Does the monster mill drive the second roller?

I have a Barley Crusher and today for the first time I fired up the drill to nothing. The grain wouldn't pull. I stopped and examined and noticed that the second roller was stuck. I freed up the roller and proceeded like normal but I got my lowest efficiency ever at 66% and am rather upset about it. I examined again and the roller moves free halfway than sticks. I am looking at the Monster Mill but want to know if the second roller is driven by gears - the barley Crusher had a rubber ring that broke after a few runs.


Rev.

The Monster Mill (two roller) only has one roller actively driven by what you run it with (drill, motor, hand crank)... IME, the MM2-2.0 doesn't need to have gears to drive the second roller. I've run a good amount of grain through mine (been using it about a year now) and have not had any issues with it (at all). The longer, larger, rollers put the BC to shame. Even the base MM2 model has larger, longer, rollers than the BC (6" long, 1.5" diameter).

I had a BC as my first mill. I quickly got tired of the small hopper (could only get the 7# hopper due to what was available when I needed it). When I had the BC, you could NOT get the extension for the hopper from BC. You couldn't even get just the hopper by itself if you wanted to (poor practices IMO). So, I went to Monster and got my MM2-2.0 with base, hopper and hopper extension. I can now mill up to about 39# of grain at a single time (no more refilling the hopper). The most I've loaded it up with, so far, is 30# of grain.

IMO, upgrade from your little [girly] BC mill and get a MONSTER! I don't regret (for a nanosecond) getting the MM2-2.0 (BTW, with the hardened steel rollers, so they could probably mill a person and laugh at me). If I could do it all over again, I would have skipped over getting the BC and gone directly to the Monster... :rockin:

Ditto what Golddiggie says. I use the MM 2.0 and pump a lot of grain through it. I adjust the gap in mine down until it starts to bind, then back it up just a hair. I run 80%+ efficiency consistently. The hopper extension is great. I run 20-30 #'s through it for each batch and it's nice to just load it once and go.

I think the only mill that has a gear drive is the JSP Maltmill.

I guess I'll contact the makers of Barley Crusher and ask about the second roller sticking and see what they say. Until the batch before this one today I have had a consistent 81% efficiency but the last brew and this one today are seriously under which hasn't happened since I had the distributors crush the grains.


Rev.