Stuck Grain Hopper

[H0tshoe]

I've had a grain mill labeled as a Jack Schmidling's "Maltmill" and have fabricated my own high capacity hopper for. I am having a problem where the grain seems to get stuck in the hopper when fully loaded with 10+ lbs of grain. I have to agitate the grain in order to keep it feeding into the mill.

My theory is that either the opening is too small, or that there is not enough of a "funnel" to the hopper design. Hoping to get some feedback that will help me narrow down the fix.

The hopper is a piece of 8x10 sheetmetal duct that is about 18" in depth (vertical sides) until the last ~5 inches where it funnels down to a 1.5 x 3 inch opening over the rollers. I also left the nylon screen in place that was part of the original hopper design. The screen has 0.5 inch square grid. The rollers are about 10" wide.

The fixes I want to try (in order of preference, least difficult first):
1) Remove screen
2) Widen opening at bottom of funnel
3) Fabricate new "ramps" that reach higher up into the hopper / increasing the angle of the funnel.

 

[TheMadKing]

I bet your secondary roller is sticking and not turning. It shows up at grain not feeding

You'll need to break down the mill and thoroughly clean the roller bearings and get all of the dust out of the nooks and crannies

 

[imasickboy]

My money's on the screen being the culprit.

 

[H0tshoe]

Thanks guys. I've removed the screen and widened the opening a bit. The secondary roller is driven off the primary by direct gear drive so I can't see how one roller could be sticking, but I will check it out at the next use. Brewing again on the 16th and will try it again and let you know what I find.

 

[day_trippr]

There is no "idler roller" on a MaltMill as found on nearly all other two-roller mills.
The Schmidling design has the slave roller gear-driven off the master...

Gap adjustment is an interesting paradigm, but there's no worry about a slipping slave.

Anyway, the described opening at the bottom of the hopper is quite a bit wider than the gap on my BC, and I don't have problems with a full ~15 pounds of base malt in my home-made clone of the larger BC hopper.

I'd remove the screen and see if that solves the problem...

Cheers!

 

[H0tshoe]

Brewing today and happy to report that removing the screen and opening up the gap have solved the problem. Thanks!