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Repurposing an old blower motor for a grain mill

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Repurposing an old blower motor for a grain mill adam.preble 10-07-2008
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Posted by on October 7, 2008, 12:29 am


This newsgroup has been very good with these kind of questions, even
if maybe they'd work better in an HVAC repair group or the homebrewing
newsgroup. I have a grain mill for crushing malt for homebrewing.
The handle method is a pain in the but, and a lot of folks end up
motorizing their mills. In my case, I asked the HVAC folks that had
done a lot of work on my house for an old motor if they come across
one. I've got one here now and I'm trying to make sense of it before
I start trying to hook it up to the mill.

I think they were proud of themselves when they arrived with this
metal enclosure with the motor and everything, which was fine by me.
I had asked for a motor that works at 110V, and that's what they said
they pulled. I did test it with a switch up to wall power, and it
seemed to work--despite tripping the breaker when I turned off the
switch. That was because methinks I botched that wiring.

So it is a 1/2HP, 1020RPM motor. Reading the side here, I see
"V200-230." So is this actually a 220V motor? I'm not so sure because
I see three jumpers labelled A through C:

A: LO
B: MED
C: HI

Which one I pick works in conjunction with the black contact to give
me my line voltage. So does this mean I have some flexibility in
voltage? It was connected to 'A' originally, and I haven't tried
messing with it. If this somehow lets me using 110V, then what effect
will this have on the horsepower and the rpm? I have yellow and black
lines going to a start capacitor rated 20.00/370.

It is a thermally protected motor and there's a note "CONT AIR OVER"
which implies to me it normally would be cooled by the blower fins. I
have to take that thing off to work this thing, so I'm wondering how
long I might reasonably expect to run the motor before it trips the
protection. I'd probably only need to run the motor 5 minutes to
crush my grain, if that helps.

Real Goods Solar, Inc.
Posted by beecrofter on October 7, 2008, 8:49 am


On Oct 7, 12:29=A0am, adam.pre...@gmail.com wrote:
> This newsgroup has been very good with these kind of questions, even
> if maybe they'd work better in an HVAC repair group or the homebrewing
> newsgroup. =A0I have a grain mill for crushing malt for homebrewing.
> The handle method is a pain in the but, and a lot of folks end up
> motorizing their mills. =A0In my case, I asked the HVAC folks that had
> done a lot of work on my house for an old motor if they come across
> one. =A0I've got one here now and I'm trying to make sense of it before
> I start trying to hook it up to the mill.
>
> I think they were proud of themselves when they arrived with this
> metal enclosure with the motor and everything, which was fine by me.
> I had asked for a motor that works at 110V, and that's what they said
> they pulled. =A0I did test it with a switch up to wall power, and it
> seemed to work--despite tripping the breaker when I turned off the
> switch. =A0That was because methinks I botched that wiring.
>
> So it is a 1/2HP, 1020RPM motor. =A0Reading the side here, I see
> "V200-230." So is this actually a 220V motor? =A0I'm not so sure because
> I see three jumpers labelled A through C:
>
> A: LO
> B: MED
> C: HI
>
> Which one I pick works in conjunction with the black contact to give
> me my line voltage. =A0So does this mean I have some flexibility in
> voltage? =A0It was connected to 'A' originally, and I haven't tried
> messing with it. =A0If this somehow lets me using 110V, then what effect
> will this have on the horsepower and the rpm? =A0I have yellow and black
> lines going to a start capacitor rated 20.00/370.
>
> It is a thermally protected motor and there's a note "CONT AIR OVER"
> which implies to me it normally would be cooled by the blower fins. =A0I
> have to take that thing off to work this thing, so I'm wondering how
> long I might reasonably expect to run the motor before it trips the
> protection. =A0I'd probably only need to run the motor 5 minutes to
> crush my grain, if that helps.

A motor from a clothes dryer might be more suitable.

Posted by dpb on October 7, 2008, 9:28 am


adam.preble@gmail.com wrote:
...

