My New Crankand Stein Mill

[lokpikn]

With the increase in the price of grain world wide i thought it be about time i started buying bulk grain. So of corse the first thing to do is get myself a grain mill. Which i ordered from Fred in the USA about 2 weeks ago and it turned up to day. It was cheeper to get it from there including air freight than it was in Australia which is a shame but there was quite a differance doller wise. I git a CGM-3E which has 3 rollers so it cracks the grain twice in one pass. I still need to make a hopper for it but that will give me something to do on this rainy weekend.

I now will be looking at buying bulk grain from local HBS from wollongong to south sydney so far i think ESB has it as its only 2 hrs drive and they seem to have a good selection. As i own a van i will be looking at picking up about 100kgs of base malt and some speciltty malt to get me started on some stock. I also found out one of the brothers that work there lives quite local to me so if i am very locky then may be able to bring it closer to home for me.

I worked out that i only need to crack 100kgs of grain and i have made back my money on the grain mill so it will pay for itself in no time. Maybe i will be able to help crack some grain for any brewers in my area once it gets all setup.

Lokpikn

 

[bugwan]

Nice work lokpikn, I've never used these rollers, but I've read plenty on the web and they seem to be the business.

Now is a great time to be buying from the US too - our dollar is as good as it's been for a very long time. It hurts the exporters, but I guess someone's got to lose!!!

Looking forward to pics of your drive mechanism and hopper!

 

[domonsura]

I have one as well lokpikn the 3-D model, couldn't be happier with it but you're right, the $$$ hurt. I'd be keen to see some pics of yours mounted and what you do for a hopper.

 

[devo]

congrats on the purchase, grainmills and bulk buy rule. I got my self a barley crusher about 4 months ago as well as a years supply of grain(I hope) hence the healthy inventory in my signature.

 

[lokpikn]

I think i will make a hopper out of 3 ply that will hold about 3 kgs of grain at a time but still dont know if i will mount it to my work bench or over a bucket which will make it portable.
Also i got a handle with it for the days i need a bit of exercise but think i will be driving by a hand drill as they seem to crack quite fast so its not going to be a long process to crack the grain with 5 inch rollers.

 

[devo]

I think i will make a hopper out of 3 ply that will hold about 3 kgs of grain at a time but still dont know if i will mount it to my work bench or over a bucket which will make it portable.
Also i got a handle with it for the days i need a bit of exercise but think i will be driving by a hand drill as they seem to crack quite fast so its not going to be a long process to crack the grain with 5 inch rollers.

yes, go the cordless drill. hand cranking yer grain takes forevea.

 

[domonsura]

lol, no it doesn't take long motorised. Mine annihilates 6 kg of grain in about 20 seconds....

 

[devo]

orsum

 

[Tony]

Its a different grain mill (home made) but you could use something similar to mount it.

I find it very convenient to mill it into the bin and use that to tip it into the grain mill.

The hopper holds about 14 KG but i make 50 liter batches so i need it. I usually have to empty the bin half way through.

hope this helps a bit.

cheers

 

[Josh]

I have a 2 roller Crankandstein. I just used an old water bottle as my hopper. Two blocks of wood, one hole slightly bigger than the other to let the bottle sit snugly in place.

 

[Screwtop]

I pretty much copied Tidal Pete's idea. Built a housing and baseplate for a bucket from craftwood, using an old water bottle for the hopper.

 

[Guest Lurker]

I think i will make a hopper out of 3 ply that will hold about 3 kgs of grain at a time but still dont know if i will mount it to my work bench or over a bucket which will make it portable.

If you go the portable option, you have the chance to mill the grain on the other side of the shed/on the lawn/in another suburb, depending on how paranoid you get about the millions of lactic bacteria that were thrown in free with your bulk grain ourchase.

 

[lokpikn]

I think i like tonys setup except I will use a drill as i have a spare one lying around. The old grain mill i used we had a orange juice bottle setup for a hopper so the grain came out of a small hole about the size of a 50 cent coin and the grain got stuck sometimes.

