How To Adapt a Grain Mill To a Treadle Base
Adapting a grain mill to a treadle base is not that difficult to do and a wonderful solution if you can not turn the grain mill handle. Back in April, I rummied up my loose change and bought a grain mill. We chose a Grainmaker #99 model. We really liked it, except for one thing; I couldn’t grind it with my bad shoulder, even though we’d attached it to a piece of plywood and clamped it all to a table. So we decided to fix that.
I used to buy at auction, rehab and re-sell treadle sewing machines. I knew that I had a treadle with a heavy wheel in storage, so back in July, I retrieved it and started to work on it. It’s a heavy wheel because the wheel has a channel the belt rides in, but it also has a weighted outer rim. This is important because the weight puts more force on the wheel and helps it to rotate – grains are hard substances and you need all the help you can get!
I took the metal base to a place nearby for welding broken parts, sandblasting and powder coating. It came back gorgeous, with the exact same fire-engine red color as the mill.
Next, I bought a piece of plywood that had one finished side from the local lumber store. While I was out for surgery, I asked my dad, he of the magic carpentry skills, to cut it down and drill holes in it for the belt. I got this:
Then, I stained it with Cabot’s Australian Timber Oil – this is Jarrah Brown . (It’s my new favorite product!) I put two coats on and then took some butcher block wax and put a final coating on. The husband re-attached the board and the mill and we collectively put a new belt on.
Works like a charm, it’s ready to go!!!
Comments
Tweet
About the Author: Ann Weinstein
Re-enactor, canner, sci-fi geek, mom, she who loves car seats!Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
I note that I left a step out! As we tried to treadle our way thru the grain, the flywheel on the mill would stop and get stuck. So we put the handle back on, although 90 degrees opposite of where it had been, in order to shorten the shaft so that it would not hit the platform.
I can see you have the ability to think outside the box that you would be ready for anything! This is a good idea to work around an injury. Think if we could just harness the power from the kids pushing the buttons on their video games! Just joking, we threw those things out years ago.
Would be nice if you were able to hook that to a spin bike. The flywheel there is massive and of course the power of your legs clipped into the pedals of a spin bike are unstoppable! I’ve trained for years for triathlons and a couple of hours in the saddle is commonplace. 🙂
Thank you for great article! Also if you want to grow healthy organic food without soil please visit 99 Aquaponics website.
MOST impressive! I’d love to hear how this performs for you. Can you grind wheat to flour on one pass? Is there enough torque with this system to do that?
What type of belt did you use? Did you use the leather belts that the sewing machine requires?
That was great! Thank you for sharing. I’m not a fan of cranking.
Yes, we used a treadle sewing machine belt – these are availible from your local sew & vac for about $5 each.
This does not let us do grain in one pass, it simply makes each pass much faster – 10ish minutes per 6 cups. So, in half an hour, you’ve ground grain fine enough to make pastry with.