Grain Mill... Pics

[Tony]

here are some pics of mine.

they have been posted heaps before but here is another go for new commers

they are from the early construction stages through the to the hand operated stage that didnt last long

It now has a 0.37kw single phase 2 speed motor on it and runs at either 140 RPM or about 200 RPM.

the rollers are 316 stainless, 2 inch diameter and 8" long.

The hopper holds about 15 KG of grain ( i usually mash with 12 to 14 kg at a time. See why the hand operated phase was short ) and will run this through in under 2 min.

the crack took me a few stuck sparges and a couple 50% efficiency brews of experimentation to get right but i settled on the well known 0.9mm for a fair sparge rate and 75 to 80% efficiency.

One thing i have found is that different grains need to be cracked finner or courser. one example was the weyermann movarian pils malt.... It seemed to have a really hard inner bit that would go strait to powder at 0.9mm and the sparge would stick.

JW pils malt seems to be able to havdle a finer crack too with a bit of water in the mix.

I wet my grain as previously described, let sit for 15 min them chick it in the hopper.
I give the mill a run for a few seconds and stop it. If the husks are smashed and i have mainly flour i back the mill off a touch and repeat till its right.

If the grains arnt brocken up enough i will tighten it up a bit till its right.

thats why the adjustability is great.

cheers

PS. sorry about all the pics but i just thought people might be interested

 

[Chilled]

Still, no-one's answered about the body, is the crankandstein an m/s body as well ?

[post="127839"][/post]​

mika,
The crankandstein comes with aluminium blocks (approx. 1cm thick) with brass bearings set in them to hold the S/S rollers.



Chilled

 

[Pumpy]

Tony is your grain mill on steroids Pumpy

 

[mika]

Cheers for the pics Tony. Does the adjuster just push on the bearing ? From what I can see there is nothing that actually "pulls" the second roller away from the first... is there ??

So the crankandstein's have an ally body ? No wonder they cost a small fortune

 

[deadly]

drop into TWOC and check them out there,me I got a Marga

 

[mika]

I would, but still not keen on paying that much for them. Thinking the Tony/Jye option is they, and it certainly won't involve any aluminium and maybe now, not a lot of staino either.
Like the idea of the Mega_Mill (tm) just because you do away with the knurling. I got acess to a lathe, but no kind of knurling tool.

 

[poppa joe]

I bought a HUSQVARNA Barley mill today $20.00
At local markets in Nowra..
Cheers PJ

 

[Jye]

Inspired by Tony's mill and the bad crush I got on the weekend I made the mill adjustable last night. It works on the same principal as Tony's but I moved the nut from the outside to the inside using the same type of nuts Ikea furniture is put together with.

First up the bearing hole was increased to allow it to move in and out a few mil.

Drill the hole for the bolt to sit in and holes for the nuts... sure 1 would have been enough but there was 4 in the packet and its always better to over engineer



edit - pics out of order

 

[Doogiechap]

Jye the nut idea is fantastic !
I am partway through a similarly designed mill and this adjustment method will certainly be adopted !
Thanks for sharing your ideas with the resst of us
Doug

 

[BrotherNutz]

I used the same method as that on my malt mill. It has worked flawlessly for years now.
I never bothered with using any sort of 'nut' inside the wood. I figured that 5 inches of Jarrah would key the bolt in just fine!

http://members.iinet.net.au/~u9013943/beer.htm

Pete

 

[Bizarre]

Inspired by Tony's mill and the bad crush I got on the weekend I made the mill adjustable last night. It works on the same principal as Tony's but I moved the nut from the outside to the inside using the same type of nuts Ikea furniture is put together with.
View attachment 7333
First up the bearing hole was increased to allow it to move in and out a few mil.
View attachment 7334
Drill the hole for the bolt to sit in and holes for the nuts... sure 1 would have been enough but there was 4 in the packet and its always better to over engineer
View attachment 7335View attachment 7336
View attachment 7337View attachment 7338

edit - pics out of order

[post="128439"][/post]​

Had to make sure I clicked on the correct thing this time - hehe - clever Idea Jye - I hope it works for ya this time.

 

[spog]

going ag and am loving the pics of various grain mills,contacted a local metal supply store today and was quoted $198.00 a metre for 50 millimetre s/s rod ( my brother in law has a lathe to do all the nessecary turning) but still it shocked me. the brother in law then suggested brass, he has some brass which will do the job, as he said knurling s/s can be difficult/time consuming. so fellas give me your opinion/expirience/advice on the brass option. ..cheers...spog...

 

[Jye]

You can make rollers out of mild steel, I have no idea how much it is but would be worth looking into. I have limited experience with brass but it is a soft metal and may deform with the pressure... but then again Sosman has successfully used wooden rollers.

 

[Jye]

The first crush at 1mm still turned out to fine with no intact husks, backing it off to 1.1mm gave me the crush below with I think is pretty good Next time I will try hydrating the husk.



edit - I'm brew an IPA today which is using more grain than a normal batch so I wasnt expecting much change in efficiency if any... but ended up with 85% into the kettle, 10% more than normal Im totally stoked with the mill. But I did do one more sparge today, whether or not that has anything to do with it, will have to wait until the next batch to see.

 

[browndog]

Spog, you should be able to get 2 feet of 50mm mild steel round stock for about $20


cheers

Browndog

 

[Tony]

I priced 2 inch 316 stainless solid bar a while ago and i dont think it was that much.

Will look them up on monday and price again if i remember.

Jye...... very nice mate.

but your not a real brewer unless youve got a march pump and a motor on your mill

hehe

cheers

 

[Jye]

Jye...... very nice mate.

but your not a real brewer unless youve got a march pump and a motor on your mill

hehe

cheers

[post="129707"][/post]​

March pumps are for girls h34r: Ive got a real pump.

The motor is coming, just need a 300mm wheel

 

[sosman]

but your not a real brewer unless youve got a march pump and a motor on your mill

[post="129707"][/post]​

I reckon its not a real mill if a motor won't stall on it.

 

[Tony]

Nice pump mate, looks nice and compact

My mill tends to stall the motor too, i have to grab the pully and give her a helping hand to keep her going sometimes.

havnt lost any fingers.......... yet.

what sort of flow rated do you get from the pump jye?

cheers

 

[Jye]

Nice pump mate, looks nice and compact

what sort of flow rated do you get from the pump jye?

cheers

[post="129780"][/post]​

It fits in my pocket

I was getting about 6L/min hooked up to a cordless drill, but with the windscreen wiper motor it has dropped to about 3L/min and 1.5-2L/min on the lower speed.