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Main
Date: 22 Jul 2006 08:41:31
From: Adam Preble
Subject: How is your mill set up?
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It's been a real PITA to mill my corn malt, but I think the main
impediment is something that is interfering with everything. Here's a
link to the mill:
http://www.stpats.com/mills.htm
The hopper has a bar running across it towards the base. You can think
of it as blocking grain from dropping straight down into the rollers.
Instead, it has to go around and come into the rollers diagonally. This
is a problem with some of my larger kernels.
After I milled the batch one time through, I went through again on the
same setting. This time, that bare is getting in the way of the
already-milled grain and nothing is running through.
Is something like that in your mill? I really want to remove it.
It took me roughly three hours to mill 9 pounds of corn malt. Even
malted wheat has problems here. The main issue is that I can move one
roller, but the other relies on the friction of the grain. If I can't
get grain in there, I'm just spinning a roller. I had to constantly run
my hand back and forth inside the hopper to get grain around the bar,
and I had to use small quantities at a time. So you can see how I'm not
getting 4 pounds a minute.
I'd try barley right now, but all the shuffling around caused me to lose
a screw underneath the baseplate. I can mill some more if I really
want, but it's getting late and I was starting to sweat into the damn thing.
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 14:31:49
From: Chris Kuether
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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Adam Preble wrote:
> The hopper has a bar running across it towards the base. You can think
> of it as blocking grain from dropping straight down into the rollers.
> Instead, it has to go around and come into the rollers diagonally. This
> is a problem with some of my larger kernels.
>
Well, I've got the BarleyCrusher and it looks *nearly* the same as
St.P's Automatic -- but there's no bar across the middle. From the
photo it looks to be about 3/8" diam -- too big to be merely decorative.
I wonder if there's a structural purpose for the thing.
If not -- I'd remove it, but can't tell from the photos.
clk
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 09:08:50
From: Bob
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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"Chris Kuether" <ckuether@houston.rrrrrrrrrrrrrr.com > wrote in message
news:pFqwg.5875$ST.1023@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> Adam Preble wrote:
>
> > The hopper has a bar running across it towards the base. You can think
> > of it as blocking grain from dropping straight down into the rollers.
> > Instead, it has to go around and come into the rollers diagonally. This
> > is a problem with some of my larger kernels.
> >
>
> Well, I've got the BarleyCrusher and it looks *nearly* the same as
> St.P's Automatic -- but there's no bar across the middle. From the
> photo it looks to be about 3/8" diam -- too big to be merely decorative.
> I wonder if there's a structural purpose for the thing.
>
> If not -- I'd remove it, but can't tell from the photos.
From the text "In addition, an aluminum rod provides additionally stability
(you
can see the pushnut on one end of the rod in the photo above.)". So, it may be
structural, but is probably easily removed by twisting off the "pushouts".
Bob
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 13:37:39
From: KGB (KGB)
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 08:41:31 GMT, Adam Preble
<rockobonaparte@hotmail.com > wrote:
<SNIP >
>This time, that bare is getting in the way of the
>already-milled grain and nothing is running through.
<SNIP >
Hi
Personally, I prefer my grain crushed between the bare thighs of naked
young virgins - mind you, it's not easy to get the young virgins
nowadays. 8^)
Regards (ah, if only it were true!!!)
KGB
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 13:48:45
From: Joel
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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KGB <FedUpWithSpam@NoEmailAddre.ss > wrote:
><rockobonaparte@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
><SNIP>
>>This time, that bare is getting in the way of the
>>already-milled grain and nothing is running through.
><SNIP>
>Personally, I prefer my grain crushed between the bare thighs of naked
>young virgins - mind you, it's not easy to get the young virgins
>nowadays. 8^)
It's even harder to find naked virgins with Thighs of Steel(TM).
