My Ugly Junk- Corona Mill Station... - Page 25

**rico567** · 08-16-2009, 12:27 AM

.....or not even cut the head off. I just use a 13mm socket on the bolt, with an adapter to my drill, and crush away!

As for the adjustment matters in "stuntmantoo"'s post, with me it was pure experimentation, with a look at some of the pix you will see posted elsewhere in this thread. My first crush was definitely on the light side, although the beer, which I just tasted will be fine- call it an Ed Wort's Haus Pale Ale "Light." I then cranked down on the Corona / Victoria / Grizzly's adjustment screw (with some encouragement from "wilserbrewer") until I was scared, then I tightened it a bit more. Now I'm hitting the Brix numbers on the refractometer with no problem at all.

Glad to see there are other "Ugly Junkers" out there who are discovering crushing on the cheap......

MVKTR2 · 08-16-2009, 01:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

If it is a corona you are talking about then all you do is remove the handle and place a properly sized bolt into it and cut off the head.

I'm guessing the handle screws in clock-wise & is turned clockwise to crush. To remove the handle you'd unscrew it by turning it counter-clockwise?

Thanks,
Phillip

**rico567** · 08-16-2009, 11:06 AM

The handle just fits over the auger shaft, and is held in place by the supplied bolt. To drive it with my drill, I just put the crank handle and bolt supplied with the mill aside, and went to the hardware store and got the proper bolt. It IS a metric bolt, I think about .125 thread pitch, but I took the supplied bolt to the hardware store to make the comparison so I'd be sure to get a bolt with the correct threads. I got a bolt that's about 2", that way it sticks out of the side of the bucket sufficiently for my 13mm socket operation.

boo boo · 08-16-2009, 11:16 AM

I used the drill for a little while and felt it was turning over faster than I really wanted, so I removed the bolt a put the handle back. I don't mind handcranking a 5 gallon batch of beer. I like to RDWHAHB when brewing, so I take my time and enjoy all the process.

**Stuntman** · 08-16-2009, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rico567

.....or not even cut the head off. I just use a 13mm socket on the bolt, with an adapter to my drill, and crush away!

As for the adjustment matters in "stuntmantoo"'s post, with me it was pure experimentation, with a look at some of the pix you will see posted elsewhere in this thread. My first crush was definitely on the light side, although the beer, which I just tasted will be fine- call it an Ed Wort's Haus Pale Ale "Light." I then cranked down on the Corona / Victoria / Grizzly's adjustment screw (with some encouragement from "wilserbrewer") until I was scared, then I tightened it a bit more. Now I'm hitting the Brix numbers on the refractometer with no problem at all.

Glad to see there are other "Ugly Junkers" out there who are discovering crushing on the cheap......

Hey Thanks Rico,
I was wondering how you guys were determining the percentage, now I know.

And "Holy Spent money Batman!"
138 bucks for a refractometer? That is fifteen gallons of Home Brew

You guys are into this! (Hmmm, I need to post my first thread...."Can you RDWHAHB, when you spend 138 bucks to see what the 30 dollar grinder is doing?").

Oh did I say that out loud? I was just thinking that...

Shoot after I did a few batches years ago, I stopped using the Hydrometer!

Of course I will be watching EVERYTHING closer and try to keep it all uniform, so that my tweaks to the recipes from now on will be benenficial. Now that I am kicking it up a notch with AG.

**rico567** · 08-16-2009, 03:57 PM

Go on eBay and get your refractometer for less. I got mine from something like "Happy Fun Luck Trading Company of Hong Kong" (aka guess who) for $25 delivered. It works great. It costs more than a hydrometer, but it also does different things. Once I moved to AG, the refractometer became just as indispensable as the hydrometer has been all along.

Just be sure you get a refractometer that's designed to measure sucrose (0-32 Brix scale); there are a number of different kinds for sale by the same outfit. Brix is no problem; the easiest way (if not the most accurate) is to just mulitply the Brix X 4 to get an approximation of SG. There are plenty of calculators on-line that will do the exact conversion.

**Stuntman** · 08-16-2009, 03:58 PM

Cool, Thanks again Rico.

I better slow down, got the copper to go get today and make a manifold (decided thats the way I want go on the MT). Have to get a 50 lb bag of grain and the specialties, along with yeast and hops for first batch (have no ingredients, because I was kit brewing). Need a scale...sheez initially putting a bend on my credit card, but in the long run, good brew and saving money.

Next weekend I will get a free 5 gallon plastic water bottle for my hopper. Bro in law is having a poker party, and he has one in his attic, the grinder will then be set (I will make one out of paper if I get antsy and want to make my first batch before then).

But twenty five is reasonable for an added item to keep me uniform on brews.
Thanks again

MVKTR2 · 08-17-2009, 04:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rico567

The handle just fits over the auger shaft, and is held in place by the supplied bolt. To drive it with my drill, I just put the crank handle and bolt supplied with the mill aside, and went to the hardware store and got the proper bolt. It IS a metric bolt, I think about .125 thread pitch, but I took the supplied bolt to the hardware store to make the comparison so I'd be sure to get a bolt with the correct threads. I got a bolt that's about 2", that way it sticks out of the side of the bucket sufficiently for my 13mm socket operation.

Thanks, that makes total sense!

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

I used the drill for a little while and felt it was turning over faster than I really wanted, so I removed the bolt a put the handle back. I don't mind handcranking a 5 gallon batch of beer. I like to RDWHAHB when brewing, so I take my time and enjoy all the process.

I'll probably give it a try hand cranking to get a feel for operating it on an upcoming batch of ordinary bitter, small grain amount

, then switch over to my electric drill with variable speed so it doesn't grind too fast.

Schlante,
Phillip

phatuna · 08-24-2009, 07:19 PM

For the life of me, I can't get the grinder plates to align correctly. I've installed the screw in place of the pin and I think that made it worse. Now I can't get the screw out. I've messed with this thing for a couple of hours and just can't get it.

Is it a matter of tweaking with it more? Or, when everyone else put the screw in, it magically aligned the grinder plates??

Synovia · 08-24-2009, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatuna

For the life of me, I can't get the grinder plates to align correctly. I've installed the screw in place of the pin and I think that made it worse. Now I can't get the screw out. I've messed with this thing for a couple of hours and just can't get it.

Is it a matter of tweaking with it more? Or, when everyone else put the screw in, it magically aligned the grinder plates??

I had to take the augur out and sand down the end of it to get the plate even close to flat.

The end of my augur had probably a 15 degree slant to it.