Show And Tell Us Your Grain Hopper

[PistolPatch]

Just did a search on grain hoppers etc., under 'Show Topics Only,' and nothing comes up of value. With the arrival of MashMaster's Mill Master, I thought it might be a timely topic.

Saw some really interesting stuff whilst searching for mill motors. This included hoppers made from cardboard, coreflute, perspex, MDF (incl. slotted), galvanised iron and even more. Hope a few of you old hands will post/congregate your links and pics here. It would be a great help to those of us who have just had the MillMaster arrive.

Also, as one totally new to setting up a mill hopper, if anyone can answer the following questions, that would be appreciated by a lot of people too I'm sure.

Using the MillMaster as an example...

1. If the opening to your mill is 15cm x 16cm with the 15cm being the axis upon which the rollers run, what dimensions should the bottom of your hopper be? (In particular to the Millmaster, cogs plus unknurled roller = 15mm at one end and opposite end is 6mm of unknurled roller.)

2. Is it an advantage to lower the, "bottom funnel," of your hopper so as it feeds the grain directly onto the biting part of the rollers? With the MillMaster, the top of the roller is 10mm below the flange of the mill. So what I am saying is would it be a good idea to channel your grain straight into the biting part which sits about 30mm below the flange?

3. Anyone have some good choke ideas i.e. slowing and speeding up the flow of grain into the mill?

Thanks guys,
Pat

P.S. Special thanks to you Frank. Knew you would do a superb job. Can't imagine doing what you did - an unbelievably difficult task for those who know what went in to it or realise what must have gone into it. Anyway mate, your mill arrived yesterday and my postal scales today! Showed your mill to a few car racing mates and they LOVED it! The main guy said, "What'd it cost? Must have been eight or nine hundred?" LOL and good on ya!

 

[Screwtop]

Just did a search on grain hoppers etc., under 'Show Topics Only,' and nothing comes up of value.

Geez, thought I taught you how to use the search function Pat

Plans here for a Marga Hopper

And here for Crankandstein Hoppers

And if you enter one word "HOPPER" you will find a lot more info. HTFU Pat

Screwy

 

[Jye]

Details of my mill and hopper can be found in this thread.

I designed my hopper to be as close as possible to the rollers to eliminate any grain from escaping, about 2-3mm from the rollers. The opening feeding into the mill will control the speed at which the grain is being feed. Mine is about 10mm wide and didnt want to go any wider out of fear of the mill stalling under the weight of the grain. As for the length, go the length of the rollers... no point in not using all of the mill :huh:

To summarise... close as possible and long and narrow.

Edit: Chads awesome hopper can also be found on page 4 of the linked thread.

 

[BrissyBrew]

Details of my mill and hopper can be found in this thread.

I designed my hopper to be as close as possible to the rollers to eliminate any grain from escaping, about 2-3mm from the rollers. The opening feeding into the mill will control the speed at which the grain is being feed. Mine is about 10mm wide and didnt want to go any wider out of fear of the mill stalling under the weight of the grain. As for the length, go the length of the rollers... no point in not using all of the mill :huh:

To summarise... close as possible and long and narrow.

Edit: Chads awesome hopper can also be found on page 4 of the linked thread.

Jye has the basics down pat. Generally the wider the gap the more grain that feeds into the rollers the greater the chance of stalling the mill if you are motorising it. I designed my small feeder hopper so that top is square and the user can produce a hopper extension sized to suit them or just simply toss a bucket or box on top with a large one in the bottom. The feeders in the hopper extension have some adjustment in that they have a slot where they bolt in so you can slide them up and down to reduce the gap or open it up further. At the end of day the gap is going to be dependent on the size of yoru hopper (weight of the grain) and the speed of your mill. Large 6 roller mills normally have a rotating feeder to move grain from the hopper to the rollers.

 

[razz]

After reading this thread I've added a couple of washers to the hopper on my millmaster. I've been able to adjust the gap down to about 12-13mm, prior to that it was about 17-18mm and chewed through a kilo of grain in ten seconds (drill powered) I know Jye says that the gap on his hoppers should be about 10mm, I'll aim for something similar even though it's a different mill. If I add some type of hopper extension then I should narrow the gap a few more millimeters but a 12-13 mm gap should reduce the resistance. The weight of grain may or may not cause the hopper sides to flex out just a touch, of course it's not possible to measure while the hopper's full. I've also added a piece of plastic down one side of the hopper to prevent grain from entering the gears. I believe this caused a lot resistance when I first tried milling by hand, so much so that I nick named the mill the master arm blaster ! A warning to anyone out there who has a MM and wants to motorize it, you will need some serious grunt to run this mill.
Just to keep OT I'll post some pics.

Plastic sheet (ice-cream lid) prevents grain from entering gears



Only loading one pic so I guess that means I have to delete what's in my folders.

 

[devo]

My Barley crusher mill came with a 3kg hopper which has been quite adequate for my milling needs.

 

[bindi]

Ok, who here has made an extension to their MillMaster mill hopper? I have done the search thing and found ones for the other mills but very little on extensions to this mills hopper.