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Hey Everyone,

So I'm making a grain mill table and I'm using an old furnace blower motor.

Here's my question. The shaft on my grain crusher is 3/8" and the smallest bore hole on the pulleys at Princess Auto is 1/2". Anyone else come across this problem, and if so, how did you fix it?

Thanks

Dave

What kind of mill is it? I know that Crankandstein offers a 1/2" shaft upgrade. Perhaps the other manufacturers offer something similar?

jeffsmith wrote:What kind of mill is it? I know that Crankandstein offers a 1/2" shaft upgrade. Perhaps the other manufacturers offer something similar?

It's the Noble Grape grain crusher. There's no option to upgrade this one.

PA should sell bushings.

You might get a 3/8 pulley online. A few Googlings below. The last link is a timing belt. Maybe an auto-parts store would have something suitable.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/CONGRE ... lley-3X894

http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Die-Casti ... B00004RAO9

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/40XL037-Aluminum ... 0957111699

mr x wrote:PA should sell bushings.

They do, but how do you secure the bushing to the shaft so the pulley doesn't slip? The set screw in the pulley wouldn't be able to compress the bushings that much. There's a fair amount of torque needed for a mill.

GuingesRock wrote:You might get a 3/8 pulley online. A few Googlings below. The last link is a timing belt. Maybe an auto-parts store would have something suitable.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/CONGRE ... lley-3X894

http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Die-Casti ... B00004RAO9

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/40XL037-Aluminum ... 0957111699

I have already searched the interwebs. However the biggest 3/8 pulley I can find is 4". Ideally I need a 6" pulley to properly adjust the RPM of the motor I have.

can you drill through everything and use a split pin (cotter pin)? the pulley would need a flange to do that.

I think I'll have to get one of these:

http://www.princessauto.com/pal/Bronze/ ... /3872025.p" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Secure it to the mill shaft somehow (can't soldier bronze to steel so I'll probably try to drill through and secure it somehow.

Then be able to secure the 1/2" bore pulley to it.

I'm wondering how hard it'll be to secure that bushing to the 3/8" shaft....

EDIT: Or, I can drill through the bushing where the set screw hole is, then the set screw from the pulley can set against the shaft through the bushing. That might work better.

Fishdisease wrote: Or, I can drill through the bushing where the set screw hole is, then the set screw from the pulley can set against the shaft through the bushing. That might work better.

There you go.

Fwiw, this was one reason I always recommend getting 1/2 " drives on the mills.

Also, make sure to drill the shaft where the set screw will land. If you don't and it slips, you will be very angry...

Sent from Tapatalk 2, a prick of a company.

Belt guard? could get a bad injury working late at night, especially after a beer or two. Or a customer could lose a finger

I used a spider coupling from PA. You buy the 3 pieces separately so one side of the coupling is 3/8" and on mine the other side is 5/8". I used a short length of shaft and a bearing block. It would be better with 2 bearing blocks

I used a spider as well, but don't get the cheapest one. My motor blew apart two of them.

Sent from Tapatalk 2, a prick of a company.

mr x wrote:I used a spider as well, but don't get the cheapest one. My motor blew apart two of them.

Sent from Tapatalk 2, a prick of a company.

Holy hell, I know some PA stuff can be el-cheapo but what kind of horses are you running on your crusher drive?

Turned it down for some wheat berries, and that was that. That small spider sucks afaiac.

Sent from Tapatalk 2, a prick of a company.

So my plan worked. Drilling the hole through the bushing was easy (so easy I applied too much pressure to the first one and it broke in half). Then I gently tapped in into the bore hole of the pulley then a gentle tap to get it on the mill shaft. Tightened the set screw and I'm good to go.

Had a couple people stop by last night and am dealing with car issues so I didn't get a chance to test it but I have a bunch of orders to fill and instead of the hand-crank one I might break this one in.

The idea Malster has seems to me to be the best... using bearing blocks. I wonder how much pressure is placed on the bearings of the mill when using a pulley system?

One of the things I thought about when I went and motorized my mill. I went for the direct drive low RPM gear motor using spider couplers.

Tony L wrote:The idea Malster has seems to me to be the best... using bearing blocks. I wonder how much pressure is placed on the bearings of the mill when using a pulley system?

I've read many posts from ppl who have a pulley system and have had no issues over time. I'm sure there is wear, but is it significant? Only lots of time will tell apparently.

A lot of the guys here use a pulley and so far haven't had trouble, but like you say, time will tell.