Evaluate my first corona crush

How does this look to your expert eyes?

I am a BIAB brewer so i believe that finer is better...

Also I havent modified with washers or anything, should I do that also?

Cheers guys!

J

How tight to you have it set? For BIAB, finer is better and my knock-off Corona style mill I have set tight enough that the plates rub when there is no grain. If your plates don't rub, tighten it.

BTW, when I first got the mill I tightened it up and cranked it with no grain in it to knock off any high spots so I wouldn't get metal particles in my grain. Seems to have worked.

Not sure my eyes are expert, but it looks pretty good. I hardly see any uncrushed grains. I also crush my own and BIAB. I did not add any washers to mine. I have a Weston/Prago mill. I milled about a half pound of grain to get the crush how I liked it and also to knock off any high spots/metal shavings. That stuff went in the trash.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Prago-Cereal-and-Multi-Grain-Mill/14223932

Looks pretty good to me, i don't see whole grains...do you???

The husks look a little more shredded than I would like but I sparge in a traditional manner. It looks like you are getting everything crushed very well, should work great for BIAB.

You could try to condition your grains to keep the husks from shredding so much. This is almost a requirement if you're going to be using a Corona mill (but maybe not so much for BIAB?):

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Malt_Conditioning

Works really well for me and it's easy!

Thanks guys, I will give it a go and see how my efficiencies turn out.

Can anyone give me advice on how to connect a drill to the corona mill?
I heard I need to cut the head off a bolt and use that to attach to the drill.

Could anyone send me a photo?

I've tried trawling through the ugly corona mill thread but there are 90 odd pages!

Cheers

My mill came with a bolt to hold the handle on (it was metric). I went to Lowes and used their sizing tool (or whatever you'd call it) in the hardware section and found one the same size, but longer and without the head.

Here's a sad truth for you (I've been in this job too): The employees at those big-box stores are often mind-numbingly bored. If one asks you if you need some help, tell him what you're trying to do. The application will be so unusual that they'll likely be interested in it and want to help you figure it out. This happened to me when I was putting my mill together.

+1

Take the nut that holds on the handle and find a nut that's about twice as long with the same threads and thickness. I used a grinder to make the bolt head square to fit my drill better.

Oh yeah, as said before, your crush looks good for BIAB. You've go to many shredded husks for sparging.

looks like what I get with mine, I'm also a BIAB'er and I get in the 80's for effency.

The crush looks fine to me. I also use a corona (marked "Victoria" and "500" on it) mill, and although the husks are somewhat torn up, so are mine, and I don't have sparge problems (use a Bargain Fittings braid kit). As far as a drive bolt, I just went to the hardware store and got a 13mm bolt that I had the socket for, used an adapter I already had to go to my 1/2" drill. The bolt thread is metric, incidentally. Take either the bolt that comes with the mill or the worm itself in to make sure the bolt fits. I think my bolt is about 2.5" to clear the side of the bucket.

You can view my setup viz:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/index99.html#post3974135