mistercameron
Well-Known Member
@Solbes: Great post. Those pics are really helpful. Do those tripod legs help the base fit over a bucket, or something?
What I wrote to the place I bought mine.... I'm not impressed.
I gotta tell you that I'm not all that impressed with the Cereal Killer Grain Mill. It was cheap and I guess you get what you pay for.
Here's a list of the issues I've noticed.
- Crank handle is too short. It takes a good bit of torque to pull the grain thru the rollers and this handle is just not long enough to do it. You can't keep any momentum going when your hand is traveling such a small diameter ark. Have you guys tried it? Now I realize most are using a drill or a motor to spin the roller. But the handle does not work so why include it. The customer is paying for it and it is totally useless.
- Play or slop in the bushings. I'd say there is .005 to .010" clearance between the bushing ID and the roller shaft OD. So you set the clearance with a feeler gage and what happens when the grain goes thru? It forces the roller out ward increasing the gap. The Machining quality is poor at best. The finish on the roller spindles (part that rides in the brass bushings) is coarse not polished like it should be. This will cause bushing wear and the bushing / roller slop (gap) will only increase with use. Poor Machining!
- Hopper attachment is weak. It is attached with two small machine screws into two half slots in the tin. The clamping force provided by the two small screws is low and any for or aft force on the hopper causes the hopper to break free from the mill spilling the hopper contents onto the floor.
In it's "as made" condition this grain mill is "rough". Obviously the "manufacturer" did little to no testing with it. It looks like he just copied someone else's design and went ahead with it thinking his design was good. If he would have put this mill in the hands of some brewers he would have discovered it's short comings.
nckellys said:What I wrote to the place I bought mine.... I'm not impressed.
I gotta tell you that I'm not all that impressed with the Cereal Killer Grain Mill. It was cheap and I guess you get what you pay for.
Here's a list of the issues I've noticed.
- Crank handle is too short. It takes a good bit of torque to pull the grain thru the rollers and this handle is just not long enough to do it. You can't keep any momentum going when your hand is traveling such a small diameter ark. Have you guys tried it? Now I realize most are using a drill or a motor to spin the roller. But the handle does not work so why include it. The customer is paying for it and it is totally useless.
- Play or slop in the bushings. I'd say there is .005 to .010" clearance between the bushing ID and the roller shaft OD. So you set the clearance with a feeler gage and what happens when the grain goes thru? It forces the roller out ward increasing the gap. The Machining quality is poor at best. The finish on the roller spindles (part that rides in the brass bushings) is coarse not polished like it should be. This will cause bushing wear and the bushing / roller slop (gap) will only increase with use. Poor Machining!
- Hopper attachment is weak. It is attached with two small machine screws into two half slots in the tin. The clamping force provided by the two small screws is low and any for or aft force on the hopper causes the hopper to break free from the mill spilling the hopper contents onto the floor.
In it's "as made" condition this grain mill is "rough". Obviously the "manufacturer" did little to no testing with it. It looks like he just copied someone else's design and went ahead with it thinking his design was good. If he would have put this mill in the hands of some brewers he would have discovered it's short comings.
What I wrote to the place I bought mine.... I'm not impressed.
I gotta tell you that I'm not all that impressed with the Cereal Killer Grain Mill. It was cheap and I guess you get what you pay for.
Here's a list of the issues I've noticed.
- Crank handle is too short. It takes a good bit of torque to pull the grain thru the rollers and this handle is just not long enough to do it. You can't keep any momentum going when your hand is traveling such a small diameter ark. Have you guys tried it? Now I realize most are using a drill or a motor to spin the roller. But the handle does not work so why include it. The customer is paying for it and it is totally useless.
- Play or slop in the bushings. I'd say there is .005 to .010" clearance between the bushing ID and the roller shaft OD. So you set the clearance with a feeler gage and what happens when the grain goes thru? It forces the roller out ward increasing the gap. The Machining quality is poor at best. The finish on the roller spindles (part that rides in the brass bushings) is coarse not polished like it should be. This will cause bushing wear and the bushing / roller slop (gap) will only increase with use. Poor Machining!
