mills

Jamo58 · Jan 20, 2011

Have seen a few posts lately regarding mills and grinding feed, thought I would ask the question:

What's the difference between different mills?

Burr Mill? Fanning Mill? Feed Grinder?...other types?

Thanks,
Jameson

gene bender · Jan 20, 2011

Try Google they will explain all of them great.

old · Jan 20, 2011

I can help with at least one of those. A fanning mill is used to clean grain like wheat to get the chaffs etc out of it so you can then grind it into flour. A grist mill is used to grind things like corn into corn meal. I happen to own one of each but don't use either one of them. I also have a couple hammer mills which years ago where used to chop/grind corn etc into feed for animals

Sid · Jan 20, 2011

1. A burr mill would be two abrasive wheels with a space between them. They rotate in opposite directions the grain would be grain as it was fed between the wheels. The old water powered mills where usually this type.

2. A fanning mill cleans seed by forcing air through or over the grain.

3. A feed grinder grinds grain for feed. The most common is the hammer mill. It is a series of flails on rods that swing when the mill is rotated at a high speed. The flails (hammers) crack or crush the grain that is fed into the mill. The grain is thrown against a screen which is a metal plate with holes in it.
the smaller the hole the finer the product.

Note this is not very detailed but a basic description.

JDemaris · Jan 20, 2011

I've got a bunch of wooden fanning mills put away in my barn. Small enough for one person to pickup and throw into the back of a pickup.

My wife helped run a water-powered grist and saw mill for many years. The guy she worked with flies all over the USA to sharpen mill stones for burr mills. Seems to be a rare skill now adays.

Riverslim · Jan 20, 2011

I recently acquired an old MM power unit with belt pulley, are your hammer mills run by belt? I am in Illinois and have been thinking of buying an old mill, to display with my power unit an local fairs.

paul · Jan 20, 2011

You got good replies so far.

There is also a - can't think of the term - a mill that crushes the corn, some folk feel it's better for caves, no sharp edges of cracked corn.

Dern it, getting old, can't think of what it's called.

Hammer mill is probably most common for doing a volume of feed, they have different sized screens (tough metal, 3/8 to 1/5 inch holes it pounds the grains through). These days most are pto powered mixer-mills, with a bin on them to hold & blend the different feeds together. Older ones were only a hammer mill, feed came out od a pipe & you had to collect it in a wagon or bags or what. The old ones were often belt driven, kinda set them up for winter & use them, or run off a power unit.

Bur mills you set the distance between the grinding rods or plates to adjust how course or fine you want the grind. Much slower.

--->Paul

Nate V. IA · Jan 20, 2011

Roller mill is what your thinking of.
Nate

old · Jan 20, 2011

It did have a belt pulley on it but it was broken so it would need to be replaced. Also has some rusted places of the suction tube area. I do have the pipe and a bunch of the other parts and probably would not take a lot to fix it back up. E-Mail is open as always

RCP · Jan 20, 2011

We used a device we called a crimper, sounds similar to a roller mill, it had drums like a hay crimper that squished the grain.

Rich

Paul from MI · Jan 20, 2011

I have an old small burr mill thats been in my family for a long time. It is run by a 1/4 hp motor and I use it every year to grind our supply of corn meal. It does a great job and you can't beat the taste of that home ground whole corn meal. Anything from the store tastes like cardboard.

Bill(Wis) · Jan 20, 2011

We had a feed grinder type mill that was, in 1954, quite up-to-date. It was powered by a 100 hp electric motor and employed sets of swinging steel hammers, which were essentially blades about 6 or 8 inches long. They were mounted on axles and the whole thing was encased in a steel housing. Think of a Ferris wheel only where the seats were mounted you would have swinging blades. The incoming feed was held within the steel case and exposed to the swinging blades until the particles were small enough to pass through a screen and then to a blower which transported the ground particles into a feed mixer where other ingredients could be added. Coarse screens were used for cow feed and fine screens were used for poultry and pig feed. Almost trouble free except, when the time came, the hammers had to be either reversed or changed due to wear. There were so many of them that it took 3 or 4 hours to do.

mills

Jamo58

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gene bender

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old

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Sid

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JDemaris

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Riverslim

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paul

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Nate V. IA

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old

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RCP

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Paul from MI

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Bill(Wis)

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