Borret's Mill

[Borret]

Yep there is some flex but none in the direction of the load. If it does fail I will go for for An aluminium replacement for the lexan bit. Or another lexan rib at the back...that would be nice....I could use more countersunk screws. 2 deep breaths. Thinking........

Cost...as I said still 28 bucks and what ever the countersunk screw are that I had lying around. But to build it without donations I'd be into hundreds.

Borret

 

[Kai]

I missed the cost earlier, sorry.

I was asking about flex because I imagine if the operator has a poor rotating motion and/or the mill jammed or blocked up a little, any movement that was not perfectly in sync with the proper direction of motion might twist it and make it snap. But, you probably know more about it than me so I'll shut up now.

 

[Borret]

Now your teasing. Lexan isn't brittle like perspx. You can fold the stuff without heating it and it doesn't shatter.
You can bend it back to pouch the mill of you push hard enough. I may end up being wrong but it will be a simple upgrade. It looks nice for now.
My 2 yr old son is obsessed with it. The fact that he can flick the handle and the inertia of the roller makes it keep ticking over slowly for ten or so turns keeps him amused for ages.

Borret.

Borret

 

[Doc]

You don't work for Apple Computers design department do you?
Top work. Very eye pleasing.

Doc

 

[Kai]

You don't work for Apple Computers design department do you?

Yes, it pretty much is the Apple of the mill world.

Sorry borret, I knew nothing about this lexan stuff. All I know is beer and cheese.

 

[pint of lager]

Borret, I hope the youngster cannout reach the rollers, or you better work out how to dismantle it quick fast.

 

[Borret]

No to apple computers, but yes to networking gear.

POL- Fear not-The son can only touch the grain shrine under supervision.

Kai- do you build cheeses too? I helped a guy build a cheese press once. It was a guy nicked Wasabi from this forum. He's now moved from where I work to an education in fermentation. I've been temped to try making some soft cheeses.

Borret

 

[Kai]

Yep, I build cheeses borret.

 

[Borret]

Hey folks,

Have finished the upgrade on my crank. Now the Lexan is backed by a nice piece of 4mm high tensile aluminium alloy. All signs of twist have gone and it's much easier to crank now- no tight gripping to keep the handle straight. (which will make you happy Kai, I know) May not be quite as pretty as the clear crank but is a happier thing in general.
Also have made the hand piece so it swivels which also makes for a much nicer action.
I might even engrave the name of my brewery behind the Lexan sometime as it could look nice, but I'm still refining my logo. Name is sorted though.

Cheers
Borret

 

[Darren]

Borret,
That is the nicest looking mill I have ever seen.
Just made a mess of the keyboard.
( I think i may have one too many barleywines tonight)

 

[Pumpy]

Thats a real mill Borret ,bet with a bit of Huffy Puffy you can crush 5kg in 5 minutes .
I can appreciate a lotta luv went into that one !!!

Pumpy

 

[warrenlw63]

Borret,

When do you start taking orders? I'll have one.

Warren -

 

[GOLIATH]

That's an outstanding project and a fabulous looking mill.
As an industrial designer surely you would know someone that could produce it!
A good Aussie mill at last!

Can you tell us what size the rollers are? Also, Could the design be modified for a 100 or 125ml roller so that they could be smooth instead of knurled that way you could dispense with the difficult bit of knurling rollers.

Perhaps you could make a set of plans and specs that people could buy from you for say 5-10 bucks.

Well done
Regards
Dave

 

[big d]

very nice job borret but can it crush.?
has it had the trial run yet.

 

[Pumpy]

It took me an hour to crush the first 5KG when I made my mill I was heartbroken it had the wrong knurl on nearlty jumped off the Harbour bridge,I spent 4 hours putting a cross hatch knurl on the next day the difference, Phew it sucked it in . I was so happy I drank a lot of beer that night .he! he! .

I am not very good with making things but you soon learn when the pressures on .

I rushed down to my grain store the next day and asked for a 25 kg bag of whole grain pale malt $1.80 kg I felt like a real brewer ,I thought now I am in the big league .

Pumpy

 

[Borret]

Hey Guy's

Thanks for the feed back. Yep sure has had it's virgin crush. I did a partial wheat beer 2 weeks ago which I did mention and posted some photo's under the thread I did on the mini lauter tun. I did take a photo of the first go on the dya but it did not turn out so good so I never posted it. (sorry no pics of the crush perhaps next time. But here it is for what it's worth.
As you can see I still need to make a stand but the crate worked well enough the first go. Also youcan see the 2 kilo's barely made a dint in the size of the hopper.

