Electric Grain Mill Project

[fakr]

Finally got around to converting my handdrill powered barley crusher into an electric grain mill.

Total cost:  $45

$30 for an old drill press (electric motor, pulleys and belt scavenged)
$15 for larger pulley from princess auto (on the grain mill side)
$0 old sewing maching table

All together took about 3 hours to build.  Basically mounted the motor and fastened the switch to the table.  Cut two separate holes in the top of the table, one for the pulley and belt, the other for exiting crushed grain.  Bolted the barley crusher down to the table, added a belt and pulley cover made out of the old drill press belt cover and that's it.

All in all a very easy build.  I almost bought a motor, pulley's etc online about a month ago but didn't have the cash.  Would have cost me well over $100 in parts so I'm glad I waited.

If anyone is looking to do the same, I'd recommend looking on kijiji for a small drill press and just scavenge the motor and other parts from it...far cheaper than just buying a motor online.

[Richard]

Pics or GTFO

[Chris Craig]

Pics or GTFO

+1

[fakr]

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[fakr]

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[fakr]

I forgot to take a pic of the electric motor, but I suppose I could take a pic from underneath if anyone was curious.

[Chris Craig]

Awesome job!

[chrismccull]

Nice job.

How did you know what size sheave to use?

[Richard]

Bloody nice work.

I have a suspicion the hand-drill I use now is going to end up choking on all the dust that it seems to be inhaling... you got any work-around for that on your rig?

[fakr]

Chris, I looked at the pulley speed diagram that came with the drill press.  The smallest on the motor attached to the biggest on the drill side was 500rpm.  So I went an inch bigger in pully size for the grain mill.  Should now be sitting around 300rpm.  

Richard, good point, I'll install basically a hanging piece of metal between the grain out and the motor.

[chrismccull]

It might be helpful to hook a pot up to it to vary the speed.  I guess you will see once you have a chance to try it.

[Richard]

Yeah I was thinking maybe you cold rig some kind of enclosure + fan to provide positive pressure around the motor - kinda like emergency stairs in big buildings. Would also help keep the motor cool.

[fakr]

Chris, I was just discussing using a pot to fine tune the speed, but I'll have to find a heavy duty one, like from a stove, otherwise I have a feeling pot like a light switch dimmer would burn out too quick.  I definitely will be doing this though.

Richard, because the underneath of the table is hollow, I think I only need to separate the two compartments (motor from grain).  I'll be placing my bucket directly under the grain hole and lifting it up almost within touching distance to the table with a milk crate.  I'll definitely keep a close eye on the motor though to make sure it doens't get gummed up.

Thanks for the input guys!


Another thing I plan to do is replace the hopper with a bigger one.

[Chris Craig]

Another thing I plan to do is replace the hopper with a bigger one.

I'd be interested in how you go about this.  I'm looking to get a bigger hopper too.  I want it to hold 25lbs of grain at a time.

[fakr]

I'm throwing around a couple of ideas....

Simplest would be to bend up a bigger hopper that would just slide down into the current hopper.  It could be made out of anything, like cardboard, plastic, sheet metal...and you could just pull it out and put it away.  The current hopper would secure the bigger hopper in place.

I also thought of bending up a new one out of sheet metal with the same bottom size as the current, using the same mounting screws.

Another would be to sacrifice a 5GAL water jug by cutting the bottom out of it, and using it as a hopper.  Because of the weight of 5gal of grain, I'd need to secure a sturdy mount on top of the table to hold the bottle.  Could continue to use the current hopper in combination with the bottle.

Still not sure, but I think I'll end up with the simplest...fashion a bigger, slide in hopper that can be easily slid out and put away.