench on my mill to try to estimate the amount of torque required to turn it and I think I will be OK. I think the Static Torque of 13.27 foot pounds will be enough to get it going from a stop, and once it is going the ~4 should keep it going. There is another wiper motor corona thread around here (found it: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/windshield-wiper-motor-powered-grain-mill-164285/ ) but it did use a significantly beefier wiper motor from a semi truck. At any rate, I'm going to give it a try, $16 isn't too much for an experiment.

If you are looking for a better gear motor keep an eye on the surplus sites like http://www.surpluscenter.com/sort.asp?catname=electric&keyword=GIAR

 

[CidahMastah]

I put a bar type torque wrench on my mill to try to estimate the amount of torque required to turn it and I think I will be OK. I think the Static Torque of 13.27 foot pounds will be enough to get it going from a stop, and once it is going the ~4 should keep it going. There is another wiper motor corona thread around here (found it: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/windshield-wiper-motor-powered-grain-mill-164285/ ) but it did use a significantly beefier wiper motor from a semi truck. At any rate, I'm going to give it a try, $16 isn't too much for an experiment.

If you are looking for a better gear motor keep an eye on the surplus sites like Surplus Center

Man that is SLOW (the youtube video of the wiper blade he posted)! No offense, but I would rather stick to my drill than use the setup of the semi wiper blade motor.

 

[Accidic]

Wouldn't it be the 13.27ft.lbs of torque starting the mill up or at least somewhere between that and the 3.98 when you first start it?

That said, there is a guy who did a walkthrough alteration of a variable RPM drill @ Harbor Freight (about $16) that could be adapted to any similar shafted motor if you took his lockup tips to heart. It's what I've been toying with using. Heck, I might just leave the drill as is and see how it works out if the battery pack matches my current HF drill.



Edit: Forgot the link. Dunno if anyone else here would be creating any kind of robot or similar device but here you go... http://www.wa4dsy.net/robot/drill-motor-hack

 

[CidahMastah]

If you are looking for a better gear motor keep an eye on the surplus sites like Surplus Center

Problem here being, not sure I really know how these work (get thes idea, just don't know how to calculate which I would need to get my rpms in line with 150-300) or what I would need to buy...

 

[Accidic]

And just because I found the concept of the wiper motor interesting I stumbled across this gem testing an example at over 17ftlbs: Wiper Motor Page

 

[wyzazz]

what post#? I only ask because if someone views the forum with a different than default number of posts per page that link won't really take them to the page you think.

#628 & 629

 

[Accidic]

@CidahMastah:

The lower the speed the higher the torque (it uses a worm drive to achieve it's reduction and increase of working torque). With the smaller motors working you might struggle if you were to up them to the 150-300 range. That said, I suspect the torque of those units is probably more enough you could just gear it up 2x to get to at least 120-150rpm. I tend to feel better about my crush at handcranked speeds than @300RPM with my old drillpress motor. I took it right back off and stuffed it away until I could come up with a 3 roller mill.

 

[camiller]

Man that is SLOW (the youtube video of the wiper blade he posted)! No offense, but I would rather stick to my drill than use the setup of the semi wiper blade motor.

Yeah, but you just start it and go do something else while it is running, If I wasn't patient, I'd buy beer

 

[camiller]

Problem here being, not sure I really know how these work (get thes idea, just don't know how to calculate which I would need to get my rpms in line with 150-300) or what I would need to buy...

The ones on the page I linked all include a motor and specify the output RPM.

 

[camiller]

And just because I found the concept of the wiper motor interesting I stumbled across this gem testing an example at over 17ftlbs: Wiper Motor Page

Of course, as that page suggests that motor is no longer made. I think that was the page that led me to monsterguts anyway. There is a june 2011 update on that page to another motor with a slightly higher 53in-lbs torque, but at $25 instead of $16

 

[wyzazz]

Yeah, but you just start it and go do something else while it is running...

Agreed, if my mill was motorized I don't think I'd care how slow it went. I have a hopper big enough for 20lbs of grain so constantly loading it isn't an issue & I definitely have other things to do besides watching my grain get milled. Using my drill now I go as slow as it will let me, it seems to net me the best crush that way.

 

[camiller]

Wouldn't it be the 13.27ft.lbs of torque starting the mill up or at least somewhere between that and the 3.98 when you first start it?

That said, there is a guy who did a walkthrough alteration of a variable RPM drill @ Harbor Freight (about $16) that could be adapted to any similar shafted motor if you took his lockup tips to heart. It's what I've been toying with using. Heck, I might just leave the drill as is and see how it works out if the battery pack matches my current HF drill.



Edit: Forgot the link. Dunno if anyone else here would be creating any kind of robot or similar device but here you go... Dale's Homemade Robots - 14.4 Volt DrillMaster Modification

Now that looks like a possibility. Even though the drill in question is 14.4v you could likely drive it with the 12v lines from a old computer power supply, would just run a little slower. Of course harbor freight seems to have discontinued 14.4v tools in general. I would still want to get the speed down quite a bit.

 

[Beezy]

Finally got off my lazy ass.

 

[JoeyChopps]

Sweet love that u stuck with the crank

 

[Beezy]

I can't justify buying a drill just for that. Believe me though I am looking for another reason to buy one.

 

[Chipman]

I love this thread! It changed my entire homebrewing operation.

 

[JoeyChopps]

I can't justify buying a drill just for that. Believe me though I am looking for another reason to buy one.

Don't buy one me and my wife crank out grain and its very humbling

 

[Beezy]

Don't buy one me and my wife crank out grain and its very humbling

Well my son likes to help. Hey I am not adverse to a little manual labor. It's worth it for some good beer.

 

[Accidic]

A way to extend the crank arm outward another inch or so for bucket use would be nice though.

 

[JoeyChopps]

A way to extend the crank arm outward another inch or so for bucket use would be nice though.

I just cut off that "finger lip" on the side of the bucket to give my handle clearance works pretty well