--
Joel Plutchak "Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and
plutchak@[...] sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea
is quite staggering." - Arthur C. Clarke
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 21:23:26
From: KGB (KGB)
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 13:48:45 +0000 (UTC), plutchak@see.headers (Joel)
wrote:
>KGB <FedUpWithSpam@NoEmailAddre.ss> wrote:
>><rockobonaparte@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>><SNIP>
>>>This time, that bare is getting in the way of the
>>>already-milled grain and nothing is running through.
>><SNIP>
>
>>Personally, I prefer my grain crushed between the bare thighs of naked
>>young virgins - mind you, it's not easy to get the young virgins
>>nowadays. 8^)
>
> It's even harder to find naked virgins with Thighs of Steel(TM).
Hi
You haven't seen the women where I live!!!!!!
Regards
KGB
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 13:34:22
From: Joel
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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Adam Preble <rockobonaparte@hotmail.com > wrote:
>It's been a real PITA to mill my corn malt, but I think the main
>impediment is something that is interfering with everything.
>It took me roughly three hours to mill 9 pounds of corn malt. Even
>malted wheat has problems here.
If the mill is new, I would send it back for a refund.
It's clearly unsuitable for your purposes. I'm not sure I'd
mention corn when arranging a return, but the fact that wheat
also doesn't work well is certainly cause for concern. It
sounds like a bad design to me.
If you can't find a suitable malt mill, consider going the
corona route. Corona mills were made for grinding corn, and
are cheap and plentiful (what, $30 new with plenty of used
mills around). They're not ideal for brewing purposes (they're
made to grind more finely rather than crush coarsely), but if
you really want to use a lot of corn in your brewing, you could
go finer on the corn and either use rice hulls or enough barley
(assuming you're using it) to mitigate run-off problems in the
sparge.
--
Joel Plutchak "Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and
plutchak@[...] sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea
is quite staggering." - Arthur C. Clarke
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 13:24:51
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 08:41:31 GMT, <rockobonaparte@hotmail.com > wrote:
> The hopper has a bar running across it towards the base. You can think
> of it as blocking grain from dropping straight down into the rollers.
> Instead, it has to go around and come into the rollers diagonally. This
> is a problem with some of my larger kernels.
I have a Valley Mill, but there is no bar running across the inside like
you describe for your Automatic Mill. With mine, the hopper just goes
right down to the rollers. There are a couple "ramps" on both of the
internal sides to guide the grains towards the center, but there is nothing
blocking the rollers all the way across.
> It took me roughly three hours to mill 9 pounds of corn malt.
Yikes!
Is the bar on yours easily removable? If so, you could at least take it
out and see if that helps. If it's something you'll have to cut out them
you probably want to make real sure that's what you want to do before you
start hacking at it.
John.
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 20:09:05
From: Adam Preble
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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I'll update. I took out the bar by grinding off one of the push nuts.
Sometimes, the mill won't grip but at least I can shake or push in the
grain to get it going. It's *a lot* smoother now.
If they were putting that in for stability, I don't understand why they
didn't just put it in a little higher. The problem was when the rollers
weren't catching, I'd have to shove a little grain in there. With the
bar in the way, it was very difficult (and getting to be painful).
Now I have to plug in the little holes were the bar was...
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Date: 22 Jul 2006 18:23:53
From: Bob
Subject: Re: How is your mill set up?
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"Adam Preble" <rockobonaparte@hotmail.com > wrote in message
news:BBvwg.9871$YO6.848@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> I'll update. I took out the bar by grinding off one of the push nuts.
> Sometimes, the mill won't grip but at least I can shake or push in the
> grain to get it going. It's *a lot* smoother now.
>
> If they were putting that in for stability, I don't understand why they
> didn't just put it in a little higher. The problem was when the rollers
> weren't catching, I'd have to shove a little grain in there. With the
> bar in the way, it was very difficult (and getting to be painful).
>
> Now I have to plug in the little holes were the bar was...
Or replace it with a stir bar with a belt going to the crank shaft.
Bob
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