Pumpy, I'm with you on the first grind. Had read it should be about 0.9 gap at which I could not even get it to turn (larger dia rollers means more pinch surface area and bigger load). Wondered what I had done wrong. Had that real bad feeling that you get specially when it was surposed to go so smoothly and it didn't. Anyway opened it up to about 1.5 and it hooked through but as I was only testing at this gap I only nipped up the adjustment screw which was not enough. It slipped open to about 2mm at which point Icould not get the allen key back in to loosen it off and reset it. So I felt under pressure so went on and did 2 runs at approx 2mm. The crush turned out excellent. Nice intact husks and small pieces of kernal. I am now going to make the adjustment holes bigger to save having to hammer the bearing blocks back into place in future!!!! I swear the 2kg went through in under a minute though. :super:

To the plans and production. I don't think it is reall a marketable product when competing with the few on the market already. The materials I used were all 1 off offcuts - I would not have liked to buy them. :excl: Most of basics I accumulated from other design anyway.
However !!!! I had contemplated 3D modelling it up and doing some basic engineering drawings and making it free of charge on this site if anyone wanted a crack at it. The design is fairly simple and I even made a simple jig up so no 4 jaw chuck was neccesary for the bearing blocks. Perhaps I could do it and all dontaions made for dwonloading the plans could be forwarded to Dane to help support this site (and if dane for some crazy reason made a fortune then maybe I can get a few kick backs(I'd love a shirt)). I would only bother doing the work it if people think it would be worth my while. What do you think? Might take a few weeks of free evenings to model up but that's cool. It's a worthy cause.

Dave- The rollers are 60mm dia. x 200 long. I don't think you would want to go much bigger. A) the load you encounter because of the increased surface area would make it much harder to crank and B) Double the diameter and you make the volume x4. Thats a lot of metal particularly if it's stainless. 4 times the weight means you need a crane to pick it up and also 4 x the $$$. for the stock. Nurling is not a hard process anyway. Much less time spent to put a diamond knurl on than to turn a 120mm dia bar down to a input 12mm shaft!

Anyway. I'll wait to hear the verdict. No promises just yet.

Cheers

Borret

 

[Tony]

Mate that is a neat looking piece of gear. Very nice work.

I was eying off some 4" dia (thats 100mm) ss shaft for sone smooth rollers the other day and was thinking of building a "megga mill"

4" dia and 8 to 10 inches long rollers........ mmmmmmm do you think it might be overkill or just a wonderfull thing to make for the hell of it

All you need now is a motor.

I have a 240 v 2 speed (1000 and 1500 rpm) 0.37kw motor. It only JUST does the job and a 0.5KW would be a better investment.

I made mine like you, ofcuts, leftovers and bits and pieces and my grand total with electric motor was about $76 i think.

Cheap at half the price.

Mine cracks 6kg in 50 seconds at 0.9mm gap.

I mix in 50 to 100mls of water to the dry grain and let it sit for 15 min. Ray daniels recomends 2% of grain weight. It helps keep the husks completly whole and give a fine crush for extra efficiency.

I tried cracking at a wider gap with 2 runs and found the husks got busted up a bit.

I have found that when the husks get broken up the beer is not as smooth, so the water adition to soften the husks works well. I crack 10 min before i mash so the moisture is not a problem, its going into water anyway.
I built a hopper to hold 12 kg of grain as when the keg brewery (in construction now h34r: ) is done i can brew 50 liter batches and only have to fill the hopper up and flick the switch.

The big roller mill was great when i built it but the motor makes it soooooooooooo much better. You get a cheeky grin like the joker as it chews up the grain with no effort at all.

Life is great when you own a big mill hey B)

cheers :super:

 

[spog]

borret, dont hold back mate can you give us all the plans for this little baby!

 

[Borret]

So do I have any other interest in plans or shouldn't I bother? <_< Does anyone else want to have a serious crack at building one or using it for ideas? I don't mind modelling it up but won't worry about it if no one wants it.

Borret :blink:

 

[sosman]

I think mine is set to 0.9mm but there is no knurling on my rollers, instead it uses o-rings to drive the passive roller.