I brew beer. You can buy crushed grain, but it's more expensive and goes off quicker. As I go through 25kg in about a year, it's better whole, uncrushed. It's also quite difficult to find mail order. Buying crushed quantities less than 25kg doubles the cost, so €33 to €66.
Commercial crushers are around £150, being knurled steel rollers in a frame.
Having had a go at a crusher using a 13mm roughed up rod and a fixed plate (ok, but very very slow ~2kg/hour) I got a quote for some turned steel 40mm diameter, 200mm long, knurled. That worked out at around £50 + delivery.
You can use a corona style flour mill, but this is generally reckoned to be no good longer term, as the bits wear out, the genuine ones are expensive, and the copy ones are junk.
A google revealed that people had make wooden mills.
The hard bit is making round wood. Anything bought, like a rolling pin, cannot be post-drilled perfectly in the centre. As I have a few tonnne of beech and oak, it seemed a good idea to make some round stock.
Starting with a log that I cut for firewood this year. About 3 years old.
marking out the round - about 50mm. Hack it to rough size with an axe. Square cut one end. Mark centre on other end. Drill the hole on a pillar drill to suit a threaded bar. I used 8mm. Length was dictated by the longest drill bit.
Secure wood onto bar with 4 nuts and a few washers.
The 'lathe' 2 brackets to hold the blank at the ends. The uprights will support the router. All this lot is clamped to a work bench.
Mount the blanks and stick a very low rev motor on the shaft
Add a router. Start the rotation, ACW in my case.
Take small slices in many passes and create the stock.
If one end is a larger diameter than the other, pack the larger diameter end with half the diameter difference.
Voila. A run out of pretty much 0. A taper of around 0.3mm.
Next make a box and mount the rollers. One is 42mm, other 50mm. These were the biggest bits in the store. I added some horizontal slots to one roller for grip, but as both rollers must rotate, it doesnt really matter. It is reckoned that about 100mm, you don't need grip or drive both rollers (1 youtube video shows a metal version make out of 4" steel tube with just the odd groove) The 8mm shaft is rolled steel I had lying around. I drilled a 2mm hole in the shaft, fitted a pin and made a corresponding slot in the wood to get drive.
This moves about 0.5kg/minute, but does need two drills at say 200rpm. I'll need to make some cogs, and more importantly add some bearings. The box above just used a dab of grease and the gap adjustment to 1mm was done with some drilled plate screwed over over-size holes in the frame.
The rollers have a bit of denting, but are hardly marked. I'll try flaming the wood, which is apparently done on baseball bats. And make some bigger rollers. More importantly, mount the box over a barrel somehow, as it fills after about 700g of grain has passed through.
Bearings on order. 8mm shafts are used on skateboards, so bearings are readily available in 4 packs for a few £.
I have a motor and gearbox from an old can opener somewhere which should work well..
A few extra pictures from a later turning. I took ~200mm slices of beech, put a rod down the middle and reduced them to 100mm. The rig grew a little, but the same principal. And some skateboard bearings. Run out & taper around 0.1mm
Currently waiting to see if the 3 I cut will split before assembling a crusher.
Update 2/8/20. 5 years on, the rollers have not split. Did a quick test to check they work well enough to justify a full rig. Had to run both rollers, but only very slowly. Gap varied a lot, but statically about 0.5 - 1mm. Ran the grain through a second time, but it didnt change it very much. Rollers have a patina, but no great dents.
De-frosted freezer, about 15 mins & cleaned rear fins.
First fin clean since new (3 years)
How to repair a spring. Well, bodge a repair to a spring. This spring is pretty large - say 30cm total length. The hooked end snapped off with what looked like a manufacturing shear defect after only around 20 years service. Spares are available but around €20.
I simply got 2 cage terminals out of a 4mm din rail terminal which where the same width as the spring steel. Then I found some steel of the same diameter, put a hook on one end, then overlayed on the spring steel and tightened down the terminal clamps, locking them with thread lock.
As this spring takes up the slack on the deck blade engagement, when it's engaged, it's pretty well stretched out. OK after 1 hour.
Halfords 10/40 semi-synthetic for the bikes + filter HF303 (+ about 1l of Motul same spec)
me 47440km
Stella 30718km
Ecauto (Intermarche) 15/40 for Harry 1.4 L.
Deck was thick with grass. Belt wear on inside edge closest to the ground. The old pulley was rusty on the inside edge, so used a rotary brush to clean in smooth. Replaced belt the other way up. All bolts needed tightening
Stripped and greased starter.
Clean all airways.
Cleaned & oil foam filter. (junior too)
Put long spring from governor to carb back on.
Filled holes in exhaust, new metal covers and put in some new fibre glass.
Spark plug was quite black, so brushed it clean. This suggest too rich, but idle mix was made richer turning ACW.
Turned idle mix out (ie richer) by 1/8 turn, so now 1 7/8 out, Reduced idle by 1/2 turn acw.
Plug was greyish on checking.
