Grain mill drill

[fury_tea]

What kind of drill do you use for your grain mill?

I have a handheld black n decker that's ok but it lacks power and I have a plug in drill don't even know the make but it's old and cheap. Can drill a hole in a wood beam just fine but a few mins of crushing makes it sweat smoke. And even on its lowest speed it still rips through the grain in a way that is not helping my mash consistency...

Anyone got an idea for a cheap but pretty good drill? Is an SDS too much? Happy to go second hand if I get a better, but used, drill

 

[foxy]

I use an old 18v Makita 8390D the slow speed is perfect for grain crush speed.
I can generally get through 12- 15 kg of grain on one charge.

 

[LeeH]

18v Brushless Dewalt on speed 1 as that’s what’s in the garage. Any half decent 18v will do.

SDS is pointless as you could not use that function.

 

[chrisbjones202]

18v Brushless Dewalt on speed 1 as that’s what’s in the garage. Any half decent 18v will do.

SDS is pointless as you could not use that function.

That's what I use although before that I used a 10.8v Dewalt, was plenty powerful enough. The price of decent cordless has come down so much in recent years. SDS inefficient for anything but masonry or chisel use.

 

[jeg3]

I use a Titan £50 cordless from screwfix. It's variable speed and does the job brilliantly. Crushes 5 kilos of grain in a few minutes with zero fuss

 

[user 18729]

Something cheap and with variable speed is all you need. I use a cheap £40 18V lithium drill from the tat-isle in Aldi on the slow setting

 

[jeg3]

What kind of drill do you use for your grain mill?

I have a handheld black n decker that's ok but it lacks power and I have a plug in drill don't even know the make but it's old and cheap. Can drill a hole in a wood beam just fine but a few mins of crushing makes it sweat smoke. And even on its lowest speed it still rips through the grain in a way that is not helping my mash consistency...

Anyone got an idea for a cheap but pretty good drill? Is an SDS too much? Happy to go second hand if I get a better, but used, drill

Using my SDS monster on a tiny grain millwould be like that V8 blender they made on Top Gear!

 

[cheeseyfeet]

I got a silver crest paint mixer drill for about 50 quid on Amazon, high torque and low speed.

Does the job very nicely.

 

[fury_tea]

I got a silver crest paint mixer drill for about 50 quid on Amazon, high torque and low speed.

Does the job very nicely.

Just what I was looking for, just got one on eBay for 30 quid. Cheers

 

[Clint]

 

[jeg3]

View attachment 40680

That would be easier than handle supplied with my bulldog mill...

 

[fury_tea]

View attachment 40680

Great, does it come supplied with a labourer?

 

[Gerryjo]

View attachment 40680

The essential tool of many sparks and plumbers of years gone by,any wonder there were big burly lads on building sites where they actually had to endure physical work and maybe finished a day's work quaffing beer...

 

[clyne]

Out of interest, why low speed?

 

[jeg3]

Out of interest, why low speed?

It needs to be about 200 rpm to separate the husk but not shred it. Anything too fast risks shredding the husk which in theory imparts off flavours. Also whole they aid with filtering

 

[Cwrw666]

Anything too fast risks shredding the husk which in theory imparts off flavours.

My grinder pretty much grinds everything to dust/small pieces including the husk. Not a hint of off flavours.

 

[fury_tea]

My grinder pretty much grinds everything to dust/small pieces including the husk. Not a hint of off flavours.

I'm using a Robobrew, prone to stuck/super slow sparges, channelling and all the efficiency issues related to that. I had success with grain husks but it's quite expensive when you can get it free from tne husk itself. Now I wet condition and put through the grain mill as slow as possible but that was wrecking my cheapo low power drill.

 

[Bill_g]

I use an 18V DeWalt with gearbox set to 1. But it's not a very demanding job for a drill like that. Ikea sell cordless screwdriver/drills for £19 and I reckon would be ok. We used the motors out of these cheap drills for a project and they were supprisingly powerful.

 

[jeg3]

My grinder pretty much grinds everything to dust/small pieces including the husk. Not a hint of off flavours.

I read somewhere that dependent on the grain type and the mash temp crushed husk could impart some bitterness. Having said that, I've never had any problems either, hence why I added "in theory". I think in reality there are multiple sources in my setup for inconsistency outside of the grain mill speed!

 

[Hop_it]

I'm using a Robobrew, prone to stuck/super slow sparges, channelling and all the efficiency issues related to that. I had success with grain husks but it's quite expensive when you can get it free from tne husk itself. Now I wet condition and put through the grain mill as slow as possible but that was wrecking my cheapo low power drill.

I've been watching this thread for a few days now. I also use a Robobrew, and have suffered the same problems as fury_tea. I've only been grinding my own grain for a short while, so I'm still experimenting with mill gaps and/or wet conditioning. However, my best result so far has been a 1.2mm gap plus wet conditioning. But the downside is that although my drill (an old 12v B&D) will run slow enough, it has to work really hard with the damp grain. . . . . . and I don't think that its going to take much more of it. In these circumstances you need lots of low speed torque. The paint mixer idea sounds like a good solution, but I'd like to get something that I can also use for general DIY . . . . . because I don't mix a lot of paint. So, a good quality low speed cordless drill would appear to be the best solution for me