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BUILDING GRAIN MILLS FOR MATES |
Things we do for the Bundy Brewers Group |
MAKING STUFF in the workshop is great fun.... Especially when it's beer related. When a couple of the Bundy Brewers gave up waiting for the re-designed mashmaster grain mills to arrive they decided to make their own. They've certainly done some nice work on brew stands and ancillary brewing equipment but they didn't have the machinery to make the rollers so I said I'd do it. Gregg & Thunus arrived with some BIG stainless pipe and a chunk of stainless bar stock, it looked like they meant business... so we got down to work. |
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Making the Rollers & Frame |
The stainless pipe was two different diameters so there would be no shortcuts on this job. One set of rollers was 89mm and the other 102mm (our Mashmaster now seems tiny by comparison at 68.5mm). The shafts were slightly different too, the smaller is 20mm and the larger 25.4... (again it makes the mashmaster 12mm seems quite fragile) The rollers have ball bearings all round and were knurled right to the edge The chunk of round stock had to be cut into thin slices to make the end caps, it took one cut-off wheel per cut. The end caps were turned and bored so that they had a press fit both onto the shaft and into the pipe - this reduced the need for welding and kept warpage to a minimum. Once the end caps were fitted the rollers were turned to square everything up then knurled. Each roller took 3 hours to complete the knurling. It took a further few hours to scrub them clean and remove the fine stainless chips (that was the apprentice's job). Greggs & Thunus had some nice 20mm alloy plate for the side plates, and 12mm plate for the ends. It was easy to make the sides to fit and bolt together but then we had to design a way to open and close the gap in the rollers to accommodate a different crush of the grain. We decided on an eccentric bearing cap. We had some bronze laying about at it made an efficient pressure mechanism which is loosened or tightened with stainless wing nuts. The final piece of the mill was a small turning handle with a pointer to help the user align the two rollers and keep everything even. To use this mill with such large rollers was going to take a pretty reasonable motor and they had a .55kW motor so an 18inch pulley had to be procured and bored out to fit the shaft size. One final cut of a keyway in the shaft and turning of a key and the job was done. They've now taken it away and they'll build the best ever grain hopper and stand to suit this monster of a grain mill.
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We've been invited to the inaugural grain crush in a month or so ... It'll be good to see this baby in action. Below are some photos - unfortunately we lost a few of the middle of the manufacture process but here are some to show the scale of the job. |
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photosWe (Please click on any small image to see a larger photo in a new screen) |
Cut and bore a chunk of solid stainless to make end caps. Stainless pipe with ends bored ready for end caps |
Made shafts from stainless rod with step down for bearings |
Ever thing fits nice and tight |
Fit end cap & bearings. The roller is now ready for welding, turning and knurling |
Meanwhile begin work on the Aluminium plates |
A pair or rollers fitted into alum frame. |
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The larger new mill sitting beside my Mashmaster for comparison |
End shot showing just how big those rollers are |
 And comparing all three mills |
 Designing an adjusting system - some bronze plate did the job |
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 Wingnuts loosen the end caps for roller spacing adjustment |
 Close up of the adjusting wing nuts and handle for rotating the eccentric end caps |
 And a shot of one of the proud new owners |
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