For those of you who are using a Monster mill, which drill are you using to spin it? Corded, cordless, etc. Thanks!
*Please note the Monster Mill model you are using as well.
A 7 amp 1/2 corded drill works for my MM-3.
I’m pretty sure this is the drill I’ve been using, would have to be home to check for sure:
I’ve got a MM-3. Drill still gets REALLY warm, I think running it at low speed doesn’t let it cool as well as it would like to. Still works better than my 3/8 drill, the 1/2 inch drill has enough torque to just power through grinding at low speed. With the 3/8 drill I’d have to ramp up to a higher speed to keep things from bogging down.
I have used a 1/2 inch corded drill for my MM3 2.0, but I practically burned it up. I would say if you’re looking at a mill that big, look into motorizing it. With the drill, it was a 2 person task (one person slowly feeding the hopper so it wouldn’t jam and one person working the drill) since the drill couldn’t turn with much grain in the hopper.
+1 to using a 1/2" corded drill for the high torque at low revs. I recommend looking for a drill with an adjustable trigger stop. This will allow you to set the trigger to the desired speed.
+1
That’s one of my biggest gripes about the Dewalt I use. However, since I got it on sale I’m somewhat tempted to cannibalize it and make it into a dedicated mill motor. Rigging up a more precise speed control would be pretty easy. Might not even be that hard to rig some form of PID control to set the speed.
I’ve been using a Makita 1/2" variable speed drill with great results.
That said, I’m excited to find the time to build a proper mill stand with a farm motor and pulleys.
If you could figure out a way to do this it would be great. I run my 1/2 drill on a monster mill and just zip tie the trigger all the way closed. It runs much, much faster than it should which shreds the husks.
I have a DeWalt DWD 520 10 amp VSR Hammerdrill attached to my MM3 2.0. It sold for around 120.00 at Home Depot. I load about a pound of grain in the hopper then fire it up for a second to start the feed. stop. Then pour in rest of the grist to fill the hopper. Fire it up again and it chomps through the entire hopper at any speed you want to grind. Always a one person operation.
http://m.harborfreight.com/router-speed-control-43060.html
I picked up this link from a previous forum post. It might be helpful for the zip tied drill. -T
Great! That looks like a cheap n easy solution.
Has anybody tried using something like this to control a drill for a grain mill?
I am using a Ryobi cordless that is only 12 volt, I believe. One battery is plenty for 20 pounds of grain. My 14.4 volt Black & Decker couldn’t turn the shaft at all. I use a MM2.
I would recommend an electric drill, though. The drill gets hot and will most likely ruin the battery packs faster than normal use. I’ll probably buy a cheap electric drill soon with variable speed.
It’s easy to spot a cordless drill that is up to the challenge. They’re red and say Milwaukee on the side.
Routers are high-speed low-torque and router controls work great with that. On drills, in my experience the voltage drop kills the torque. You can use that but will also need to slow the rate of grain feed. There are also low-speed high-torque drills on the market. $$$ as the inexpensive ones look shabby. The one thing the router control does well is being a convenient on-off switch.
Long term, some some sort of gearing with a decent motor would be the way to go.
I have a cheap electric drill and it can’t turn the rollers on my MM2. I bought a Bosch 6.3 amp corded that does okay.
This is exactly my set-up. Works great.