Drill for Barley Crusher
Bart Goddard
Help me get a couple things clear. I have a Barley Crusher, and
I like it. I bought a Ryobi cordless drill to drive it. The
first batch, the battery lasted through all 20# of grain.
Every batch since then, the battery won't even do a hopper-ful.
(Which means that on Brewday Eve, I do a hopper in the morning,
and a hopper in the evening, and then hope that on Brewday morning
I have enough juice to do the last hopper or hopper and a half.
(Now that both kids are in their 20's, it's hard to trick them
into turning that crank, even in the unlikely event they're
somewhere on the property. I need grandchildren, dammit!)
First question: Why did the battery drive 20# the first time
but only 7# the second and subsequent times? The little light
on the battery charger is lit up, so I know it's not something
stupid like having it plugged into a socket which is tied
to a lightswitch.
More important, I'd like to switch to a corded drill, and I'd
like some advice here. I assume I want variable speed. The
big question is how much power do I need to keep from burning
up the motor while grinding 20 to 23# of grain? Are there
other considerations (minimum torque)? I'd like to pick up
an appropriate drill on Craigslist. I see one advertized today
(in Austin) but I'm thinking that 4.5 amps is a bit small.
Finally, I know some folks have motorized their BC's, and I've
googled a couple webpages. If I lay my hands on a small electric
motor, I'd sure be interested in various schemes for permanently
motorizing the BC. Especially which methods worked well and
didn't cause a lot of bleeding. How big a motor would one
need?
TIA,
B.
--
Cheerfully resisting change since 1959.
Joel
>More important, I'd like to switch to a corded drill, and I'd
>like some advice here. I assume I want variable speed. The
>big question is how much power do I need to keep from burning
>up the motor while grinding 20 to 23# of grain? Are there
>other considerations (minimum torque)? I'd like to pick up
>an appropriate drill on Craigslist. I see one advertized today
>(in Austin) but I'm thinking that 4.5 amps is a bit small.
Awhile back I needed a good general-purpose quality drill,
with grain mill duty a given. I just went to one of the local
home improvement type shops and browsed for a middle-of-the-road
contractor-quality 1/2" variable-speed reversible corded drill.
I can't tell you exactly what I ended up with (I'll try to remember
to check when I'm at home), but IIRC it was under $100 and has
served me well for over ten years now. Looking around at similar
drills on Amazon.com I'd guess it's somewhere in the five- to
eight-amp range.
--
Joel Plutchak
"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any
other reason but because they are not already common." - John Locke
GWA
"Bart Goddard" <godd...@netscape.net> wrote in message
news:Xns9CA065BA247F6go...@74.209.136.90...
I use a cheapo Harbor Freight Cordless 18 volt and and it rips through a
10-15lb grain bill with no problem. Unless it's one of the light duty 7.2
volt models I can't imagine it not being able to handle your bill. Perhaps
try cycling the battery (Fully drained to Fully charged) and see if it
improves.
I checked my B&D corded drill and it's 5 amps. I've used it on the BC
before and it's way more than enough power to crank out as much grain as you
like.
hophead
godd...@netscape.net says...
>
> More important, I'd like to switch to a corded drill, and I'd
> like some advice here. I assume I want variable speed. The
> big question is how much power do I need to keep from burning
> up the motor while grinding 20 to 23# of grain? Are there
> other considerations (minimum torque)? I'd like to pick up
> an appropriate drill on Craigslist. I see one advertized today
> (in Austin) but I'm thinking that 4.5 amps is a bit small.
The 4.5 amp drill might just be OK. I bought a cheap 1/2" corded drill
from Sears about 10 years ago for this purpose and it's been working
fine all this time. I routinely have more than 20# in my grain bill.
I'm not completely sure, but I think the drill that I own is around 4.5
to 5 amps.
One thing you probably want to look at is a drill that has a lower max
rpm: The drill I have states a no-load RPM of 600, which means it's not
as likely to overheat when rolling along at a lower speed than one
that's optimized for higher speed.
Bob F
> Help me get a couple things clear. I have a Barley Crusher, and
> I like it. I bought a Ryobi cordless drill to drive it. The
> first batch, the battery lasted through all 20# of grain.
> Every batch since then, the battery won't even do a hopper-ful.
> (Which means that on Brewday Eve, I do a hopper in the morning,
> and a hopper in the evening, and then hope that on Brewday morning
> I have enough juice to do the last hopper or hopper and a half.