> So it is a 1/2HP, 1020RPM motor. Reading the side here, I see
> "V200-230." So is this actually a 220V motor? I'm not so sure because
> I see three jumpers labelled A through C:
>
> A: LO
> B: MED
> C: HI
>
> Which one I pick works in conjunction with the black contact to give
> me my line voltage. So does this mean I have some flexibility in
> voltage? It was connected to 'A' originally, and I haven't tried
> messing with it. If this somehow lets me using 110V, then what effect
> will this have on the horsepower and the rpm? I have yellow and black
> lines going to a start capacitor rated 20.00/370.
>
> It is a thermally protected motor and there's a note "CONT AIR OVER"
> which implies to me it normally would be cooled by the blower fins. I
> have to take that thing off to work this thing, so I'm wondering how
> long I might reasonably expect to run the motor before it trips the
> protection. I'd probably only need to run the motor 5 minutes to
> crush my grain, if that helps.

I'd guess the L/M/H are multi-speed contacts for an HVAC-application
motor. The voltage rating certainly makes it appear it's rated for 200V.

My suggestion on connections would be to ask the folks you got it from
for some guidance.

On the cooling, it'll probably manage a few minutes at a time w/o
cooling anyway, although the load of a mill compared to that of an HVAC
fan may be significantly higher. What about figuring out an arrangement
to extend the shaft, perhaps?

Would have to agree w/ the other responder it might not be the most
suitable choice for the job, but may get it to work. You'll need to
gear it down quite a lot if the mill is designed for hand cranking
unless it really does have intentions for being powered otherwise the
bearings and all may not be up to the speed, either.

--

Posted by on October 7, 2008, 11:21 am


> I'd guess the L/M/H are multi-speed contacts for an HVAC-application
> motor. =A0The voltage rating certainly makes it appear it's rated for 200=
V.

So shouldn't it fail if I'm using 110V? Maybe it can take the lower
voltage. I have to wonder what that does to the motor's speed and
power. Is there a way to determine what affect the contacts would
have on the speed?

I guess I can look up the model information later when I'm in front of
the motor again.

> My suggestion on connections would be to ask the folks you got it from
> for some guidance.

They said they pulled it from a 110V source, and that's about all they
know. They had removed it from the housing and all from an old unit,
so they hadn't read any information on it.

> On the cooling, it'll probably manage a few minutes at a time w/o
> cooling anyway, although the load of a mill compared to that of an HVAC
> fan may be significantly higher. =A0What about figuring out an arrangemen=
t
> to extend the shaft, perhaps?

I can try to load it with something just to see how well it does.
I'll have to mount it to something first though.

> Would have to agree w/ the other responder it might not be the most
> suitable choice for the job, but may get it to work. =A0You'll need to
> gear it down quite a lot if the mill is designed for hand cranking
> unless it really does have intentions for being powered otherwise the
> bearings and all may not be up to the speed, either.

It's a standard thing to use some cheaves on this, at a 10:1 ratio
even. Running the mill too fast will pulverize the grain, which isn't
desired. A rough calculation is to get the mill to 150rpm. That part
isn't a big concern compared to figuring out what rpm I'll get out of
the motor in the first place, as well as what little surprises might
await me when using the motor.

Posted by dpb on October 10, 2008, 9:54 am


letterman@invalid.com wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 08:21:21 -0700 (PDT), adam.preble@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> They said they pulled it from a 110V source, and that's about all they
>> know. They had removed it from the housing and all from an old unit,
>> so they hadn't read any information on it.
>
> Then it's 120V (or 110). Why would they lie about that? It was nice
> of them to give it to you, so trust them.
> Besides, I cant think of any residential furnaces that have 240V fan
> motors.

Maybe they made a mistake/forgot?

Who said it came from a residential furnace? I'd guess from the other
markings there's a good likelihood it's a dual voltage but that's as
much conjecture as all the rest here w/ no further actual data.

> If it;s a 3 speed, you can change one wire to change the speed. That
> wire is on one of them now. You probably want the slowest speed.

Yep, that part seems pretty certain.

--

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