DIY Motor For The Country Living Grain Mill

A Country Living Grain Mill is a great tool to have around the homestead and can last a life time with proper use and maintenance. Having the ability to grind your own wheat and corn is a great step towards self-sufficiency. You can make your own bread, pasta and even animal feed with the mill. Sounds like heaven doesn’t it?

Well let me tell you, cranking the handle on the mill is hard, I mean like really hard. You need to have the plates set just right while you turn the handle. If they are too close you might as well not even bother, too far apart and you are just wasting your time. It is a constant balancing act to get the correct settings to properly mill your own grains.

I thought to myself that there has to be an easier way after nearly tearing out my rotator cuff the first few times making flour. They do make motorization kits for the Country Living Grain Mill, but those are $400 and way out of my price range after just spending that much on the mill. So here is what we did.

Purchased a universal 12V blower motor

Bought a 3-way switch

Attached a mounting block for the motor

Mounted the motor with some scrap flat aluminum

Bought a 47 inch belt from the auto parts store

Wired a 12V plug to the motor to run off a battery pack

Or run it off solar like in the video

My rotator cuff thanked me

A couple of notes for building something like this:

• Make sure the 12V plug has a properly sized fuse. We kept blowing the initial 5 amp one we had.
• For grinding just set your plates and run the motor; when it can’t grind anymore, half turn the plates and repeat till you get what you need.
• People have commented that the motor will burn up; this may be true but we are still using the same one almost 3 years later and I can buy a heck of a lot of blower motors for the price of a motor kit that is sold for the Country Living Grain Mill.

If you want to see how to build your own solar generator you can click on the link below. If you try this, let me know how it works out for you. Peace.

..DIY Solar Generator

Country Living Grain Mill

Solid I-beam construction from cast aircraft aluminum, double industrial sealed bearings, stainless steel shaft, and carbon steel grinding plates come together to make a rugged and durable mill, which is backed with a lifetime warranty. FEATURES: ** Made of solid, cast aircraft aluminum. ** Made entirely in the USA ** FDA Approved Food Grade Powder Coating **LIFETIME WARRANTY