Millmaster Mill

[FarsideOfCrazy]

I thought the same Sammus, but I had to make a pumpy style gear guard. I made mine out of some plastic sheeting that I got from bunnings a while ago. It is a little disapionting when you spend all that coin on a mill and it doesn't work 'out of the box'. But with a bit fiddling I got it setup well.

 

[white.grant]

I have been using a bit of carboard, (only roughtly cut to size) with my ghetto hopper. It does the job.

cheers

grant

 

[Sammus]

got mine today. Gotta say I wasn't totally impressed. After dropping $330 on this beast I get it with little nicks all over the rollers, rust on the gears, the key for the handle looks like an old rusty nail, and there is still the issue with the ill fitting handle and key. Basically what I expected I guess, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I hope that rust doesnt appear on the rollers anytime soon. I guess I had the option of forking out the extra 100 for stainless, but I just dont have that kind of $. Kinda wish I'd waited the extra month of saving and did though. Anyone have any problem with rusty rollers?

 

[Batz]

got mine today. Gotta say I wasn't totally impressed. After dropping $330 on this beast I get it with little nicks all over the rollers, rust on the gears, the key for the handle looks like an old rusty nail, and there is still the issue with the ill fitting handle and key. Basically what I expected I guess, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I hope that rust doesnt appear on the rollers anytime soon. I guess I had the option of forking out the extra 100 for stainless, but I just dont have that kind of $. Kinda wish I'd waited the extra month of saving and did though. Anyone have any problem with rusty rollers?

Get onto the retailer you bought it from,I'm sure they would like to know as they must have a problem with storage and moisture.

I still use a Valley Mill no longer produced unfortunately,it's 7-8 years old,steel rollers and never had a rust problem.Poor old thing lives in the shed as well.

Batz

 

[Sammus]

That post sounded a little harsher than I wanted it to. It still looks like an awesome mill, and only they key is particularly rusty, the other bits have a very slight amount of surface rust that isn't really a problem. Some of which I just noticed wasnt even rust, just some brown sticky residue that made it look more rusty than it was

 

[bconnery]

I have been using a bit of carboard, (only roughtly cut to size) with my ghetto hopper. It does the job.

cheers

grant

Same. I roughly followed the guide from Pumpy and cut up some cardboard. The only time I've had an issue it turned out that the guard had been moved and wasn't in place. Never had an issue since...

 

[T.D.]

got mine today. Gotta say I wasn't totally impressed. After dropping $330 on this beast I get it with little nicks all over the rollers, rust on the gears, the key for the handle looks like an old rusty nail, and there is still the issue with the ill fitting handle and key. Basically what I expected I guess, but I was hoping to be pleasantly surprised. I hope that rust doesnt appear on the rollers anytime soon. I guess I had the option of forking out the extra 100 for stainless, but I just dont have that kind of $. Kinda wish I'd waited the extra month of saving and did though. Anyone have any problem with rusty rollers?

Hey Sammus, any chance of posting some pics?

 

[Sammus]

I dunno why I thought there was rust on the gears on initial inspection. It looks as though theyre cast alu or something anyway, no rust on them at any rate, a bit of crud that I cleaned off.

The mill handle had some seams left inside the hole from the casting that I filed out and it fits nicely now, the key hole on the actual roller axle is a little small, I think it was probably machine to the right size before plating without taking into account the plating thickness or something. Anyway, I filed the plating back a bit on the axle so the key fits in now - I also filed the key a bit to make it slightly smaller so it would fit, and to clean off some of the rust (dont know why, itll be back in no time).

some pics here http://issima.customer.netspace.net.au/mill/ that show a bit of corrosion on the mill body (non-alu part) and some nicks in the roller knurls, as well as where the plating has been scratch on non-knurled parts. Hard to pick up these minor defects with my phone camera. All in all I'm not unhappy with it. When I said I wasn't totally impressed, I just had high hopes. I'd buy it again, and I take it back - I don't regret not getting the stainless one. At least not yet.

 

[Sammus]

Aight, got this thing up a running (finally). And experience first hand how important that gear guard is! I thought I'd give it a test (before I'd finished my hopper), and quickly wondered how the hell anyone handcranked it or got away with drills etc, after about 10minutes of f*cking and sh*tting, I'd ground my way through about 2 cups of grain. I ended up building a hopper and making a gear guard, and now it barely requires any effort to turn at all, a much required "mod".

Pics of my new hopper for anyone that cares

Yes it is made from some scraps of plastic sheet and mdf I had kicking around. yes it is riveted together lol. Will it last? who cares, it works now. I'll come back and yell at all you for not making me make it sturdier the the day it splits apart full of grain.

