Roller Mill - Drive Options

TheMechWarrior

All,

How many of you are using this?

Home Brewer Special! Worm Drive Motor + DC Speed Controller! @ Motion Dynamics

Those of you that are, can you tell me what your throughput rate is like on barley?

I'm looking for a quick roller mill solution as a stop-gap until I can get my hands on the bigger solution I'm looking for.

At the moment all I'm hoping for is to get through 150kg sessions, if it takes me an hour with the Motion Dynamics drive connected up to any one of the many hobby brewer mills available I'll be happy.

I just need to get through a run a week for the next 2-3 months then I'll be sorted.

Cheers,

Mech.

grim

I wouldn't waste my money. That's not nearly enough power and that gearbox looks like it's plastic. Can't imagine it would be much more expensive to find a 56c motor and mate it to a 90' gear reduction.

punkin

I have that kit. I fucked up the soldering on the speed controller and the motor runs without control at still a slow speed compared to the drill i had on my last mill so i didn't bother reconnecting it.

Not sure if it's the mill i have being a Mashmaster with both rollers geared, but it is painfully slow. It's not too bad on wheat or Crystal, but base malt seems to take forever and a typicla 20-24kg grain bill takes every bit of twenty minutes or more.

I just bought a new 30 amp powers supply from ebay after burning out the power supply from the kit when the mill stuck for about ten seconds. (don't ask)

It doesn't help that i have been too lazy to make a biog hopper and only have the little perspex one that comes with it. Other wise it wouldn't make a difference how slow it is, just load and do something else, but i have to keep topping it off.

Haveing said that, the mill does a good job, it just needs much more power to drive it than a friction drive one.

grim

Just a clarification - my comment to @TheMechWarrior was based on him setting up a commercial operation, and using that in heavy commercial use (150kg batch). This is probably just fine for intermittent use at smaller hobby scales.

For something designed for heavy use, you can probably find a decent motor and gear reducer for only few dollars more. You wouldn't have speed control, but you shouldn't really need it anyhow.

On the lower side 1/2-3/4 hp motor you should be able to find surplus for under $100us, maybe a bit over $100us for a 1hp. Likewise, a surplus gear reducer should only be about $100-150us. Or, if you use one of the anodized blue ones coming out of asia these days (I have one, they are very nice), you should be able to find a new one of those for around $150us. You'll need Lovejoy couplers for either approach, so I won't include that in the pricing.

Here is an example of the blue gear drive, they make smaller units that would work just fine.

NMRV050 Worm Gear 10:1 56C Speed Reducer

These are good to like 2hp, so they should last nearly forever at 1hp or below.

So really, if you are a very heavy user or want something for light commercial or even club use (or just want something that will outlast you, and probably a dozen sets of knurled rollers), it's only going to cost you $100-150 more. Once you factor in the hopper, mill, and other fab you need to put it all together, the cost differential isn't big.

TheMechWarrior

Great suggestions @grim. I'm just being impatient, I have a perfectly decent roller mill option but I can't get my hands on it for a couple of months if I go down that path. I want to start milling ASAP.

I'll check with the AU sites, US EBay is so much nicer for all the cool toys I like to play with.

TheMechWarrior

Ah fuck it, I just spoke to Wolf Engineering and he can have one ready for me in a couple of weeks.
Done.
Saves me messing around with it. I could use a handy bloke like @grim down here, he'd save me money!

SDeurope

We could use some @grim here too! :)

grim

I wish there was some cost effective way to ship heavier gear out to anz. I'd gladly receive and re ship for you guys.

I just picked up a 1/2hp stainless steel wash down motor, brand new, $35.