Warm starts ok on mid throttle now. Cold start fine. Oil clean
Bike discs.
me
rear 4.8 . pads both 5.3
front
left 5.0 pads 4.46, 4.34
right 4.95 pads 4.2, 4.3
Stella
rear 4.9 pads both 4.6
front
left 5.0 pads 4.4, 4.0
right 4.9 pads 4.6 4.2
After being with us for over 5 years, Ralph the ride on got sold today.
The devil makes work for idle hands. Well, maybe, but SWMBO is busy in the garden just now, so I had to think of something to do myself.
I bought a MRF24WB wireless module a few years back to use for wireless remote data collection, but then I had to run a cable for something else and module never got used.
I build a wired internet radio a few years back, so having a portable version made sense. That and the BBC recently went from AAC streams to MP3, which completely messed up the other wifi radio we have - it works now, but not through 'normal' channels' It also gave me an excuse to play with direct memory access (DMA) which is extremely useful when you need to move a lot of data around.
Starting with a PIC I'd been given (thanks Mike) a 32MX675F512H, with 64k ram, an old Nokia 5110 LCD and along with a VLSI codec I had from the other radio project, the wifi module completed the package.
The design is nothing special, as the codec, LCD and wifi module are SPI devices. I've used the latest TCP/IP stack from Microchip (V5.42.08 - v2013-06-15) and added extra functions to connect to a radio station, parse the result for meta data (song title etc) It also has a web server, so new stations can be added, and you can see extra data such as bit rates etc. Couldn't resist adding buttons for volume and channel changing.
4 on-board buttons give menus to select and change stations, volume, mute,
etc.
In looking for a case, preferably with a transparent window, I came across some old battery boxes that came with rechargeable AAs from 7dayshop. It was a bit of a squeeze, but I got in everything I wanted. I didnt go for portable, as this would need batteries and charge controllers etc. It runs off a 5V USB charger, and I can always rig up a battery if needed. The speakers are external - old PC ones that everyone has lying around.
PCB - made using a paper mask on a laser printer. I have made similar ones on a inkjet, but the TQFP pads are always a bit iffy perpendicular to the plane of the print head.
Populated - top SMD side. The PIC crystal (center) is disproportionately large. The codec crystal is on the other side. Wifi module bottom left.
30 odd links on the bottom - I would have struggled to do this double sided, and in any event I don't have any board. Programming port and debug pin bottom right.
The working project
And boxed
It's been an interesting education in miniaturisation and my first almost fully surface mount. A few errors, but that's prototyping.
I've noticed that the router seems to give priority to other devices, as, during downloading on the PC, the data trickles to a halt on the radio - the wired version doesnt seem to suffer so much. A few bits of other software to sort out - it never ends really when you can tweak your own interface and add new features.
Thought I'd share some experiences about a recent trip to Cuba, February 2015.
- The Americans can't visit Cuba. Well, they can, under a research program. You couldn't move for them in one hotel, and I did whisper FFS as I got pushed out of the way so a perfectly modern Otis lift could be photographed inside. The state seems to get the last laugh, as the trips cost around 3 times that for Europeans
- the place is full of beggars. Not really. Seen more in London.
- give toiletries from the hotels to the beggars. Beggars will be desperate, but not desperate enough to eat soap. What do you think they will do with soap? Either give them 50c or ignore them.
- you must take US dollars. Well, if you earn in US dollars then it might make sense. Otherwise take one of the currencies that the Cuban bank trades in. They publish a full list and the state fixes the exchange rate.
- the water isn't potable. As a general rule, this may be true. We didn't drink the tap water, but I'm pretty sure the ice cubes (crushed in some cocktails) and lettuce washing in some places wasn't bottled water.
- you tip everywhere. Yep. That one is true, particularly the loos. Get some change in 25c pieces, but they won't chase you down the road if you don't tip.
- don't respond to whistles and 'taxi sir' which seem to occur all the time; they're just trying to make a living
- when looking for the tour bus in the airport car park, don't assume the smartly dressed guy that asks you for your tour company or bus number has anything to do with your tour. Most likely a porter who will help you with your case and wants a tip.
- No wifi. True, and little internet access too. It's available in some hotels, but it's very expensive - £10/day
- ATMs are few and far between, and generally only in the bigger cities. Make sure you take a card not issued by a US bank, or affiliation. Some UK debit/credit cards worked, some didn't, according to various people I met. Don't expect the machine to use English.
- I didn't see a single Visa/MC sign in a shop, so take cash.
- The classic old cars are in the minority, as they are difficult to repair and expensive to fuel.
- if you really can't live without wine, take plenty of money. A bottle of wine will cost at least £15, probably more, and often is not available per glass. You drink local beer or coffee; both are excellent.
- no real price mark up in hotels compared with shops on beer, wine, etc, but if you search out small outlets for lunch, you may get a beer for 75p vs £1.50. Only rich Cubans eat out; average Cuban wage is £25-£35/month. Those involved in tourism will earn considerably more - say £500/month.
- don't forget to enjoy yourself
Starting with a log that I cut for firewood this year. About 3 years old.
Take small slices in many passes and create the stock.