 

[Sammus]

Alright so I'm looking to motorize my mill (instead of selling it lol).

Does this motor seem a little too cheap to be decent?

Yeah its one of the higher rpm ones (2800), but I figure every other motor I've seen on ebay is usually $100+

Some alu pulleys from blackwoods (a 1.25" and a 18") should bring the rpm down to 190-200... would be nice to go slower I think, but that should be ok yeah?

Haven't thought about how I'd attach the pully to the end.. any ideas?

 

[Sammus]

I also just found this in my garage:





1.1kw should be enough for this beast of a mill, am I right?

And is that capacitor much larger than normal? A lot of the AC motors I've been looking at use a much smaller one (eg the link my last post says 20uF)

24mm shaft though kinda hard to fit the required 1.25" (31.75mm) pulley on a 24mm shaft..

 

[porky]

That motor will do it for sure.

It is also only 1420 RPM so you can increase the small pulley up to 2 inch or more and also use a smaller one on the mill. 14 inch would give you close to 200 rpm.

Cheers,
Bud

 

[Sammus]

damn never realised how expensive pulleys are, and how little I know.

I read about GMK (I think) setting his up with pulleys from blackwoods for like $50, but the only pulleys they seem to get for a 12mm shaft (mill) and 24mm shaft (motor) are some taperlock thing, and those pulleys are ridiculously expensive over $50 for a little pully (Smallest they have is like 70mm) and the biggest is a 400mm which is over $300 for just a pulley... bloody ridiculous I reckon, and thats still under a 6x reduction, I'd need to go a double pulley reduction and endup spending a grand on pulleys... I think i'll stick with a hand crank <_<

Apart from that I was thinking of going with the cheaper alu pulleys like gmk did, but I'm 99.9% certain that the difference between 12mm and 1/2" is too much to forget about. I'd have to shim it with some foil or something... and as far as the 24mm goes, I think I'd need to get the 3/4" and bore it out. Am I on the right track here?

I was originaly looking at drill presses since they come with motors and gear reduction and everything, but anything under about $500 is piss weak and has a minimum rpm of like 600, that is limiting motor speed not gear reduction, so on top of a piss weak motor its running at 1/6th capacity so the torque will be piss weak too...based on others experience with this mill I decided I need full motor power.

 

[spog]

damn never realised how expensive pulleys are, and how little I know.

I read about GMK (I think) setting his up with pulleys from blackwoods for like $50, but the only pulleys they seem to get for a 12mm shaft (mill) and 24mm shaft (motor) are some taperlock thing, and those pulleys are ridiculously expensive over $50 for a little pully (Smallest they have is like 70mm) and the biggest is a 400mm which is over $300 for just a pulley... bloody ridiculous I reckon, and thats still under a 6x reduction, I'd need to go a double pulley reduction and endup spending a grand on pulleys... I think i'll stick with a hand crank <_<

Apart from that I was thinking of going with the cheaper alu pulleys like gmk did, but I'm 99.9% certain that the difference between 12mm and 1/2" is too much to forget about. I'd have to shim it with some foil or something... and as far as the 24mm goes, I think I'd need to get the 3/4" and bore it out. Am I on the right track here?
i went to blackwoods here,ordered a12' pulley and the bloody thing i cast, it wieghed a ton,didnt take it but getting a light wieght pully with a 12mm bore is like trying to find hens teeth.blackwoods told they cant get me one but i had to go into the shop to find out ,they have my number but never call.
piss poor service no doubt about it.
had to pay upfront but was told later 'no we dont give refunds you have to take it as credit"
well i can tell you that is not gunna happen ...rant over....cheers..angry spog.....
I was originaly looking at drill presses since they come with motors and gear reduction and everything, but anything under about $500 is piss weak and has a minimum rpm of like 600, that is limiting motor speed not gear reduction, so on top of a piss weak motor its running at 1/6th capacity so the torque will be piss weak too...based on others experience with this mill I decided I need full motor power.

 

[spog]

jeez i really stuffed that reply up , :huh: ........cheers...spog...

 

[porky]

You are on the right track.

Find someone to bore the small one, and take the big one, bore it out and make a bush for it to fit the 12 mil shaft.
Shims are not recommended, but if done well you could get by with it.

Avoid taper loc pulleys as that is where all the cost is in them, and you don't need them.

My 18" pulley I found at the dump. The hole was buggered so I fixed it. I do have machines to work with so it was easy to bore out and make a bush.

Cheers,
Bud

 

[Henno]

Hi PB,

I've spoken to Frank at mashmaster & this problem is being addressed.

cheers Ross

Whatever happened with Frank curing this problem with the design of the hopper Ross?