I have an old Craftsman garage door opener laying in my garage that needs to go. I’m wondering if the motor would be right for running my Barley Crusher.
It already has a sprocket and I might be able to use part of the chain if the links can come apart. All I’d need is another one for the mill.
Ideas? Suggestions?
Hmmm . . . I’ve never looked inside one, but in my mind it would turn your mill really slowly. What kind of RPMs do you get out of it?
I don’t know it came with the house. The sprocket diameter is pretty small on these things, but I’m looking for maybe 200 rpm at the mill.
You’ll need to put a much larger sprocket on the motor then, and move the small one to the mill. I’d measure the RPM of the motor and then do some math to see if it even makes sense.
i would play with it, bet it would work fine, with a little eugenuity.
The only drawback is that a chain will not slip like a belt if a small rock gets into the rollers. I had one bag of British malt that had 4 small rocks in it.
if you have to pull the sprocket off you could probably mount a pully to use a belt instead of a chain. in fact that would probably be easier than adjusting chain length anyway.
I was thinking belt pulley too. Thinking back to analytical geometry… would a larger diameter pulley on the mill side make it work more efficiently?
Define efficient. A larger wheel on the motor will increase rpm. A larger wheel on the mill end will decrease rpm.
Mill RPM = Motor RPM * (Motor Pulley Diameter / Mill Pulley Diameter)
The ideal speed for a mill is 400rpm. You would need to make a design change to allow for more rpm at the motor. This would likely involve a larger drive pulley at the motor side. Again, you’ll need to calculate the size pulley needed to drive the mill at approx. 400 rpm.
Those pesky Brits. The same happened to me with MO malt.
My conclusion was that the maltser needed to change some of the filter screens, must of had a hole in one.
Can you share where the 400 RPM number comes from? 6 and 2/3 revs per second seems a bit fast to me.
i am more curious how speed affects the crush. if 400rpm is ideal, there are a lot of hand millers suffering.
I’m happy with my crush and I have the mill turning way slower than that.
I use a DC motor from a tread mill and chose a very large pulley for the grain mill to save the motor from too much stress.
Check this out Carl. 
http://www.byo.com/stories/techniques/article/indices/45-mashing/1135-mashing-variables-techniques
that doesn’t really address why it is a good speed though and how it really affects the crush. the kinetic energy imparted to the grain will have some effect i guess. but also the 400rpm is referencing larger commercial mills and the grain wll be in contact with the roller longer. this is interesting and it would make a good comparison to see on a homebrew level how much difference it makes.
FWIW, I recall Dan Listermann saying many years ago that he had determined 300-350 to be optimal for the Phil Mill he sold. That’s pretty close to 400.
Jeff is the large diameter pulley on the mill side? Just to make sure…
As far as rpm goes I’ll wing it and adjust my gap accordingly. Not a big fan of a fine grist anyway.
I have a Valley Mill and the sticker on the side states MAX SPEED 300 RPM. Last time I was using it with my cordless drill the battery ran out on the last few pounds and I had to attach the hand crank. I wound up with a bit of sweat on the browe and had to swap hands but when it was all said and done it had a therapeutic feel to it. It was as off I had put more of myself into the brew days effort. I may opt for that next time but make sure the drill battery is charged, in case. 