stereo cabinet grain mill build

[odie]

since there is no grain mill sub-forum I'll drop this here...

I made a grain mill cabinet out of an old school stereo cabinet I scored on FB for 5 bucks... the grain mill was one of those ebay or amazon specials, the DY-368 mill that's running about $150-200 right now...I scored a customer return for a bit less

Anyway I'll let the pictures tell most of the story. The cabinet was a little too narrow for the mill so I had to cut a hole in the side to slide the end of the motor thru but it only sticks out an inch when stored. The side hole was barely big enough so I had to remove the fan shroud to slide it in and then put the shroud back on. I had to lower the turntable shelf about a foot so the top would close without hitting the grain funnel. I did not like how the power switch was on the opposite side of the grain roller adjusters and the power cord came out the "front" in my set up so I flipped the control housing around. The motor wiring had enough slack that i could neatly run it under the cover and zip tie it away from the drive shaft. I closed in the back of the lower compartment to contain dust but the mill runs slow enough that I don't think there will be much dust floating around. I like the glass door so I can watch the mill in action and monitor the crush.

 

[easttex]

I like it.

Could you tell me more about the motor and gear reduction unit? Did that come with the mill?

 

[odie]

no info on the motor. it came already assembled as a unit except for the hopper. It's very heavy and runs low rpm. it should be a crushing torque monster. I set the gap at credit card thickness and got a nice BIAB crush.

I REALLY like the two rollers being geared together. My old mill the second "non-driven" roller would get stuck all the time.

 

[odie]

Used it twice so far. First time was a disaster. Apparently when it was assembled the coupler was not centered properly. The shaft of the motor and the shaft of the roller has a slot or flat space for the set screws to bite into. Since the coupler was slid one way too much, the screw was just on the fully round part of the shaft. It took only a little bit of grain resistance to make the coupler just spin freely. I didn't have time to mess with it so I just used my old drill powered mill.

Ran 7# of wheat malt thru it last night after getting the shaft coupler properly aligned. Ran like a champ. And the wheat seems much harder than regular malt. Mill gap was set at credit card thickness. It comped thru all the grain without an issue. No bogging down, no straining. Just a slow, deliberate march. Got a real nice BIAB crush on a single pass.

It does run slow speed because of the gear reduction. So it will take several minutes to do your batch. Go do something else in the meantime.