How do I clean my new Victoria grain mill?

I got a new Victoria grain mill this weekend and it is covered in what appears to be oil or grease, I assume to keep it from rusting. How should I clean it? I could only find one thread regarding this on the forum where someone says you should wash it with soap and water then apply a coat of vegetable oil. Should I do this? I plan on brewing tomorrow so if I do use this method will the oil affect my grain?

Use a wet rag and some dawn or dish soap to remove the oil and rinse and dry it really well.

I would not worry about the vegetable oil.

Sounds good to me, thats what I was originally planning. Just wasn't sure if the oil was essential.

I washed mine with dish soap and a sponge and rinsed very well. No oil. Just let it dry well before you ram grain through it and make a dough ball.

I followed the instructions on this page http://www.motherearthnews.com/Mode...-01/Possibilities-With-Corona-Grain-Mill.aspx which seemed to work well.

Deadalive said:

I got a new Victoria grain mill this weekend and it is covered in what appears to be oil or grease, I assume to keep it from rusting. How should I clean it? I could only find one thread regarding this on the forum where someone says you should wash it with soap and water then apply a coat of vegetable oil. Should I do this? I plan on brewing tomorrow so if I do use this method will the oil affect my grain?

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Do not coat it with vegtable oil as after a while the vegatable oil with turn rancid and stink to high heaven.

I don't think I would be using steel wool on mine like those instructions advise. The cheap chinese versions are painted and this paint protects the metal from rusting. Besides I see no reason why steel wool would be needed. You are simply trying to clean off any machining oils, dust and dirt.

P.S. I do have a cheap chinese corona mill and the paint did test to be Lead FREE.

Makes sense to me as well, no oil. Wash it and dry it well (blow it out with a aircompresser if you have access to one) and then the first run will make grain-dust that will keep everything from rusting. I would do all three as close together as possible. From then on I would just blow it out with a aircompressor, right before I used it to crush some grain. I personally would only blow it out once every six months or so. That's just me, though.

Thanks for the info guys. I just used soap and water and dried really well. Then ran a pound of some old grain through just to make sure it was all good.

I don't wash mine either, except for when I first got it. I simply wipe it clean with a designated crappy paint brush. Works well.