Another Hammer mill Question

A guy here in town said i could use his Gehl 41 PTO mill so i'm going to do that till i can find one, but i need a larger screen for it so i can crack corn for chicken feed. It has a 1/2" screen now and its making mostly dust and pebbles out of corn, would i need a 7/8" or 3/4" screen for scratch feed???

Also what is better for making chicken feed, a hammer mill or a burr mill? I'm thinking the hammer mill would be faster and the burr mill would be hard to find plates for when they wear out??

Hey Guy! If you go to page 4 and find the previous hammermill topic, you will find a post by Moresmoke that will have a link that will take you to EJ Heck and Sons. aparently they will make up any screen that you need, but you have to take the measurements. They even show you how to measure.

Are you using ear corn or shelled corn??? If you are using shelled corn than the 1/2 screen should work fine just do not run it so fast. Just because it has a 540 PTO shaft on it does not mean you have to run it that fast. I bet that I do not run my grinder mixer at 300 RPM.

Also if you are wanting it to look like the cracked corn you buy at the store you need a roller mill not a hammer mill. Any hammer mill will make some of the corn into a powder.

For feeding your chickens you do not have to have perfectly cracked corn. The mills do that to keep YOU happy not because the chicken needs it that way. As long as the corn is not completely powder your chickens can eat it just fine.

i'm using shelled corn, i tried it at low rpm's and it still made pebbles and powder out of it, i'm doing this to sell to people with chickens thats why i'm trying to get it pretty close to what you buy. how does a roller mill work?

They are basically just two rollers that are driven opposite directions and the grain goes between then an is crushed/cracked. Some of them have the drive where one roll is turning faster than the other this make for additional grind action this type is used mainly for real fine particle feed like hog feed. This type is call a differential mill.

The type you would want for cracking corn would be what they call a 1 to 1 drive or direct drive.

Also some feed mills actually screen the fines out of the cracked corn to make it look better. They then mix the fines into cattle or hog feed.

Also look at the hammers on the hammer mill you are using. If the corners are rounded off they will do a very poor job of milling the grain. With good sharp hammers and a 1/2 or even a 3/8 screen you should be getting cracked corn with few fines at lower speed. If the hammers are rounded off then they will cause the feed to look like you are talking about.

There are small roller mills made for do-it-yourself operations that are just going to be making smaller amounts of feed. You maybe able to fine one of these that is electric driven. You did not say where you are from. Some of these smaller roller mills where used in dairy operations to roll high moisture corn as it fed in to bunk feeders and was mixed with silage. Many of these are no longer used as the dairies have gotten larger.

Picture of a simple roller mill.

JD is correct about needing a roller mill for your purpose.
Here is a PTO powered unit, but there are electric ones out there that go much cheaper since they aren't used much anymore. Most people use one like this.

Try taking the screen out completely.

I know of several that don't use a screen at all. Try that.

A hen has her own grinder, it is called a gizzard. You could try to run some corn through a garden style branch chipper. How many chickens ,and how much feed areyou talking about?

Anyone know of a roller mill for sale?