> (Now that both kids are in their 20's, it's hard to trick them
> into turning that crank, even in the unlikely event they're
> somewhere on the property. I need grandchildren, dammit!)
20 year olds won't crank for a couple homebrews?
>
> First question: Why did the battery drive 20# the first time
> but only 7# the second and subsequent times? The little light
> on the battery charger is lit up, so I know it's not something
> stupid like having it plugged into a socket which is tied
> to a lightswitch.
Have you ever run the battery down to where it slowed down significantly? If so,
you have probably reverse charged cells in the battery, which causes them to
vent and damages them.
>
> More important, I'd like to switch to a corded drill, and I'd
> like some advice here. I assume I want variable speed. The
> big question is how much power do I need to keep from burning
> up the motor while grinding 20 to 23# of grain? Are there
> other considerations (minimum torque)? I'd like to pick up
> an appropriate drill on Craigslist. I see one advertized today
> (in Austin) but I'm thinking that 4.5 amps is a bit small.
I would expect just about any corded drill to beat most cordless drills for this
use. 1/2" drills will generally be geared lower than 3/8" drills, giving them
the advantage. Certainly, any 1/2" corded drill should do fine, although I would
be surprised if you found a 3/8" drill that couldn't handle the job.
>
> Finally, I know some folks have motorized their BC's, and I've
> googled a couple webpages. If I lay my hands on a small electric
> motor, I'd sure be interested in various schemes for permanently
> motorizing the BC. Especially which methods worked well and
> didn't cause a lot of bleeding. How big a motor would one
> need?
Not very big if it's geared down enough.
t20...@nospam.invalid
wrote:
>I use a cheapo Harbor Freight Cordless 18 volt and and it rips through a
>10-15lb grain bill with no problem. Unless it's one of the light duty 7.2
>volt models I can't imagine it not being able to handle your bill. Perhaps
>try cycling the battery (Fully drained to Fully charged) and see if it
>improves.
I've also used a cordless drill before without any problems on my
Valley Mill. Perhaps your battery defective or dying. It shouldn't
degrade that quickly, from one charge to the next.
>
>I checked my B&D corded drill and it's 5 amps. I've used it on the BC
>before and it's way more than enough power to crank out as much grain as you
>like.
For your barley mill, you should be able to get by with just about any
corded drill.
Too bad you didn't decide on buying one earlier. This 5/8"
reconditioned hammer drill was on sale a few weeks ago for $19, about
$26 total including shipping:
But it's over $40 now (it may be a higher grade recon than what I
bought, but mine looks like new to me). The web site has some good
deals on Hitachi reconditioned tools. (I have no relationship to the
seller in any way, financial or otherwise, just a satisfied customer.)
On their grade "C" reconditioned tools page (grade C recons may have
some scratches or marks but are guaranteed the same as new ones), they
have a corded 3/8 inch drill for $24:
http://www.reconditionedsales.com/Grade_C_Reconditioned___c488.aspx?st=1&leftnav
You could possibly find a good used drill on Craigslist in your area
also. I used it to buy several items in the past and it's nice to get
it the same day, see what you're buying, etc. You could even try eBay.
As for the Harbor Freight drill, they work well, but buy an extra
battery. You'll wish you had one if you get into some serious drilling
and if you wait to buy it, it will surely be discontinued. I had two
chargers go bad on me, so my 3 batteries for my drill and 2 for my
impact gun are worthless, as are the drill and gun. Next time I think
I'll buy something I can get repaired or replacement parts for (not
Harbor Freight). But their hand tools are generally very well made if
you buy the mid-grade or higher quality offerings from their store,
catalog, or online.
Joel
>to check when I'm at home), but IIRC it was under $100 and has
>served me well for over ten years now. Looking around at similar
>drills on Amazon.com I'd guess it's somewhere in the five- to
>eight-amp range.
It's a Wen 1/2" vsr industrial. 4 amps, 0-600 RPM.
Bart Goddard
> First question: Why did the battery drive 20# the first time
> but only 7# the second and subsequent times?
My brother (the engineer) was down for a vist last week and
I told him about the drill. His explanation is that I probably
semi-burned out the moter, which would make it run much less
efficiently. My battery is fine, it the motor which now is
sucking it dry 3 times faster.
This little tidbit should be added to the official beer lore.
hophead
godd...@netscape.net says...
Interesting.
I generally recommend buying a cheap corded 1/2" drill for this purpose.
They tend to run at lower rpms and are far less suceptible to
overheating when running under loads like this.
