old heavy duty grain mill

[Chad Keven]

I found this old grain mill and scored it free, I'm willing to spend a bit on it to reinstate it. I already have a  motor and pulley so thats a start. the issues are with the rollers, they are about 100mm in diameter do they need to be knurled? or are they big enough to not need it? they are not knurled which suggests that they dont need to be, but that said it could have been used for larger grains ie corn? at a chicken farm or somthing?

I am planning to have the rollers nickel plated at an electro plating place and line the inside with sheet SS, the rest will be stripped and re painted and covered with a SS guard and hopper.

does anyone have know how with somthing like this? thanks in advance, any advice helpful.

[Chris]

I don't think you need to plate the rollers, just get them skimmed to clean up.  You'll just have to try to crush some grain unless anyone out there has experience with 100mm rollers (mine are 250 and I have no problems).  Some mills have heavy scores across the rollers (easy to do when they are on the lathe - just run the tool along them a few times when stationary).  This helps draw the grain in.  Is there more than one roller driven?  I know mine was hopeless until I drove both rollers with gears.

Should be a beast when finished!

[Chad Keven]

Yeah both rollers are driven the chain on the other side loops around both. I was going to get nickel plating for sanitary reasons? About 200 bucks to get done

[martin w]

it doesn't need to be sanitary,just clean,skimming like chris says would be easiest but make sure there's enough adjustment to accomodate slightly smaller rollers,if both rollers are driven by chain then smooth is the way,knurling is only to assist with the undriven roller grabbing the grain.

good score by the way, you'll be impressed by the speed,my 110mm by 250mm rollers do 8kgs in under 30 seconds

[Chris Banks]

If it were me I would get the rollers cleaned up and zinc plated (which should be a lot cheaper) mostly for the corrosion resistance.

Nice score btw!

[Chad Keven]

Is zinc sweet? For food? Would it be wise to get the housing part done too?

[martin w]

a small amount of zinc is beneficial to yeast so no probs there,where do you live? mine are mild steel and are still bright after a couple of years of use,they never see moisture,if you live by the coast corrosion maybe a bit more of a problem otherwise plating is just a unnecessary expense imo

[Chad Keven]

Are yours zinc or just mild steel?

[martin w]

plain mild steel

http://www.forum.realbeer.co.nz/forum/topics/my-new-grain-mill?xg_s...

[Chad Keven]

sweet that advice will save me heaps, the next mission is trying to take the mother apart to clean it up shes pretty rough around the edgesit was a bitch to get this bearing off, any one got a tip? is there pullers that can do it? i had to wedge off bit by bit with a screw driveralso cleaned the stand up this arvo

[Scarrfie]

Perhaps if you could get a small bottle jack between the plates, or maybe even a car jack, then that might lift both the bearings off together. Then a press to push the shafts out of the other side.

[Chad Keven]

Yeah I think its just the shitty rust thats making it difficult I might give the jacks ago

[Scarrfie]

If it will fit in the oven then some heat may help, but only as much as the bearings or grease will take. You could always repack them with grease mind you, and the bearings races may be buggered anyway.