brewhappy

Recipes 

I bought a 1/2 inch corded heavy duty drill at harbor freight for like $35. It's worked great for 2 years now. It's variable speed so I can run it slow.

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starman

Recipes 

Definitely take it out of hammer mode. My corded makita hammer drill has too high of a slowest speed to work well. It tends to spin too fast and shred the husk. It doesnt have enough torque at low rpm. My Milwaukee cordless on the low speed setting works great. It does take two batteries to mill 25 lbs of grain though.

I malt condition (2% water addition prior to milling) and was having problems feeding thru the JSP stock hopper. Now I throw my grain bill in a pet food vault and rotate it around to distribute the water. When its time to mill the flip spout on top works well as a make shift hopper.

pet food vault

matt2778

Recipes 

I think you really want a screw gun instead of drill. My 18 volt rigid has no problem turning my 6" Gunnar maltmill. Unlike a drill which typically spins at well over 1000 rpms a screw gun usually runs at under 400 rpms in low gear. Personally I'm one of those twisted individuals that actually enjoys milling by hand (even at the painfully slow rate of 2lbs per minute).

starman

Recipes 

Maybe its a regional difference in terms but a screw gun around Chicago is a fairly high RPM specialized tool that drywallers use to install a bazillion screws a second. Mine doesn't evenhave a chuck so I'm not sure how you'd hook that up.

matt2778

Recipes 

Funny how regional terms cause descriptive conflicts. I refer to your version of a screw gun as a drywall gun(higher speed version) or a deck gun(slightly slower speed version) yes surprisingly there are two versions of what appears to be the same tool. We also call a miter box a chop saw, yet anyone who cuts metal studs will have issue with that term. In any event a cordless variable speed 18 volt drill/driver should easily turn the rollers of the typical home brewers grain mill.

starman

Recipes 

Yup haha, if a buddy wanted to borrow a "chop saw" he'd get the $89 craftsman with a cracked housing and an abrasive cutting wheel... definitely not the 10" sliding compound mitre saw.

Apparently the Brits would give you an old cannon if you asked them for a screw gun. This might lead to astringency problems due to shredded husks.

ArcLight

Recipes 

I guess I need to buy a drill if I get a grain mill, since all I have are a Corded 2800 5.2 amp Makita Hammer drill (variable speed - but I dont think it will be able to maintain 250 RPM) and a Black and Decker Dry Wall/Deck/Screw gun variable speed 2500 RPM coded drill.

For a mill that uses a 3/8 inch shaft, would it fit in a dry wall screwdriver? Or is there some kind of chuck I can attach to the dry wall screwdriver that would allow it to hold onto the mill shaft?

tre9er

Recipes 

A 1/2" drill, something approaching or above 10 amps, is pretty much required.

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Stauffbier

Recipes 

I use a half inch Bosch hammer drill on my Corona mill. I just turn off the hammer function and squeeze the trigger gently! I find that if I run it full speed it goes so fast that it will let full, uncrushed grains fly thru. Slow and low, is the tempo!

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ArcLight

Recipes 

What about 7.5 AMPs?

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html


Or will that not last?