Corona Grain Mill Mod ?

I was recently gifted a new Corona (or knock off) grain mill. For those of you who have one and have moded it out, I have a few questions:

(1) I want to leave off the handle and attach it to my drill instead (inside a bucket). Is the a standard screw (or something similar) that replaces the handle bolt and will also stay secure in my drill?

(2) In dialing in the crush, about how much of a gap in the plates should I start with before fine tuning?

(3) Will it be stable if I leave off the stinky rubber foot pad (smells pretty bad)? or does the smell go away after a while?

(4) Any other mods I should consider?

Thanks!

legaleagle said:

I was recently gifted a new Corona (or knock off) grain mill. For those of you who have one and have moded it out, I have a few questions:

(1) I want to leave off the handle and attach it to my drill instead (inside a bucket). Is the a standard screw (or something similar) that replaces the handle bolt and will also stay secure in my drill?

(2) In dialing in the crush, about how much of a gap in the plates should I start with before fine tuning?

(3) Will it be stable if I leave off the stinky rubber foot pad (smells pretty bad)? or does the smell go away after a while?

(4) Any other mods I should consider?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

1) You can buy a standard bolt and cut the head off...and just simply secure the drill on the headless bolt. Or perhaps an easier soultion, and one I'm considering, is leaving the bolt head on, and securing a socket to the drill to drive the mill...or perhaps you could use a bolt w/ a female hex end, and secure a straight allan key to the drill...the advantage here is that when you need to mill, you just pick up the drill and mill rather than locking the drill chuck to the mill output. Best to bring the mill, or the handle bolt to the hardware store so you can be sure of the proper thread size avoiding a second trip.

2) Adjusting a corona type mill is usually best done by trial and error...perhaps start out w/ a credit card thickness and tighten from there untill you have absolutely no whole grains left in the crush.

3) The rubber pad is to avoid marring the finish on whatever the mill is mounted to, I don't use the pad and the mill is rock solid clamped to a piece of wood within the bucket.

4) as a matter of convenience, a larger hopper makes measuring grain and crushing easier.

IMO it is best to use a drill that has some b@lls. I have been using this one from HF that they often put on sale for 32 bucks.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=47991

See the ugly corona thread for all the info you could want in the link in my sig.

Happy milling!

That will get me started - thanks!

I also found it useful to chop up a round plastic container to surround the milling plate area as much as possible - that reduced the amount of grain and dust that wound up somewhere other than in the bucket below.

Thanks. I plan on doing Wilser's bucket set up and try to incorporate some kind of lid. Will see how it goes...

We have a whole huge thread devoted to corona mods and getting the most out of them here; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/

thanks. weekend go away from me. bumped to the top of next week's project to do list.