Posted 10 October 2010 - 09:08 PM
My mill is direct drive, ive used a 12v motor and gearbox out of a childs ride on trike. Ive made a frame using copper pipe and a couple of bearings as rollers for the drum to sit on. To attatch the drum to the gearbox i opted to use the original set up, this was a big sort of 50mm hexagon male fitting that would have sat i the female socket on one of the wheels on the trike, i just milled out the same shape in the end of my drum lid, and i have a bolt that runs through the gearbox and into the end cap on me brum so when i tighten it up it pulls the drums female fitting over the male fitting thus creating a good connection between them both.
To control the speed i bought a variable speed controller of ebay for 30 quid and bobs ur uncle, ive got a fully functional direct drive mill capable of milling 200gram comfortably and 300 at a push. My only problem is i have nowhere i can use the bugger !!!!