Grain Mill (part2) (56k Warning)

[redbeard]

Tony generously built me a grain mill. However, I had to make the stand and the hopper to suit my setup. Initially I decided to mill straight into my esky / mash tun. First I built the following out of plywood. In hindsight, pine might have been an easier choice. The black strips are leftover sticky foam, usually used to seal door frames.

Top View


Bottom view


Here's how it fits together:






continued

 

[Pumpy]

Thats a lovely mill I saw it when I was up at Tamworth for Tonys brewday it has a clever adjustment on it ,you got value for money there how does your drill cope with turning such big rollers .
Try the 100ml of water in the grain before crushing it keeps the husks from shattering

pumpy

 

[redbeard]

Continued from 1st post:

The hopper was a quick job out of cardboard. I was getting a bit frustrated by this time and just wanted to get it working. The first attempt using a plastic paper rubbish bin failed, as the plastic was too brittle. I also realised I needed to have the hopper almost touching the mill rollers.




The mill sits snugly in the 'cradle' and the baseboard doesnt move either. Im not sure how effective the foam is, as it is basically crushed by the weight of the mill. One thing I had to add to the mill rollers, was an 0-ring on each end of the lazy roller. Otherwise the lazy roller doesnt initially spin resulting in no crushing.



Ive also found that the drill doesnt have enough power at low speeds to allow full width crushing, unless you slowly pour the grain in. The redesigned hopper (#3) will have a smaller width (about half) throat, for want of a better word. Im sure using a 1hp motor instead of the drill would fix this.

Finally, this is the crush from today. Im feeling a lot happier tonight

 

[Darren]

If your rollers are mild steel won't water cause rusting? What about "mould" growth on the grooves?

 

[Doc]

That looks like a damm good crush Redbeard. Great mill, and you get to aid the design process by building the hopper. Great collaborative effort.

Doc

 

[TidalPete]

Looks the goods Redbeard. Fresh grain all the time now & forever.
I too have got my mill up & running. My Bosh industrial 2-speed hammer drill has plenty of grunt & gets the rollers turning nicely. As you can see, I mill into my old Woollies stockpot that I used to use for my partials. also, here is a (Not too clear?) picture of my crush.

:beer:

Edit --- couple of pics missing. :huh: Will add them to my next post below.

 

[TidalPete]

Here are the missing pics.

:beer:

 

[Ross]

Awesome fellas :super: - Time I built a hopper for my Marga grain mill & prove I can build something

 

[Gough]

Awesome fellas - Time I built a hopper for my Marga grain mill & prove I can build something

[post="83845"][/post]​

I can send you the plans to my high tech 'beer carton' Marga hopper if you like Ross - although you might have to fight Nasa for them :lol: :lol: Been going strong for over 12 months now... Adds a certain touch of class to the Brewery :lol:

Top work on the mill Tony, and on the hoppers etc fellas.

Shawn.

 

[Tony]

Good to se it works redbeard

Nice idea with the orings, mine doesnt have any problem with the lazy roller not spinning but who knows.

Now for Ducatiboy Stu's beast

cheers

Oh and for the record i run a 1 phase .37kw motor on mine and it does the job but only just.

It puls the grain through but i have to give it a helping hand to get started

cheers again

 

[Tony]

thought i would add a couple of pics of my hopper for the hell of it

cheers

 

[big d]

top stuff.looks like im way overdue for a larger hopper.better put the thinking cap on and see what i can conjour up.

cheers
big d

 

[tangent]

Tidalpete - i like your hopper/water bottle, u don't have any problems with clogging?