But with tonys setup it looks like the grain should fall from a rectangle hole which will be 4 to 5 inchs long and 1 inch wide so it will pass a lot of grain through in no time. It appers it the sort of set up a few guys have.

LOKPIKN

 

[lokpikn]

Well as its sunday and i have no grain to brew with I thought i would have a go at making a base and hopper for my mill. I had a small amount of MDF and some 10 mm ply around so i had nothing to lose. I must say it was a bit harder then i thought as what i saw in my head and what come uot where 2 different things. I took a few pics to show you guys but i think i will get a mate to make something out of stainless for me.

 

[TidalPete]

View attachment 13123

A good job well done mate. :beerbang:
Looks like you've managed to downsize your (20 litre???) bucket here. Hope that you can do a full double batch with that bucket now :unsure: ?

:beer:

 

[lokpikn]

A good job well done mate. :beerbang:
Looks like you've managed to downsize your (20 litre???) bucket here. Hope that you can do a full double batch with that bucket now :unsure: ?

:beer:

It was a shame about that but i did want to try and build something today and that is all i had around the shed. I did not want to go out and buy anything. I dont know how long this setup will last but at least it will crack grain. I will build something better in the next few months.

I was thinking i would just crack untill its full and tranfer to another bucket as i have quite a few around the place.

 

[lokpikn]

Its been a while but its about time i started to get my mill updated a bit. I have being wanting to go down the path of a moter setup and get away from the drill. The drill does a good job but just needs to run a bit fast to get enough power to spin the mill while its under load and full of grain. I have been racking my brains for a while thinking where to get a cheep motor untill today.

I bought this old key machine for $10.00 and as i have 5 or 6 key machine in use at the moment i thought it might have something i can use in it.

This is the machine.


After i pulled it apart i found it had a very nice looking unit inside and it did not take to long to make it look a bit like this.



It has some info om the motor and i have seen and read about a lot of people using !/4 hp motors. It has about 1400 rmp. Do you think that this will not be to fast to crack and if so can i use something like a light dimmer swith to regulate the speed. I worried with a dimmer that it will lower the voltage and that will mean it will also lower the cracking power of the unit. So at low speed it may not crack at all.


How fast do you guys and girls have your motor setup to run.

Lokpikn

 

[Jye]

Thats way to fast and will shred the husk. Use a pulley setup and step it down to below 300rpm, I would be aiming for about 150 to minimise damage to the grain.

Nice find for $10... especially since you already have a couple

 

[Tony]

I found this handy pully speed calculator and punched in my figures from my setup

http://www.csgnetwork.com/pulleybeltcalc.html

My input roller on the motor is 1 1/4 inch

the output roller on the mill is 12 inch

at 1400rpm thats 145 rpm at the mill.

you are right about reducing the motors speed, all you will do is reduce its torque and it will overheat and stall. also if its a 240, single phase motor, it will have start winding and a run winding. the start winding kicks the motor off and pulls a cintrifical switch in to change over to the run winding. If you slow it down it goes back to the start winding and it WILL burn out very quick. its only designed to operate for a few seconds.

With pullys, you actually get torque multiplication so its like having a bigger motor.

mine is a 2 speed motor with high speed being 0.5hp and the low speed being 0.14hp and it turns my monster over no problems. eats 10kg in a few minuites. On the low power setting i have to do the workcover unfriendly practice of givving the 12 inch pully a heave to get it going but if i have it running and tip the grain in its fine.

your motor will be fine.

I got the pullys from a buisness in tamworth called bearing accessories. they weren't very expensive.

the only thing you have to consider is shaft size but im sure any engineering shop could fix em up cheap.

Its worth doing...... believe me.

cheers

cheers

 

[DonMac]

Lookpikn, Check out this site WWW.web.net/~valley/valleymill.html pics. and the data to help you to make the correct selection of pullies (sheaves) to arrive at the required rpm. I run at 250, I am happy at that, but you read and decide, good luck. DonMac.