Steve Darnell writes:
Over the weekend my son and I put together a motorized
malt mill. I’d been planning it since Jim Suchy gave me
a washing machine motor just before he left. The parts we
purchased cost less than $25 and it took about four hours
to make, with Ben’s help.
The motor is 1,729 rpms and we adjusted it with two sheaves
at 1.5″ and 8″ down to 324 rpm and attached it to my Schmidling
mill. It grinds a pound of grain in 6 seconds.
Im looking forward to brewing this week.
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Dan Jeska replied with a couple of photos: Steve, that looks very similar to the mill I have. I used an 1800 rpm
utility motor reduced down via the sheaves you mentioned to around 300
rpm. I have never heard of those wheels or pulleys referred to as
“sheaves”. You will be now be able to use your arm strength for
lifting fermenters instead of crushing grain!
The attached photos show my old creaky grain mill, as well as the
“Mother of All Grain Mills” built by my friend Steve Higdon.
2 Comments
BYOBetsy · March 10, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Hi Steve and Dan – I stumbled on the AABG Web page and was looking around when I saw these grain mills. I’m not sure if you all are familiar with Brew Your Own magazine, but we have a department that features reader-build/reader-written projects like this, which is called “Homebrew Nation.” If either of you are interested in submitting photos and a description, I would be interested in including them in the magazine. Dan, I realize Steve Higdon build the “Mother of All Grain Mills,” so maybe you could extend my invitation to him? Thanks!
Betsy Parks
Associate Editor
Brew Your Own Magazine
betsy@byo.com
rhagerbaumer · March 27, 2008 at 1:36 am
I’m in the process of getting doing this exact thing… where did you get the pulleys and belts? Please email me… rick@bigfoamyhead.com. I’m looking to reduce the RPM’s as low as possible – around 200 RPM if possible. The Moter is 1725 RPM. Thanks!