Motorizing Your Mill with a ShopSmith
Keith and Tana Hanlon sent us the following letter and photos about how they motorized their Country Living using a tool they already had on hand:
"Hello All,
Just want to say how much we enjoy using your mill. We turn out anywhere from 8 to 12 cups of flour weekly. Good exercise to say the least. but alas, I tired of turning it by hand and decided to add a motor. After much research, I found I did not know enough about electric motors, and using a drill seemed unfriendly. Seems most electric motors turn too fast and the ones that don't are expensive.
I then realized I had a variable speed motor attached to my ShopSmith. After calculating speeds and different pulley sizes, I went with a 2-inch pulley attached to the motor head, connected to a 8-inch pulley, shafted to a 4 inch pulley. With this set up I can turn the mill as slow as 45 rpm. We currently turn it at about 55 rpms to keep the heat down.
Being the "thrifty" guy I am, I mounted the mill and pulley block to an unused router table I had. I've enclosed pics for your enjoyment.Thanks for a putting together such a great product."
Keith and Tana Hanlon
-North Carolina
