Need Advice - Milling Station/Workbench

[Rundownhouse]

I finished this workbench/fermentation chamber the other day. I had planned on the left side being closed off and insulated for fermenting, and the right side I want to set up to have a bucket underneath and turn into a milling station. Here's where I'm not sure how to design it, though: How can I have a surface where I can place my mill (JSP Maltmill) and have the crushed grain drop through to a bucket, but when I'm not milling, have it be a level surface for being a workbench? It would be nice to have somewhere to work without a 9" x 3.5" hole in it, but I can't think of a way to build a door.

 

[Aerobrew]

One really easy way that I have done in the past is to use runners under the hole in the top. They would fasten to the bottom and then stick out about 1/8-1/4" That way you can build a plate for the top and when you drop it in the hole, it sites on the runners supported. When you want to remove the plate you can press up on the bottom and pop the plate out. From here you can make all kinds of fancier designs with it, but for a quick and simple method it works great.

 

[Setesh]

Why don't you make a recessed lip on that area and make two different drop ins, one with a hole in it for your mill and one that is just a smooth top. You attach the one to your mill and now your mill assembly drops in. When you are done milling you remove that assembly and drop in your smooth top. Depending on how tight your tolerances are there is going to be somewhat of a gap, but it would be better than a hole.

Edit
Aero beat me too it!

 

[IslandLizard]

Those are excellent solutions.

Although it's a nifty 2-in-one solution, just a word of caution. Grain is covered in lactobacillus. Milling creates a lot of dust and it with the lacto will spread everywhere. It is usually not advised to mill and ferment in the same area to prevent possible infections. If you can keep the dust from reaching the fermentors you'll be fine.

I always mill outside.

 

[Hello]

If you have the ability, you can make a rotating door so you can rotate the mill into the grain chamber (for lack of better words) and the other side is flat.

IslandLizard has a really great point. Dust in general has a way of making it into even the tightest of spaces. I would be weary of milling and fermenting together without ensuring one or both of those chambers are air tight. The only way to test for that is to force air through every crevice of the chambers. I would want to use some sort of silicon and also line the part where the grain falls with sheathing or something. I think it can all be done but your cost will increase because you'll need supplies that will help make things air tight. Consider gluing weather stripping at every joint of the fermentation chamber as well.

It seems excessive but if you've ever been in the dirt for a day, you'll know what I mean by dust getting into places that seemed impossible.

 

[Rundownhouse]

Thanks for the suggestions. So something like this:

Where the red lines are runners that attach to the underside of those 2x4s, and then the brown on top are spacers the width of the 2x4s so that a little cut-out rests even with the rest of the workbench. Is that right?

As for contamination, I'm aware of the issue but not too worried about it. The fermentation side has been caulked - maybe excessively - and then sprayed with Great Stuff gaps and cracks. Still, I guess it wouldn't hurt to just test the cold side during a milling run. I'll grab a couple plates with HLP media and leave them open inside the shut chamber while I mill, then close them up and see if I get any growth.

 

[Hello]

I don't think you need to look for growth, just dust. The grain dust should be easy to spot. But it sounds like you had already considered keeping the two chambers, or at least one, air tight.

 

[Rundownhouse]

Results:

Runners attached:

Cutout out:

Still not attached, and needs a door, but almost done.

 

[Rundownhouse]

I put two plates with anaerobic growth medium in the chamber. One was in there while I was actively milling on the other side. That took about twenty minutes. The other I placed in there on just a random day with nothing going on, as a sort of control. Neither plate showed any growth, so no lacto or pedio or wild yeast or anything floating around in there.

I also had two aerobic plates and those grew all kinds of stuff. If I'd had one more I might have put it in a different part of the basement to see if it was any different than the ones inside the chamber.

So all-in-all, it looks like the chamber is pretty grain-dust resistant.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I put two plates with anaerobic growth medium in the chamber. One was in there while I was actively milling on the other side. That took about twenty minutes. The other I placed in there on just a random day with nothing going on, as a sort of control. Neither plate showed any growth, so no lacto or pedio or wild yeast or anything floating around in there.

I also had two aerobic plates and those grew all kinds of stuff. If I'd had one more I might have put it in a different part of the basement to see if it was any different than the ones inside the chamber.

So all-in-all, it looks like the chamber is pretty grain-dust resistant.

Nice work! Thanks for actually taking advice. From my desk chair, I think it is better to flush out these things using real evidence that sit here any argue how good you are at caulking or whatnot. So that is pretty awesome.