Pasta Machine conversion to grain mill.

[minesapint]

Not sure if this should be under Brewing Equipment but I figure Allgrainers are the appropriate target.

I buy my grain ready milled at the moment and buy two sacks at a time to save on carriage. I am thinking of buying un-milled grain next time. For freshness.

I have access to a lathe and miller and can make myself a decent set of rollers and a solid adjustable grain mill but I am short on time.
So I am thinking of converting a cheap pasta machine into a grain miller, as seen on various websites.

Before I throw away good money on the project can anyone tell me what the rollers on these things are made of , are they solid steel or tubes, and if they are tubes what thickness wall are they.
The wall thickness is important as to roughen up the rollers I wouldn't be using a knurling tool but would be cutting a fine, left and right handed screw thread along the roller with a screw cutting tool in the lathe . This would give the effect of diamond knurling but also removes a little metal from each roller, weakening the roller slightly. So the tube wall needs to be reasonably thick.

The Pasta Machine that seems to be cheap and popular is the one with the detatchable cutters.

Any information and pointers would be most welcome.

Cheers All.

[floydmeddler]

Sounds like a great idea!

[floydmeddler]

http://myadventuresinbrewing.blogspot.c ... -2500.html

[Pinto]

Interesting idea Think i'd be buying an engineers knurling tool to fettle the rollers rather than his heath robinson approach

[minesapint]

Hello Pinto.

I was afraid of buckling the tube roller with the pressure of the knurling tool. Hence the Heath Robinson approach of left and right and threads with a screw cutting tool in the lathe.
Also heavy knurling on a small lathe is not recommended if its your own lathe, its hard on the lathe bearings.
Fine if you use one in a factory and you haven't paid for the lathe yourself.
Its at moments like this that I sometimes wish I was back at work . Retired now.

I found a pasta machine in Poundstretchers this morning, £9.99p. The one with the detatchable cutters.
The tubes are less than a sixteenth of an inch thick and I had second thoughts about removing metal with the cutting tool so bit the bullet and reached for the diamond pattern knurling tool. It took four gentle runs to get a decent sharp pattern.
Re-assembly was the hardest part. If anyone does take one apart, have a look at the way the vertical guide plates below the rollers fit with the wire springs and pressed out lugs,BEFOREyou take the end plates off. Certainly a puzzler if you don't make a note before pulling apart as they fall out before you know what has happened.

Went to try it out and found all my different grains are already milled or cracked. I hadn't thought about that. So I put some pearl barley through and also tried some long grain rice. Works a treat.
I was going to fit a self contained, geared motor permanently to it. The motor was a spare for slowly opening roller shutter on a shop window. This would make it a bit large for storing. Instead I am going to use a cordless electric drill to power it as I have seen others doing on Youtube.

With a bit of thought I am going to fit the mill to a board and make the grain hopper removable so that I can detatch it , turn it upside down and clip or wing nut it over the mill as a cover . The way portable sewing machine lids cover the machine when not in use. Space is of a premium for me.

If I make a half decent job of making a lid/grain hopper I will try and puzzle out how to put pictures on here. Wont be for some time though.
Thanks for the interest Pinto and thanks to floydmeddler for the encouragement.

Cheers all.

[Eric]

Also with the idea of crushing grain, I bought a pair of BMX pegs of hardened steel from Asda for £4. No lathe here, so thought I might instead deposit metal with spot welds.
Life's priorities has the project in embryonic stage but when settled down in bed each night, I examine options for bearings and drives, vernier calibration for gaps etc. and so far, I've managed a full night's sleep without fail.

[6470zzy]

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/13486 ... ntry178782

Check out that thread. It is very informative and I have to admit that I modified one of them myself several years ago. Not bad in a pinch but rather a chore if you are wanting to crush a large grain bill.

Cheers

[minesapint]

Forgive my ignorance Eric.

What are BMX pegs?

Perhaps something to do with BMX bicycles ?

Cheers.

[minesapint]

Ozzy
Nice to hear from you again, hows life in the cu-de-sac ?

Thanks for the link. Thats a cracking site. Pun intended.

I have trawled through the Aussie site in the past , they dont seem to have a search facilty, so it gets a bit tiresome trying to find topics.
I shall try and register on their site and see if any extra facilities appear to members. Hopefully there will be a search option.

Cheers All.

[Eric]

Forgive my ignorance Eric.

What are BMX pegs?

Perhaps something to do with BMX bicycles ?

Cheers.

Sorry, they probably have a better, more correct name, but you're right about the connection. They are pegs (there I go again) you fasten on the end of a wheel axle on a bike. Pegs were what are more correctly called footrests in today's world. I can't find them on Asda website, but these are similar and more posh.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/fit ... g-ec035962

[minesapint]

I get the idea Eric.
It reminds me of when I was a lad. Nothing as fancy as that.
We rode two up on a bicycle by gingerly standing on the horizontal bottom arms that went from the pedals to the hub of the rear wheel.
Had to watch you didnt snag your toes in the spokes .

Cheers Eric.

[6470zzy]

Ozzy
Nice to hear from you again, hows life in the cu-de-sac ?

Thanks for the link. Thats a cracking site. Pun intended.

I have trawled through the Aussie site in the past , they dont seem to have a search facilty, so it gets a bit tiresome trying to find topics.
I shall try and register on their site and see if any extra facilities appear to members. Hopefully there will be a search option.

Cheers All.

Life is good here on the Cape, especially when you have the day off from work. Its always a pleasure to avoid the drive to Boston.
If you register on the Aussie site you will be presented with a search option. I recommend getting yourself a true grain mill, it will be money well spent.

Cheers

[Subsonic]

Don't laugh, but my concrete roller mill works a treat. It is powered by a drill and now I've modded it it can do 13kg in about 10 minutes, the heavy rollers have a lot of momentum. Cost - £5. If you have access to a lathe you are laughing as you can centre the axles easily (I sold my Myford Super7 before I built it and man was I kicking myself!). A guy on youtube built a brilliant one and kindly shared his build photos with me. If you were interested I will ask him if I can share his photos. I now malt and mill 25kg of barley for £10. It is a no brainer for me.
Edit - he has put them online so I think its fair to share https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1066 ... sZHe_83lWg Sub