I have a 2 hp electric motor and want to make a chopping
machine for dry hay type of material, nuts maybe and the like.
Mainly to grind into meal.
Anyone make such a thing? How did you go about it?
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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.
I saw on U Tubes where a guy made one by sticking a lawn mower engone over a tub. He had a hopper that he stuck hay and corn stalks down into it to grind them up. Maybe it was only corn stalks, But it worked.
have you googled "hammer mill"? You'll get lots of hits for paper products, but there are also home made hammer mills that might be just what you need. In the midwest, and probably elsewhere but not that I've seen in Florida, you can find old hammer mills at auctions. Farmers used to use them to make their own feed and silage.
Chopped silage is common in a lot of places.... usually the entire corn plant or alfalfa.
Our farm uses a grinder/mixer (NH and Gehl) to make poultry feed, and dry alfalfa hay goes into the recipe.
I wouldn't make one, I'd buy one. The rotation of the drum and hammers requires good welds and guards to prevent debris from flying out (have you ever opened the hatch on a grinder while running... look out !!).
Dad had a Wards or Sears Hammermill. One day we came home to find that one of the hammers (bars) had come off and went 1/2 the way up the lower pipe cutting a foot gash. Dad never used it again. The funnel was piped through a window which was tinned up. Whenever he ground feed, and we went up into the loft to get ground corn all the cobwebs all over the loft area would be covered with the dust from the grinding.
I don't see how one could use a hammermill to grind dry hay. IF It sat outside, the wind would blow away most of the grind.
Hammer mills have many swinging bars of metal that spin and force material through a metal screen. The screens can be different sizes, from 1/4 inch which takes forever to feed material through but makes a powder, to over an inch in size that makes hay smaller or ear corn ground up easier for critters to digest. These things spin fast need balanced not sure it would be easy to make. They are great at grinding a whole variety of livestock feeds, including alfalfa or hay - slowly, and grains, tho they don't make the best flour.
Burr mills are two pieces of iron plate with a diamond pattern on them, spin next to each other and grind the material between them. I don't know that they work for hay, and don't know why a person would want to grind dry hay, but otherwise they grind up grains and nuts and such. Move the plates together and reseed your grain through the burr mill to make it finer and finer flour, start with just cracked corn or whatever. These make good flour as you keep re grinding.
Roller mills work well with electric, basically like an old fashioned ringer washer machine... 2 steel rollers that are a tad grooved, they pull grains or nuts or the like through them and smash it. Move the rollers closer together for a finer smashing. These make great critter feed, but they make smashed grains, not flour. Some think the smashed grains feed much better than the ground grain that leaves sharp edges on feed...
Kinda the types you are looking at, each has good or bad sides to it depending what you want to do. Grinding hay and grinding nuts are very extreme opposite types of operations, will be hard to find one machine that does well at both, you will need to figure out what is important to you in compromising which type of machine to get.
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
I have seen roller mills where the rollers where cast concrete.
I wonder if you could cast a mill stone using concrete, I don't think a straight away concrete stone would lasts long but if you made a steel matrix, using some small angle to create the groves as well as reinforce the concrete and hold the bearings may well last longer.
hear are a few links I came across dealing with that kind of mill.
problem I see is feeding hay in, once chopped it may be doable and depending on how fine may take a few runs and gap adjustments.
the roller mill would only work well with grains and nuts, but when you grind nuts you get "butter" or a paste, not meal.
you can check out the brewer forums and sites for roller mill designs.
I have used a converted lawn mower to crack corn, do a 100 lb sack in no time flat.
Fed in through the throw shoot and out the bottom though a home made screen (piece of sheet metal drilled with holes). though cutting a hole in the deck and feeding that way would be more advantageous and letting it come out the shoot.
I don't think you will come up with one machine that will handle all the material you listed. Other wise you would only have one type of "mill".
downhome you ever see those old beet root choppers in your area?
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
they make the machine you want over seas....i would love to have this.a homesteader/small holder dream come true.
You can replace some part of the body compartment, and the following functions can be done with single-phase motors.The six functional as following: rice grinding(separating the Rice and Bran automatically);corn shelling; rice and wheat shelling; chopped green fodder; locus line,potato,sweet potato milling and grinding; wheat,corn,cereals,dry feed smashing.
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i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately to front only the essential facts of life,.......,and not,when i came to die,discover that i had not lived...Henry David Thoreau
This should give you a Idea on how to go about it.
May try messaging the poster and see if plans are available.
That video didnt load the first time I viewed this thread.
Boy, OSHA would look to review any such thing these days, wouldn't they? probably not a whole lot different hand crank or electric, but a person could sure make a death trap building your own.....
downhome you ever see those old beet root choppers in your area?
No I don't think I have but we will be going to the octagon barn in the next few weeks, I'm sure they will have one.
That place is neat and if someones inclined to make the visit ,well worth the trip.
The Barn in its self is a work of art, but they operate as a museum and have several of all kinds of turn of the century equipment.
I saw a few things I could not Identify but with your mention of a beet chopper I think I figured out what the one thing was now.
I forgot the camera last time but I'll take a video and pics this time around.
One thing that amazed me was the stump puller. basically a tripod of heavy timbers (may of had four legs) with a heavy acme type screw with chains attached.That was turned by animal. First I saw anything of the like.
Any ones interest in attending I can post the details when the GF gets home, or you can find their web page. Its a pretty neat place.
Thang bout a hammermill, is the clog up REAL easy. Specially if you don't have a horse of a tractor running them. One they clog, youll know it right away. The belt will throw off the pulley, or the tractor will die. If its being run by a puny tractor, the tractor will die. Whichever, when that happens, YOU GOT A MESS to clean out. Don't usually happen with grain, but it can with corn. It SURE can with hay. ASK ME N O T HOW I KNOW. lol. I usta take flakes of hay, and put the corners in till the flake got small enough I could put it all in. When it went ALL in, it let the tractor know it had better wake up, and that's a big CC Case. I finally realized why they made the trough/tray as long as they did. It was to keep most people from being able to stick their hands in the mill standing behind it, But dummy me, Ive had it plugged, and went to the side and gave it a shove, flat handed. NEVER want to hold onto something, at that point, cause it can whisk in there in a millisecond, when its been plugged for a minute, not doing anything.
ALSO, IF your using a belt, you want to know which way the mill is supposed to turn. DONT ASK lol.
When I used to fire it up, I always wondered what the neighbors thought I was doing down here.
4Likes
probably not a whole lot different hand crank or electric, but a person could sure make a death trap building your own.....
