Borret's Mill

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Borret

Crazy Eye's Brewery
Joined
15/2/05
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Hey All.

Just thought I'd post some photo's of my mill that I have finally completed this weekend after languishing amongst other projects for a few months. Must say I'm pretty proud of it. It's come up nice.

60mm dia x 200 long knurled stainless rollers. Each on sealed bearings housed in seperate mounting blocks so it's fully adjustable but has no significant gaps for grain to fall through.
mill.jpg
All held together by concieled socket headed cap screws in the aluminium extrusion housing. Input shaft is necket down to 3/8" to power by a drill at the moment (and the shaft is tapped up the guts so I can fit the hand crand I made to it too) but will possibly upgrade to v belt off a motor down the track.
mill_det.jpg

Next up is the hopper to be made from polycarbonate sheet in the next week or so. Have already put mounting bracket onto the frame for this to sit on.

Whatdya think guys and gals. Also what sort of volumetric capacity (not grain weight) do others find handy for the hopper size?

Borret :beerbang:
 
Hi Borret,
Welcome to AHB.
Looks good mate.
How does the gap adjust?
Cheers
 
Hey Dicko,

The holes you can see on the second photo are access points to the socket headed cap screws that clamp the blocks to the extrusion (the M8 screw heads run in the extrusion and the blocks have 2 threaded holes either side of the ball bearing. ) The edge of the blocks are pretty much flush with the edge of the rollers.

To adjust just loosen the screws on the idle roller on both sides with an allen key, set the gap with a feeler guage and clamp the blocks up again. The brackets for the hopper also have elongated holes so it allows for the adjustment.
Does that make sense. I can pull it apart and take more photo's if you realy wan't to see. ( but I'd rather not).

Thanks for the welcome.

Borret
 
Borret,

Dont pull it apart mate, I thought the adjustment would be along those lines.
Looks like a top job... post some more pics when it is finished.

Cheers
 
Looks like a great job there Borret. Obviously very hand with the tools.
As for volume in the hopper my Valley holds about 2.5-3kg of grain which would be approximately 5 litres in volume.
I'd like it to hold more and if I was building one I'd go for double if possible.

HTH,
Doc
 
Hey All,

An update on my mill. The hopper is done and the mill tidied up a bit. After the docs advice I decided to double it and then add some safety margin so I will never wish I had gone bigger. So that's a good 14 litres folks which should keep me happy for a long time.
The mill frame has been trimmed down and the extrusion plugged with some end caps to tidy it up.
hoppermounted.jpg
The hopper itself is made from lexan and is held together by M3 countersunk stainless socket heads into the drilled and tapped lexan.
hopscrewdet.jpg
Hopper is held to the frame with more stainless socket heads, this time M5 into self clinching nuts that are pressed into the lexan.
hopmountdet.jpg
Finally the fit has come up better than I expected. It hugs the rollers nicely without any interference.
hopinsidedet.jpg

All in all I'm stoked with the results. Only thing I might play with now is crank (it's a bit ugly) and perhaps a frame rather than the bucket it will now sit on.

Cheers

Borret.
 
jgriffin said:
Goddam that looks horny.
[post="53182"][/post]​


If i were a chick, i'd be wet in my jocks. That thing is beaut.
 
Borret said:
snipped>>
Must say I'm pretty proud of it. It's come up nice.


[post="51277"][/post]​

Its awesome mate, top work.

jgriffin said:
Goddam that looks horny.
[post="53182"][/post]​

Maybe this belongs in the brewers porn forum :p


Jayse
 
Borret said:
Hey All,

Hopper is held to the frame with more stainless socket heads, this time M5 into self clinching nuts that are pressed into the lexan
[post="53175"][/post]​

Like much of this thread, I have no idea what this sentence means.
Strangely, it does sound kind of stimulating!

awrabest

stu

in solidarity with hand tool challenged brewers everywhere!
 
I'm in total awe borret - fantastic job..... :super:
 
I'll join stu in the corner.

We'll just drink the beer, thanks :beer:
 
I'd say I'm in love, but I'm a little worried by the concept of self clinching nuts.
 
Great job! I love it.
What did you use to glue the perspex together and where did you get it from???

Andrew
 
Andrew,

To recap the above post I used Lexan (polycarbonate) instead of Perspex (acrylic) for the hopper. It is a lot tougher and less brittle. I did not glue it instead I drilled and tapped (cut a thread ) into the edge and countersunk holes in side plates to take the M3 countersunk socket heads. This way if some gremlins start growing in the joints for some reason then I can easy pull it apart and wash it.
It was all cut with a hand saw and the edges sanded to a fine finish over a few hrs.
Where to get it. This came from place called specialised wholesale in Newcastle but I believe Cadillac plastic would stock it too (they carry all sorts of engineering plastics) If you did want to glue it Im sure the plastic wholesaler can recommend the right stuff to you. I have used solvent based adhesives in the past on plastic but cant remember the name. I dont believe they would give the same strength as the mechanical fasteners I went for, particularly in shear
Now that you mention it I actually got the Lexan for free. They were off cuts from a job my mate was working on a year or so ago and he had lying in his metal rack. Same goes for the round bar I used for the rollers. The rest was off cuts and scrap from work. In fact the whole mill cost me a total of 28 bucks (for the bearings) and a few beers to those involved in the rest. Good investment I say!

Cheers

Borret
 
Looks to me like a bit of a rush job.
You clearly haven't taken the time to think about what you're doing. The result is something that looks like a 4 year old has built with a mechano set. :D

What do you do for a crust Borrat?
 
Gad damn that thing is turning me on :wub:
I'll have to get the guys at work to look at that and work something out.

Well done on the mill,and if I ever get close to making one i will re-read the thread and decypher all the specs.
Top stuff Borret

Hoops
 
Hey guys,

Sorry to bore you all with more photo's ,but I have upgraded my crank handle to something a little prettier (the downfall of being an industrial designer). So here's the shots. Once again there is lexan and alloy and believe me it's strong enough.
Proof will be in the pudding. Doing my first PM in the morning and it's a weisbier.

Cheers

Borret

crank.jpgcrankdet.jpg
 
Bore us? You've got me breathing heavy.
How much is this thing costing you? You could almost go into business with a mill that sexy.


You sure that handle's strong enough? How's the flex?
 
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