Motorising A Carona Mill

[Guysmiley54]

I have a Corona mill and although I am currently driving it with my cordless drill I am having problems with my current setup.

I am currently using a hex head bolt that runs into my mill, I then use a 6mm hex driver in my drill to turn the bolt. It works fine for a while but I'm having problems as the cheap, soft hex drivers strip very quickly and make it hard to turn the bolt. My last crush took nearly 60 min of mucking around to get it done. I could have done it by hand in that time!!!

The bolt is very hard (chrome I think) so I figure if I could get a hex drill bit that is a similar hardness I would be fine. Trouble is, I can't seem to find any drivers that would suit.

Any better ideas? I'm tool illiterate, so I'm sure there are stacks of better ideas on this one!!

 

[[email protected]]

I have a Corona mill and although I am currently driving it with my cordless drill I am having problems with my current setup.

I am currently using a hex head bolt that runs into my mill, I then use a 6mm hex driver in my drill to turn the bolt. It works fine for a while but I'm having problems as the cheap, soft hex drivers strip very quickly and make it hard to turn the bolt. My last crush took nearly 60 min of mucking around to get it done. I could have done it by hand in that time!!!

The bolt is very hard (chrome I think) so I figure if I could get a hex drill bit that is a similar hardness I would be fine. Trouble is, I can't seem to find any drivers that would suit.

Any better ideas? I'm tool illiterate, so I'm sure there are stacks of better ideas on this one!!

Isn't that what the wife's for?

 

[Cocko]

Don't know the mill on a personal use level...

But cant you just just tighten the drill chuck directly onto the mill shaft?

 

[Guysmiley54]

Isn't that what the wife's for?

No chance I'm afraid!!

I actually thought it might be a fun "game" for my 4 year old. But he got tired after 3 rotations <_<

 

[Guysmiley54]

Don't know the mill on a personal use level...

But cant you just just tighten the drill chuck directly onto the mill shaft?

Mill doesn't have a shaft as such. When using the handle that comes with it, a bolt with a bulbous head (that would fit in my chuck) threads through a hole in the end of the handle and into the thread on the mill.

That's why I'm using a bolt. It goes straight into the thread directly into the mill.

 

[[email protected]]

I have a similar mill, I tried to electrify it with a drill chucked straight onto a headless bolt. The drill I bought for the job didn't have the torque to turn it and I gave up on the project as I didn't wanna fork out on another drill. I quite enjoy the milling bit anyway, and I don't have electricity where I mill so the effort to bring it all up and down stairs defeats the point. I can crank out 5kg in 20 mins or so and its a good bit of exercise.

 

[pimpsqueak]

Instead of driving the bolt with a hex driver, why not get a new bolt thats a bit longer and cut the head off, then grind a couple of flat sides on the end so your drill chuck will grip it?

 

[Guysmiley54]

Instead of driving the bolt with a hex driver, why not get a new bolt thats a bit longer and cut the head off, then grind a couple of flat sides on the end so your drill chuck will grip it?

I have thought of this, but it will require me buying a grinder I think? How much would a deecent one cost?

 

[pimpsqueak]

I reckon if you ask nicely at the hardware store, they will do it for you no charge. When I used to work at Mitre 10 I did stuff like that all the time.

 

[Guysmiley54]

I reckon if you ask nicely at the hardware store, they will do it for you no charge. When I used to work at Mitre 10 I did stuff like that all the time.

I reckon that might be the ticket. There's a hardware store close to the cafe where I work, a few of the fellas come in for lunch fairly regularly. Will see if a free double shot latte will win me some favour? On second thoughts a black angus beef burger might have more pull

 

[pimpsqueak]

I'm sure either will do
Good luck!!

 

[[email protected]]

I just had a look at my Victoria mill. A 17mm sprocket fits over the crank shaft really well. I would be worried running the mill off the thread, as this thread is only designed to hold the pin in place, and not have any grinding tourque on it. You might end up stripping the thread and ruining the mill. The sprocket over the outside of the crank shaft however is gripping the mill in the same place the handle would.

 

[nala]

I just had a look at my Victoria mill. A 17mm sprocket fits over the crank shaft really well. I would be worried running the mill off the thread, as this thread is only designed to hold the pin in place, and not have any grinding tourque on it. You might end up stripping the thread and ruining the mill. The sprocket over the outside of the crank shaft however is gripping the mill in the same place the handle would.

Could you please explain what a "sprocket" is, I only know of a sprocket on a bike chain wheel.

I have a Corona and would like to motorise it.

One of our AHB members has a corona with a windscreen wiper motor attached,looks a good job, don't know how dificult it would be to build.

 

[[email protected]]

Could you please explain what a "sprocket" is, I only know of a sprocket on a bike chain wheel.

I have a Corona and would like to motorise it.

One of our AHB members has a corona with a windscreen wiper motor attached,looks a good job, don't know how dificult it would be to build.

Sorry I meant socket.

 

[HoppingMad]

Wow. This thread is quite timely. I actually was playing around with motorising my Carona on the weekend. But failed too.

Did the bolt threaded in, and fastened to the drill trick too (after taking off the Corona Handle). Angle ground the head off the bolt so it would fit the drill.

Darn thing worked for 6 rotations with a great crush and then the drill chuck lost grip on the bolt completely. :angry:

Think Pimpsqueak's suggestions are valid - you need a bigger bolt than mine for this to work (I used a 40-45mm long one - need around double this), and you need to file the end of your bolt to get the drill to hold firm.

Unsure what power the drill should be ideally for this to work too as turning my mill 6 times it seemed like both the bolt and the drill were having to work pretty hard. My Makita has a 680-700w motor and did crush ok for 6 goes, but it took some effort and you wonder if you need more power. I know even some folks powering their monster mills and the like get the motors on their drills burning out after a while - would be interested to know if anyone has successfully motorised a Corona/Victoria and what power they are using on their drill, or whether you need to ditch the drill altogether and move to some sort of motor. If the wiper motor is a winner would be great to see a link to how it works.

Hopper.

 

[[email protected]]

I think this might be a better solution than driving it with a bolt. The socket holds very snuggly. I just need to find a socket attachment for the drill, shouldn't be hard to find and this will probably work very well without stripping threads, getting bolts stuck etc.

 

[HoppingMad]

Cheers Paxxy. Might try this! That's a great idea.

Hopper.

 

[brett mccluskey]

View attachment 45716View attachment 45714
I think this might be a better solution than driving it with a bolt. The socket holds very snuggly. I just need to find a socket attachment for the drill, shouldn't be hard to find and this will probably work very well without stripping threads, getting bolts stuck etc.

Exactly what i do ,works like a dream :beer:

 

[Guysmiley54]

Hi guys,

Update: I swapped a free lunch with a friendly worker from the local hardware store for a handfull of bits like this:

I've used it once since I got it and I am now worried about the chuck in my cheap cordless drill getting torn up!! I switched to a corded (another cheapie) and the chuck was better but the motor got hot and began to smoke....

In any case, I found that making the crush a bit courser eased the hurtin on my poor drills and still got the job done nicely.

 

[Aces High]

Ive been using a bolt with the head cut off for the last 5 brews and its worked fine. I didn't even bother grinding the sides flat for the drill to grip it, i just cut the head off and attached the drill. I just have a bosch cordless drill, its pretty new, but its nothing flash. I just set it to the slow setting and 5kg's of malt is done in a about 5 minutes.