Modifying the grain chest

The Houghton Mill grain chest

When we started milling back in 2011, we pinched the idea for a grain storage chest from this picture I took at Houghton Mill in Cambridgeshire.

Our grain chest

Note that it is aluminium lined to deter rodents, as is ours.  We built ours out of plywood with substantial angle iron corners and internal timbers.

Our chest differed in one important aspect - we built it without the front opening. I think this was probably for strength, but it did mean that hauling sacks of grain or boxes of milled flour out was very bad for our backs.  It was made worse by the fact that the internal timbers restricted the height so that 2 stacked flour boxes wouldn't slide the length of the chest.

So we set about improving things. We took the two internal timbers out and reduced their height to enable boxes to slide, replaced them, and cut a central door in the front. It closes against aluminium angle at the sides and slots into 2 bits of angle aluminium making a channel at the bottom. The door is then held in by 2 bolts.

Our modified chest

We thought it was a good days work