I have been crushing my grain the hard way ever since I bought a hand-crank 2-roller barley crusher from Northern Brewer a years back. Recently I'v ebeen using a portable drill to speed up the process but it's still a P-I-T-A. Luckily for me, that's all over now. I saw an article in December's Brew Your Own magazine for a homemade motorized mill and decided to start compiling the equipment needed to make it happen. Found a 1-hp motor on Craig's List for $40, bought the sheaves and belt from Grainger for another $40, and spent about $4 in other assorted hardware. All the wood is scrap or leftovers from the shop. Finished assembly and testing over last weekend. Here's a few photos:
The motor is controlled by the mounted switch and the sheaves cut the speed of the motor down about 8:1 to a speed closer to what is recommended by the manufacturer (200 rpm). Gave it a test run last night and it works great. No more 2-hour grain crushing sessions!Cheers.
