I have been wanting to start a homebrew blog for a long time and finally got around to it. Hope you will enjoy your visit. With this, my first post, I have posted a video on YouTube showing my motorized malt mill in action. I am using the Barley Crusher grain mill with the larger hopper I bought from Midwest Homebrew Supplies, a 1/3 hp motor and sheaves that I bought from Grainger.com.
Orienting the V-belt slot and malt mill hole in the table top was the most difficult part. And once finished, some minor gap adjustments to the Barley Crusher rollers and the mill works great. It seems that some side load pressure from the V-belt caused me to have to adjust the mill rollers’ gap some to get the crush just right.
I did get a pebble or something in there once during a crush and the rollers stopped. The motor is strong and caused the belt to slip in the sheave. I just cut the motor off and reversed the rollers by hand and restarted the motor and it worked fine.
Here is a list of the major components, not including the wood:
Barley Crusher W/ 7 Lb.-Capacity Hopper, G5-ZTOW-TPQD(Silver)
Dayton 6K778 Motor, 1/3 hp, Split PH, 1725 RPM, 115 V, Black
Reducer bushing (Grainger, Dayton 4X664)
V Belt (Grainger, Dayton 3L440)
1.5″x1/2″ Sheave (Grainger, Congress CA0150X050)
10″x1/2″ Sheave (Grainger, Congress CA1000X050)
The instructions that came with the Barley Crusher stated, “Installing a V belt pulley on output shaft driven by electric moter IS NOT ADVISED.” So keep this in mind when shopping for a malt mill. Mine is working out well so far, but if it fails, I will likely by another brand of malt mill.
I highly recommend and plan to add a cover over the V-belt and sheaves to keep me or others from injury. I double check before turning the mill on each time to make sure all is clear.
A motorized malt mill really takes the workload off of you. I used the handle that came with the malt mill once. I cannot imagine using it when milling grain for five gallon batches – much less so for 10 or more gallon batches. I used my cordless drill attached to the mill shaft to mill my grains for a while, and that really worked well, but you cannot beat the hands off ease and workload reduction that a motorized malt mill provides! Just don’t forget to put your collection bucket underneath first!
Cheers!