- Hopper attachment is weak. It is attached with two small machine screws into two half slots in the tin. The clamping force provided by the two small screws is low and any for or aft force on the hopper causes the hopper to break free from the mill spilling the hopper contents onto the floor.
In it's "as made" condition this grain mill is "rough". Obviously the "manufacturer" did little to no testing with it. It looks like he just copied someone else's design and went ahead with it thinking his design was good. If he would have put this mill in the hands of some brewers he would have discovered it's short comings.
Does the barley crusher have the same issues except for the crank handle? Alot of people are happy with their barley crushers and I thought this was a better alternative from reading other posts. I'm mostly concerned with the build quality of the roller assembly.
Do any other CK owners see the same things?
The dingy grey steel rollers seemed to spin fine with no issues on tolerance. My XRP drill was able to grab onto the shaft fine. However, when I went to set the gap, about 30% of the active roller on the side opposite the handle was out of round by about .017". You could see changes with the naked eye. So even when setting the gap to .039 in the middle of the variance, I would get gap fluctuations down to .031 up to .047. That was a major defect and deal killer. I requested an RMA and they gladly offered a full refund.
Does anyone have any thoughts on home made versions using concrete formed rollers? I found a few forums on ohter sites discussing the possibilities. Wasn't sure if anyone had some experience here with this.
Out of curiosity, did they offer to replace the defective roller or the entire mill? If so, was it the other issues (which seem relatively minor, to me) that prompted you to turn down that offer?
Solbes,
thanks for the pictorial. I got a Cereal Killer for Christmas. I hope that the workmanship is fine on mine. I think overall I will be happy with it, it just seems a little quirky... but hey that's perfect for me. This being my first mill I had no idea how to hone in on the crush I want and as my first batch with it I made a Bavarian hefeweizen today. I had mixed my grains, bad idea. Next time I brew with a large proportion of wheat, which is about 50% of the time, I will be grinding the wheat alone and then adjusting the rollers for the barley. I was trying to use a 3/4 dead cordless drill and it kept slipping, so after about 45 minutes of frustration I ran out to the garage and stole my boyfriends corded hammer drill, Amazing! But like a total girl I didn't tighten the thumb screws enough and the gap slipped open as I was crushing. Rookie mistake. Sooo, with a double decocted 2 1/2 hour mash I got 64% efficiency, when I've been at about 69-70% with this recipe in the past. Sad. I will of course not give up on it yet, I think putting the washers in the hopper, and really tightening the screws before running the super powered drill will make a huge difference. But what do I know, this was my first time.
...
I will say this - Jason has been very receptive and helpful. If you have any concerns, just give him a call or shoot him an email. Whether you end up keeping your CK or not, Adventures in Homebrewing seems like a pretty good place to shop.
Yes they are. I have orderd several things from them in the past and found excellent service and prompt delivery to me here in Canada
bottlebomber said:Its probably more of an issue with the bearings being pressed into off center holes than the rollers being out of round... they're probably just knurling bar stock which has been die-extruded. The company should replace these as this is a clear defect.
No you're right, if the holes in the frame were out of position the rollers would still spin true. I mean that the holes in the rollers are off the centerline of the roller, making it spin eccentrically. I don't have the mill so I can't inspect it, but Im reasonably sure if you were to check the rollers with a micrometer you would find that the knurled sections were round. My guess is that they clamped over the knurls in a chuck or collet and tried to bore the holes. Its hard to get good concentricity when you're clamping on knurls especially if it was a 3 jawed chuck.mistercameron said:I'm not familiar with the manufacturing process, but it would seem that off center holes in the frame would still produce true rolling unless you mean to say the bearings aren't true, which would make sense. On the other hand, taking the extruded stock and cutting it down to the shaft could produce the same results if the roller wasn't centered well on the lathe.
At this point it doesn't matter exactly what's wrong with individual components. I'm going to consider the BC or some other mill. I just don't think this first round of CKs are ready.
caphector said:Has anyone had good experiences with this mill? It's currently on sale for $89, and if I stand a chance of getting a good one I might get it.
caphector said:Has anyone had good experiences with this mill? It's currently on sale for $89, and if I stand a chance of getting a good one I might get it.
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