The sad tale of Victoria

My Victoria Mill that is....

I received a Victoria style mill last month so that I can crush my own grain. I am planning on brewing tomorrow and wanted to adjust the mill to get a better crush. My last crush was too coarse and so my efficiency was low. I delved into the Ugly Corona Mill thread and after finding some inspiration on ways to obtain a more consistent crush, I set out to remove the cotter pin and replace it with a bolt.

As I was removing the cotter pin with a pair of vice grips, I lost my grip on the spindle and it went crashing to the ground. My first thought was that the spindle was going to crack my tile floor. In the battle between the spindle and the tile floor, the tile floor emerged victorious. As luck would have it, the tile didn't crack. I wish I could say that the spindle faired as well. The grinding plate on the spindle hit the floor and broke in two. Great. I am hours from a HBS. I examined the damage and figured that I might be able to JB Weld the plate back together, clean the plate face of any extra JB Weld and still brew in the morning.

I went to the hardware store, bought some JB Weld and glued the thing back together. It is curing now and looks somewhat promising. I realize that I will need to get another mill as I don't think that my repair will be long term. I am hoping that it will get me through tomorrow.

Has anyone else had luck repairing a broken Corona/Victoria mill grinding plate?

I can't imagine JB Weld healing any part of my mill (JSP MaltMill). Good luck, but I'd say it's time to start researching new mills.

Well I managed to put her back together and was able to mill some 2 row. How does my crush look?

Mb2658 said:

Well I managed to put her back together and was able to mill some 2 row. How does my crush look?

Click to expand...

It is a little difficult to tell from those pictures but it doesn't look too bad. If in doubt run them through again.

I did my first grind yesterday with my Corona style mill and brewed today. I did not mess with the cotter pin area. I did insert washers between the mill and the "tension assembly". It seemed relatively easy to adjust. I ran my numbers through and online calculator (I forget which one) and think I got about 85% efficiency.

My repair worked and the mill worked up like a champ. I was able to grind 8 pounds of grain using a drill with no problems at all. I conditioned my grain, ground finer and improved my efficiency substantially. I actually had to add water to my recipe because my numbers were so good.