Malt Mill Motor

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Keith
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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by Keith » Tue Mar 22, 2016 5:07 pm

I've only used it once but am happy with it
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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by mcgster » Tue Mar 22, 2016 6:25 pm

Damn, that looks awesome. What type of mill is it pushing?


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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by ivorm » Sun Apr 01, 2018 7:19 pm

So rather than starting another thread on this topic I thought I'd just ask here.

Do most people go with motor and sheaves or do they go with a gear reducer for their mills? Does the large sheave put additional stress on the mill bushings?

I was also wondering if you use a gear reducer what happens if you hit a rock or something in your malt? It seems like the belt on the pulley would slip if this happened rather than breaking something.

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Malt Mill Motor

Post by SFR709 » Mon Apr 02, 2018 12:59 pm

I believe most people go with sheaves and a belt or at least I did. Gear motors or gear reducers make for a really neat simple set up, but from my experience were pricey and much harder to come by in the correct rpm range (around 350-400rpm with the necessary power) for a grain mill.

I found you could find an electric motor in the 1/2 hp or greater range on Kijiji cheap, furnace blower motors seem to be easy to come by. I just picked up the sheaves at princess auto and used a spacer and a key way to mount them to the motor shaft, depending it might be worth your while to just get a machine shop to make you up something and save the hassle. I built mine into a child size desk on castors, it should still be kicking around the diy section under “another grain mill build” there’s some more info there as well, I’d post the link if I knew how.

In my diy build the only thing I would probably add would be an idler pulley to keep more tension on the belt, but I just put some chalk on it and it’s been going strong for a couple years. Like you mentioned it’s always a good idea to have an easily accessible three direction switch so you have reverse if you hit a stone or something. I hope this helps.


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Last edited by SFR709 on Mon Apr 02, 2018 12:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by ivorm » Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:14 pm

SFR709 wrote:I believe most people go with sheaves and a belt or at least I did. Gear motors or gear reducers make for a really neat simple set up, but from my experience were pricey and much harder to come by in the correct rpm range for a grain mill. I found you could find an electric motor in the 1/2 hp or greater range on Kijiji cheap, furnace blower motors seem to be easy to find. I just picked up the sheaves at princess auto and used a spacer and a key way to mount them to the motor shaft, depending it might be worth your while to just get a machine shop to make you up something and save the hassle. I built mine into a child size desk on castors, it should still be kicking around the diy section. I hope this helps.


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Thanks for the reply. Yeah I was looking at princess auto for sheaves the other day. It seems like they get pretty expensive to get a large sheave and split bushing. What size small sheave did you buy? It looks like the smallest ones they have are about 2-1/2" diameter.

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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by SFR709 » Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:23 pm

I just edited my original response but that diy thread I mentioned has pictures of my build. I believe I built it a couple years ago now so I don’t remember the exact sizes of everything but 2-1/2” sounds right. This is one of the pictures from the thread:
IMG_1884.JPG

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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by ivorm » Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:48 pm


SFR709 wrote:I just edited my original response but that diy thread I mentioned has pictures of my.....

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So if the shaft on my mill is a 1/2" shaft with one flat side (no key), do you still put a key in when you install that split bushing or does it just grab the shaft as you tighten the tapered split bushing?

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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by sleepyjamie » Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:22 pm

Be careful about the motor exploding with any grain dust.
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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by oceanic_brew » Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:01 am

sleepyjamie wrote:Be careful about the motor exploding with any grain dust.
That is if you’re deciding to crush all the grain you need for the next ten years in one afternoon.


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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by CorneliusAlphonse » Tue Apr 03, 2018 9:01 am

oceanic_brew wrote:
Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:01 am
sleepyjamie wrote:Be careful about the motor exploding with any grain dust.
That is if you’re deciding to crush all the grain you need for the next ten years in one afternoon.
dust explosions are no joke. Especially if it's in a super tight space, it's something to be aware of - dust buildup on the motor. no need to laugh at reasonable precaution.
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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by sleepyjamie » Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:53 pm

oceanic_brew wrote:
Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:01 am
sleepyjamie wrote:Be careful about the motor exploding with any grain dust.
That is if you’re deciding to crush all the grain you need for the next ten years in one afternoon.


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If you are crushing a bag or more I would consider one. Over time the risk of dust getting in the motor increases.
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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by oceanic_brew » Wed Apr 04, 2018 9:42 am

sleepyjamie wrote:
oceanic_brew wrote:
Tue Apr 03, 2018 7:01 am
sleepyjamie wrote:Be careful about the motor exploding with any grain dust.
That is if you’re deciding to crush all the grain you need for the next ten years in one afternoon.


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If you are crushing a bag or more I would consider one. Over time the risk of dust getting in the motor increases.
It certainly doesn’t hurt to be careful of things that’s for sure


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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by know1 » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:05 pm

A malt dust explosion is highly unlikely in a homebrew scale however, fire from accumulated dust around open motors and electrical components is quite possible.

Keep everything clean from buildup, a good brewery rule anyway and if you regularly mill more than a 5-10 gallon batch worth you might want to consider rigging up a collar below the mill with shop vac. Stray malt dust also contains lactobacillus so its an added prevention of contamination control.
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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by know1 » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:09 pm

Along the lines of mill motors, eventually I plan to rig up my mill to a motor from a dissected free kijiji tread mill and use the built in controls to regulate the speed.
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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by ivorm » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:19 pm

Yeah if I can get an explosion proof motor I'd take it for sure but I've just been watching Kijiji for one. I'll probably mount the motor on top of the table so grain dust shouldn't be too much of an issue. I could see dust being more of an issue with the motor mounted down below.

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Re: Malt Mill Motor

Post by SFR709 » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:52 pm

Hasn’t been an issue for me at all over the last couple years. Although I place a bucket in under my setup and it’s quite close to the outlet of my mill. It sorta looks like the motor in my mill is dirty from the pictures I’ve posted, but it’s not from grain dust it was previously used for a pottery wheel and I just didn’t clean it up.


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