WTD - grain mill

[MarkMayf]

Hi,

Is anyone selling a grain mill?

Cocked up and bought whole grains, but don't have the cash to buy a new mill.

Thanks

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi @MarkMayf
Not for sale, but if you want to bring grain through to Donny, you could use my mill.

 

[Dutto]

It may be your lucky day!

If money is tight (but not totally unobtainable) then I'd go for one of these ...

https://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.u...WD=mill&PN=Basic_Malt_Grain_Mill.html#SID=271

It can be bolted to a plank and used manually for now and in time you can build it up to make it into a very easy to use and efficient Mill.

Buying whole grain has three major benefits:

1. Whole grain is a lot cheaper.
2. Whole grain keeps for a lot longer.
3. You can vary the mill size from just cracking the grain all the way to grinding flour.

I got one and knocked up this set-up with the Mill, a length of wood (to raise the Mill), an old FV, an SD Drill. (Plus a bolt and a CV joint and connector from an old tool-kit).

It took my about an hour to build and the grains can be milled as per the photograph below and finer if required.

Enjoy!

 

[MarkMayf]

I think I'll go for one of those then! Thank you

 

[MyQul]

If you are just milling speciallty grains go for the one dutto suggests. Milling ALL the grain (the base malt as well) with one of those corona knock off's can be a really pain unless you've got a drill set up like the one dutto has.
This is basically what I do. I buy my base malt crushed but my specialty malts uncrushed and crush it with a corona mill knock off like the one in dutto's piccy. That way I can keep my specialty malt fresh for as long as I want

 

[MarkMayf]

Arrived yesterday. Build quality, erm isnt there.

How do you set the thing up? I seem to get it locked together or nearly falling apart!

 

[Cwrw666]

Milling ALL the grain (the base malt as well) with one of those corona knock off's can be a really pain

I don't find it too bad - I'm usually grinding 6 or 7 Lbs as I tend to do 4 gallon brews these days. I fill my boiler and put it on to heat up and grind my grain and weigh out any speciality grains and it still gives me a 5 minute sit down until the water's up to mash temperature. Grinding by hand that is.
I found my efficiency went through the roof when I started grinding my own grain. Possibly because I use a finer grind. I do BIAB so don't have to worry about stuck mashes.

 

[Dutto]

My advice is to:

1. Put it all together BUT DON'T TURN THE HANDLE!
2. Get a old Credit Card and cut it into two pieces.
3. Adjust the screw at the end so that the grinding faces are parallel and gripping the two pieces of Credit Card.
4. Remove the Credit Card and give the handle an experimental turn. (It will "clank", but if it doesn't turn at all then you have done something wrong so start again!)
5. Screw the Mill to something solid like the edge of a bench.
6. Put some malt into the hopper and gently turn the handle.
7. The Mill will stop "clanking" when it starts to mill the grain.
8. When you see the grain it will probably not be as well milled as you wish because a Credit Card is kind of halfway between where it should be (it will mill the malt too fine) and two thicknesses is a bit too wide (it will mill the grain too coarse). This is why I use a Feeler Gauge at about 1.5mm.

I've done a few "mods" to mine and there are a number of You Tube mods to look at like this one ...



Enjoy.

 

[Dutto]

Here's a few photographs of my mods.

1. I took a 10mm bit and milled out the end so that the ball-bearing would have a better fit. I then removed the spring that retained the ball-bearing because I don't adjust it very often and don't take it apart. (The only time I did this the fecking BB fell out and rolled under a fridge; and it took ages to recover!)

2. I changed out all of the bolts and butterfly nuts for stainless steel ones. In the photograph below the two grinding faces are parallel and it's set for milling.

A superb bit of kit FOR THE PRICE!

However, I have never tried milling it by hand! Instead I use an old SDS Drill as per this set up ...

... where I use a chuck, 3" x ¼" connector, a velocity joint and a bolt that replaces the handle. The set-up allows the drill to shuggle about a bit during milling and saves me having to fix everything to the bench.

It takes me much less than 10 minutes to mill 5kg of grain; which is the capacity of the FV before the milled grain reaches the level of the inlet bolt and starts spilling out.

Enjoy!

 

[MarkMayf]

Interesting thanks Dutto.

I've copied your setup with the spacer nuts between the butterfly nuts and it seems much better.

Will try with the credit cards to make sure it's parallel

Thank you

 

[MarkMayf]

Success! Crushed Vienna.

 

[Dutto]

That looks fine!!

Personally, I would grind it a bit finer because I back fill the Mash Tun and use a perforated pipe system so I've never had "dough balls" or a "stuck mash" (i.e. one that wouldn't drain and sparge properly).