So after many many years of wanting to do this my grain mill is finally done. When I was planning this out I was going to use walnut and I was going to make something that actually looked more like a piece of furniture. The more I drew out the plans I realized it was probably kind of a waste of time and money for something that will ultimately get tucked in a corner where I would only see it a few times a year.
So instead I used all materials that I had left over around the shop and this entire project ended up costing me nothing other than the motor (and the mill I bought 10 years ago).
Construction is pretty much all MDF. My main goal here was to have something very functional. I spent a lot of time designing this thing and had a ball doing it. I wired up a fwd/reverse switch, as well as an on/off switch. I tucked the switches away so they were easy to reach but would never get bumped into and broken off. I then hard wired a plug to it and made a cord reel so the cord would be kept neat and out of the way when not in use. I put a removable cover over the wiring so I could get at it if it was ever necessary.
Mounting the mill was the hardest part. I built a spacer to go under the mill so I could get the motor/mill alignment just right. The grain dumps into a removable 7.5 gallon Rubbermaid bin. The clearance is very tight to keep the dust level down.
Last thing I did was make a bigger hopper for the grain. It holds about 3 gallons of grain which I believe is roughly 15 lbs. I didn't want the hopper to be massive and don't mind having to fill it once while crushing if doing a 10 gallon batch. I used all the internals out of the old hopper to limit the grain flow to what the mill was designed for. Just for fun I built a lid for the hopper to keep stuff out of it when not in use. You can't see it in the pictures but I notched the bottom of the hopper out so that the weight actually rests on the metal part of the mill and not just on the screws. Its extremely sturdy.
I'm really happy with the way this turned out and can't wait to crush some grain in it. Last week before I had this done I crushed 25 lbs of grain using a make shift setup with the motor and mill. It was incredibly quiet and had all the power in the world. If anyone has question let me know. And just in case you are curious I used a festool domino cutter for the joinery on this thing so you can basically park a truck on top of it.
I grabbed one of these from the same guy. So far so good, and thanks for doing the legwork on the wiring!
