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A Boy and His Mill

<p> <style><!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:16777216 0 117702657 0 131072 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Times;} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Times">Photo 2: I wasn't sure how long to make them, and a machinist friend who agreed to make the rollers obviously needed to know the length, so I found an old machine frame from the scrap bin that looked about the right size for a mill. It's the black frame you see in the picture. My machinist (names left out to protect the innocent since much of this work was done on the job) looked at it and said, &quot;why not make the length to fit the frame,&quot; so now I have 14-inch (36-cm) long rollers - about three times longer than necessary for my needs. The rollers are big enough for the likes of Anheuser-Busch, not a small brewery. They are made from 1/4-inch (0.6 cm) thick stainless steel pipe with end caps and an axel TIG welded to them. They were trued up on a lathe for precision and balance. I had him leave very fine tooling marks on them. They are a work of art.</span></p>

Photo 2
<p> <style>&nbsp;<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Times New Roman"; panose-1:0 2 2 6 3 5 4 5 2 3; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:50331648 0 0 0 1 0;} @font-face {font-family:"ＭＳ 明朝"; mso-font-charset:78; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:16777216 0 117702657 0 131072 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Times;} p.MsoPlainText, li.MsoPlainText, div.MsoPlainText {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Courier;} table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-parent:""; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 17.95pt 1.0in 17.95pt; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --></style> <p class="MsoPlainText">Photo 4: I only drive one roller now. I used to drive both, but I have switched back to only driving a single roller after I chewed through a nylon sprocket one day grinding for my brew day and not having a backup sprocket to replace it with. I also learned that large-diameter rollers require quite a large motor to run - a drill doesn't even come close. It takes a lot of force to crush the grain. Smaller mills use a more of a shearing action than a crushing action due to the knurls and small diameters, in turn lower forces are required. But it comes at the expense of a lower quality crush. I'm not knocking small mills, they do their job better than the Coronas do, but they are just not capable of producing the same crush as a properly sized roller mill.</p> <p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText">I feel I get a superb crush. I get tons of flour with whole shredded hulls. I've never had a stuck mash using typical malt bills, again wheat being the exception. I've always gotten 85% and better efficiency, and have even gotten 95%+ with partigyles and fly sparges. I try not to extract that high, however. I typically keep it around 85% to avoid over extracting. I have had friends complain about poor mash efficiency and when I offer to run their grain through my mill it always significantly improves their efficiency. I look at this as another proof point on a good crush.</p> <p class="MsoPlainText">&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoPlainText">With a flip of a switch I can mill about 30 lbs. (14 kg) of grain in less than a minute. It's pretty cool to watch. The added aspect of how dangerous this mill is makes it even more exciting. Someday there will be a news story of a man pulled into his mill and flattened into a sheet about 0.040-inch thick. That will be me. I've been using this mill for about 15 years now with out any type of accident, however, so I'll make sure I take my necktie off during the brew day, and I'm going to keep using it &quot;as is&quot; and modify as needed, when I get time.</p></p>

Photo 4


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