Stir plate finally done!

[nukebrewer]

I finally finished building my stir plate. I started working on it right before I left for deployment in June of 2011, but never got it finished before I left. Then I had to spend 4 months at school in Virginia, so I just now finally finished my stir plate build. It's nothing special, so I'm not going to post details unless anyone asks. All I'm waiting on is my stir bar before I can actually use it, but as of now, the stir plate itself is fully functional. I love this DIY stuff. While I was in school in VA I was teaching some friends how to do AG and ended up building two MLTs, just cause. Didn't ask anyone to pay me back, I just had fun putting them together. Anyway, next up, grain mill! SWMBO's got me on a tight budget for this, so if I can do it for under $100 that would be awesome. Suggesstions?

 

[Jaybird]

Yeah DIY is cool aint it?
Well done
Cheers
Jay

 

[smittygouv30]

I found the cheapest and easiest way to go about a DIY grain mill is to go to harbor freight and buy a heavy duty drill. They are cheap, strong, and spin at low enough speed. I wired mine to a light switch and electrical receptacle, so a flip of a switch it cranks away. I researched motors and pulleys and I found that to be more expensive, more difficult, and most importantly more dangerous. Having those pulleys running is just asking for me to lose a finger.

Nice job on the stir plate!

 

[nukebrewer]

Thanks to both of you for the kudos.

@smittygouv30: Thanks for that tip. Where did you get the mill itself and how much did it cost?

 

[smittygouv30]

I ordered the "Barley crusher". If you google it it'll take you to the page. I want to say it was like $130 with shipping. I shopped around and couldn't find anything better pre-made, of course this was about a year ago. I would guess start to finish my mill station was just under $200 (that's including the stand and electrical).

 

[63belair]

Your best bet for a < $100 grain mill is a corona mill. Search for 'ugly junk corona' and you should find a huge thread with everything you need to know and more. Not as sexy as a mm, but it will get the job done provided you don't mind some DIY tinkering (which it appears you do not)

 

[nukebrewer]

Thanks for pointing me to that thread. Before you posted I had already made a trip to home depot and grabbed a few things to try and hack one together that I can power with my drill. If that doesn't work, though, the corona mill will be my next step. Whilst searching Google, I saw that mill a lot, but I was unsure if it would be suitable. I guess I was wrong.

 

[barrooze]

The Cereal Killer is very similar to the Barley Crusher, and it's sold for $89 or $99 from Adventures in Homebrewing. If they're out of stock and on pre-order, they tend to drop the price to $89.

 

[h4mmy86]

You need to play with water and food coloring now! ...or at least that's what I did once I got my stir plate working

 

[nukebrewer]

You need to play with water and food coloring now! ...or at least that's what I did once I got my stir plate working

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on the stir bar to get here. I'll post a pic of it working as soon as the bar gets here.

 

[h4mmy86]

Unfortunately, I'm still waiting on the stir bar to get here. I'll post a pic of it working as soon as the bar gets here.

you can experiment with a paper clip or a bunched up piece of wire, like a bread tie. I use a little key that broke off of a toy xylophone as my stir bar.

 

[nukebrewer]

Cool, I'll give it a go and see how it goes.

 

[nukebrewer]

So I tentatively have a grain mill that I built. I would've made a new thread for it, but it is so awfully ugly it doesn't deserve its own thread. I don't even know if it works. Going to the LHBS tomorrow to pick up a little grain to test her out. If it actually works, I won't be as ashamed of it and I'll post some pics.

 

[smittygouv30]

I gotta see this thing. Ugly DIY makes the rest of us feel good about our ugly DIY!

 

[nukebrewer]

Ok, here it goes. Get ready to laugh your ass off. Somehow I figured I could get away with a single roller design and this is what I came up with. I ended up deciding to get a properly made grain mill since I came into some unexpected money, but if it works I'm still going keep this POS around JIC.

One, two, three... commence the mocking, pointing and laughing.

 

[barrooze]

wow... Not sure what to say about that. Have you tried it yet? Just an FYI, that Cereal Killer I spoke of above is now $89 w/ free shipping.

Where's the hopper? How do you turn this one? What's your gap setting? (hahah...)

 

[nukebrewer]

Haven't tried it yet, but I'm going to give it a go today. You turn it with a drill on the brass nipple on the left. It's not perfectly straight, so the gap varies between about. 04" and .09". I didn't show the hopper for two reasons. 1) I haven't made one yet and 2) you wouldn't be able to appreciate the full magnitude of its atrocity with a hopper installed.