DIY grain crusher from old gearbox

I was not too keen on spending around $250 on an effective grain mill so I made this from an old Valiant Borg Warner 35 gearbox drive spline and universal gears.

I chose the drive splines because they were made of extremely tough steel and had grooves already cut longitudinally which are perfect for grabbing grain and crushing it.

I welded dismantled universal gears to the top of the spline and then lathed it flat on the end with a countersink for the turned brass pivots to hold it in place and adjust the crush width. The crosscut gears are part of the universal gear set and the tooth depth allows for adjustment, just be careful to align them properly or else they will wobble, I welded ontop of the spline then lathed it down to the ID of the gear which sat snug with a few hits.

The body is steel plate thick enough to tap a good thread into to hold the pins. While I was at it I welded a hopper to the top and burnished it flat and topped the sharp edges with a protective auto strip from rare-spares. The handle is just there while I was testing but the shaft has two nuts to put the chuck over and use a drill.

** in practice: The mill works great and there is no give in the set so that everything that goes through it is properly crushed and I have not needed to run it through twice. The hopper feed could be wider to let the grain fall freer.

Not bad for free (free scraps and leftovers anyhow)