$5.23 grain roller/grinder

[Hayseed]

Thought I'd share some pics of my newly cobbled 'Hayseed Engineering' grain roller/grinder.

Total cost was $5.23 which was for bronze bushings for the roller spindles.

The rest was steel and stuff left from other projects.

I had a 1/2hp 1725rpm motor but it didnt have enough umph when I tried some hard red wheat a buddy gave me to try in it . The grain was plain wheat meant to be ground and made into baking flour.
I put a 3/4hp 1725rpm and put same reduction pullys on it and it never even grunted when grain was tossed in !!

It tossed a lot of particles back at me so I made a lid form plywood to stuff inside and made a hopper from a peanut butter plastic jar. I bore a 15/16" hole for flow control in lid. Works pretty good

Ill put a on/off switch at some point and possibly remount motor underneath.










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Here are some dimentions and particulars :

The rollers are 3"x6" 4140 reclaimed shafting
Spindles are cold rolled mild steel 3/4" turned to 5/8" (didnt have 5/8" in pile)
Bushings are bronze 7/8" x 5/8" OD and 5/8" ID
Pillow block for bushings from scrap 1-1/4" round stock and 1/4"x 3/4" flat stock

Rollers were faced on ends , bored and tapped 3/4x3/4-10 tpi
Spindles threaded 3/4x3/4 on one end
Spindles were turned to 5/8" after tightened in rollers with lock tite
Rollers knurled with a fine knurler (all I had ) I have a coarse knurler but it doesnt fit my lathe (YET) may reknurl at later date to coarse.

Graphite impregnated nylon 1-1-4"x 3/32" thick bored 5/8" spacers for roller spindles inside box

Box for base was 1/8" x 3" x 6.25" ,sides,2 pcs.(slotted for spindles) and 2 pcs.6.5"(ends) hot rolled steel

Hopper was 2 pcs ends 1/8" x 3" x 6.25 x 7 , sides 1/8" x 3" x 6.5" x 8" ,all trimmed for angle.

1-1/4" sq. tubing used for bolting pillow blocks on box

3/4"x6.2.5"angle for mounting

I used shim stock to get roller spacing between pillow blocks and sq tubing. I just played with spacing until it looked good to my untrained eye I read on here somewhere you wanted the husks intact so that was my target .

Motor is 1725 RPM 3/4HP 110V

Reduction is 2.5 drive , 5" driven pulleys

 

[Hayseed]

It got a run today . I run 2# of malted wheat and 4 oz of crystal 40 through without a hitch !
Just gobbled it up like a limb shredder . Kind of sounded like one too when grain went through !
Made the wheat look like Zoom cereal and the Barley had around 90 % of hulls intact !
I was really jazzed when I pulled the tray from under it !

 

[sar_dog_1]

Looks cool. U gonna list directions for us to build our own??

 

[wilserbrewer]

That looks like a well built roller mill! My hat is off to your outstanding Hayseed engineering and fabrication abilities! The shame is to produce something like that from new parts would probably be around $1000 material and labor...haha.

As with anything powerful like that, be careful using that thing...reminds me of that old expression of getting something caught in the wringer.

I'm curious as well about the construction, rollers? bearings? roller adjustment?

 

[Hayseed]

Added some particulars on the mill . Any questions Ill try to answer.

 

[Hayseed]

A little update to my contraption. I found a 10" pulley in my junk archive that had 5/8" spindle hole so I mounted it on the drive roller . WoW what a difference in the crush ! I used it yesterday for the grains and came away smiling !! Takes the grain as fast as its dumped in and motor doesnt even grunt !