Hammermill Page

The Desert Harvesters hammermill is available for your community's milling event: click for more info

Brad Lancaster operating the Desert Harvesters hammermill

What is a Hammermill?
A hammermill is an industrial mill for making flour. Our community hammermill was purchased exclusively for making mesquite flour. The hammermill easily breaks up the mesquite pods and some of the hard seeds to produce quality flour. While not designed specifically for mesquite pods, it is the only tool that will make mesquite flour in large quantities, while also saving a lot of time compared to labor-intensive hand grinding or blender methods.

How Our Hammermill is Set Up and Operated
We use a Meadow Mills No. 5 hammermill mounted on a trailer for mobility. We chose a trailer with standard-sized automotive tires, since we found many tire repair facilities do not work on smaller trailer tires. In addition, the larger tires position the mill at a perfect operating height if the operator stands on the ground behind the trailer (the operator can stand up straight when feeding mesquite pods into the mill).

We now power our mill with a 13-horse power Honda GX390 gas-powered motor so we can set up anywhere. We originally mistakenly purchased a three-phase electric motor, but it was too hard to find power at most sites. A diesel motor would've been nice to enable us to utilize biodiesel or recycle cooking grease, but we couldn't afford the higher initial cost of a diesel motor.

The gas motor is mounted on an adjustable steel base bolted to the trailer. If we need to tighten the belts (from motor to mill) we can tighten an adjusting bolt on the motor's base that pulls the motor further from the mill.

We use a heavy duty 1/64 inch screen within the mill which results in a finely ground flour.

Meadows mills provided us with ductwork and a filter bag. The ductwork directs the screened mesquite flour from the mill's fan to the filter bag in which it collects. We clamp the filter bag to the ductwork with a bungee cord so it can be quickly removed or replaced as needed.

When someone brings mesquite pods to be ground, we inspect the pods to make sure they are dry (snap in two when bent) so they won't bind the mill from excessive moisture, and clean (no rocks, dirt, or debris that could damage the screen or mill). We schedule our millings in dry months after the high dew point of the summer monsoon rainy season has dropped, since dry mesquite pods will uptake some of the atmospheric moisture.

After inspecting the pods we run them through the mill. Once they've run through, we turn off the mill, empty the flour from the filter bag into a bucket, and we remove the chaff from atop the screen in the milling compartment. Chaff removal is the slowest part of the process because you must make sure the chaff does not slip by the screen into the lower compartment from which screened flour will be blown into the filter bag. Chaff must also be removed from around the mill's blades. All this can be done by hand, but the fastest method is to use a wet/dry shop vacuum dedicated solely for chaff removal. The chaff collected by the vacuum can then be reused to make mesquite drinks, mesquite beer, or fed to livestock. If chaff is not regularly removed, the mill will over work the motor and the pods will not be properly ground. For every 10 gallons of whole pods run through the mill, the mill is shut off and the chaff removed.

Eye and ear protection is required gear for all those operating the equipment.

Community Millings in Tucson
Desert Harvesters hosts an annual milling day in Tucson, Arizona. Our community hammermill does the grinding. The gatherings are usually held in late September/early October, so we're out of the humid monsoon weather and the beans have a chance to dry well. The only stipulation is that the milling be for home consumption (non-commercial) use only. Bring as many beans as you like.

An annual milling day is also held by David Omick and Pearl Mast in Cascabel, Arizona (just north of Benson). Contact David and Pearl via email at david@omick.com. or regular mail at David Omick and Pearl Mast, 5780 North Cascabel Road, Benson, AZ 85602. Phone (520) 212-4628.

The Desert Harvesters hammermill is available for your community's milling event

Our mesquite mill has been mounted on a trailer to make it mobile, so we can
take it around to various neighborhoods or communities wanting to organize
their own milling events.

What We Provide:
• The hammermill and at least one trained operator.

We recommend you first attend one of our events to see how we organize millings and to give you ideas for your own. It's up to you if you provide food or not, though we find food is one of the best ways to bring people together and to introduce them to the delicious potential of mesquite flour.

What We Provide:
• Rental of the hammermill is $100 per day for non-profit groups and $150 per day for commercial purposes.
• A $50 non-refundable deposit is required to reserve a date. This deposit will be counted towards the rental fee.
• The renter of the mill must pay Desert Harvesters staff their hourly rate for the set up and break down of the mill, transport of the mill, and operation of the mill. Two people are required for the set up, operation, and break down of the mill. However, the organization hosting the milling event can provide a volunteer to act as the second staff person. That way more people learn to operate the mill and the volunteer(s) becomes a trained Desert Harvesters staff person for future events. Note: Desert Harvesters does not provide insurance coverage for any volunteer help. If such insurance is to be provided it is the responsibility of the event-hosting organization.

Rates are as follows:
•0.41 cents per mile to cover transportation costs to and from the milling site.
• $15 per hour per Desert Harvesters staff person
• The hourly rate will be charged for:
- Travel time to and from the site of the event
- Set up
- Operation of the mill and training of host organization's volunteer mill operator(s)
- Break down and clean up of the mill

We recommend you first attend one of our events to see how we organize
millings and to give you ideas for your own. It’s up to you if you provide food or
not, though we find food is one of the best ways to bring people together and
to introduce them to the delicious potential of mesquite flour.