Steve Bonine
Your recommendation makes sense to me. But I have no expertise on the
topic.
One of my new favorite short quotes is, "The plural of 'anecdote' is not
'data'". In this case we don't even have a plural; we've got one person
who had a problem with a cordless drill, and is now telling us that his
brother the engineer has diagnosed the problem.
So if I ever have occasion to drive a grain crusher with a drill, I'll
use a corded one, since I own both kinds. But I submit that there's
insufficient information here to conclude that cordless drills are a bad
choice for this application. If I were buying a drill specifically for
running a crusher I'd buy a corded model, but if I were buying a drill
for general use where running the crusher was only part of the
application, I'd go with cordless. After all we have anecdotal
information in this thread that cordless drill work for crushing grain.
How that for pedantic?
Ah, the wonders of Usenet.
And thanks for sharing.
Bart Goddard
@mid.individual.net:
> After all we have anecdotal
> information in this thread that cordless drill work for crushing grain.
>
> How that for pedantic?
>
At little flawed. It's not the anecdote that's the problem,
but the conclusions drawn from it. (So in this case, it's
very much like data.) You read the anecdote and conclude that
it's trying to say "Don't use cordless to crush grain." It's
not. It's saying, "Be careful not to burn up your motor when
crushing grain, especially with a cordless which has limited
power supply."
Now for real pedantism: The old plural of "anecdote" is
"anecdota", which should remind you of the plural of "datum".
Moreover, the "dota" has the exact same etymology as "datum".
Is it turns out to be slightly true that the plural of
anecdote is data.
Steve Bonine
> Now for real pedantism: The old plural of "anecdote" is
> "anecdota", which should remind you of the plural of "datum".
> Moreover, the "dota" has the exact same etymology as "datum".
> Is it turns out to be slightly true that the plural of
> anecdote is data.
Wow. Well done. It's truly amazing what one can learn from Usenet.
Joel
>Steve Bonine <s...@pobox.com> wrote in news:7lke04F3dhkrgU1
>@mid.individual.net:
>
>> After all we have anecdotal
>> information in this thread that cordless drill work for crushing grain.
>
>but the conclusions drawn from it. (So in this case, it's
>very much like data.) You read the anecdote and conclude that
>it's trying to say "Don't use cordless to crush grain." It's
>not. It's saying, "Be careful not to burn up your motor when
>crushing grain, especially with a cordless which has limited
>power supply."
Yeah, and the first part of that advice isn't new, it's been
"common wisdom" (or since it's apparently old-timer's month here
on rcb, what Jack Schmidling would call a "momily") at least since
I got into brewing from grain about 15 years ago. Seems like lots
of people around here had burnt out their cheap, low-power drills--
mostly corded IIRC-- milling grain. It's why I bought what I did
when I bought my Maltmill.
Bart Goddard
@barley.ncsa.uiuc.edu:
> Bart Goddard <godd...@netscape.net> wrote:
>>Steve Bonine <s...@pobox.com> wrote in news:7lke04F3dhkrgU1
>>@mid.individual.net:
>>
>>> After all we have anecdotal
>>> information in this thread that cordless drill work for crushing
grain.
>>
>>At little flawed. It's not the anecdote that's the problem,
>>but the conclusions drawn from it. (So in this case, it's
>>very much like data.) You read the anecdote and conclude that
>>it's trying to say "Don't use cordless to crush grain." It's
>>not. It's saying, "Be careful not to burn up your motor when
>>crushing grain, especially with a cordless which has limited
>>power supply."
>
> Yeah, and the first part of that advice isn't new, it's been
> "common wisdom" (or since it's apparently old-timer's month here
> on rcb, what Jack Schmidling would call a "momily") at least since
> I got into brewing from grain about 15 years ago. Seems like lots
> of people around here had burnt out their cheap, low-power drills--
> mostly corded IIRC-- milling grain. It's why I bought what I did
> when I bought my Maltmill.
That's all well and good, but I thought we were having a
pedantry contest (which I love, because I always win.)
But indeed, I was mindful of not burning out my drill. However,
not being a drill expert, or a motor expert, I assumed that
"burned out" meant "inoperable". So as long as the drill
kept turning, I assumed that it was not burned out. Evidently,
"burned out" works on a sliding scale, and this drill is
perhaps 60% burned out.
I'll note that nobody responded to my original post with
"it might be burned out". Everyone pointed to a possible
flaw with the battery. So the bit that "ought to be added
to the lore" is that partially burned out motors use up
batteries faster."