question on barley crusher settings

I have been using a barley crusher for a while, running it with a cordless drill.I am having no issues with stuck sparges or anything but am curious to know a couple of things. Can I crush the grain too much? I do get a lot of powder even at factory settings on the mill. Is there any detriment to this as long as I am not getting stuck sparges?

Second question can the mill be ran too fast? Is there any detriment to running it with the cordless drill full speed?

Maybe and yes. The grain can be crushed as finely as you like, so long as it's not shredding hulls. This may result in a stuck mash, but will increase efficiency.

If you run the drill too fast, it can create a differential speed between the two rollers, and can shred the husks. This can lead to extracting tannin's in the mash, and a grainy harshness in the beer.

As far as I can tell, crushing too finely will not affect the quality of the mash, just your ability to lauter.

But you certainly can spend too much time chasing efficiency. I'd say that if you are hitting around 70-80%, I'd stop messing with it and focus on other things. That should not be too hard to do if you have your own crusher and can adjust it to your liking.

Homercidal said:

As far as I can tell, crushing too finely will not affect the quality of the mash, just your ability to lauter.

But you certainly can spend too much time chasing efficiency. I'd say that if you are hitting around 70-80%, I'd stop messing with it and focus on other things. That should not be too hard to do if you have your own crusher and can adjust it to your liking.

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efficiency is generally 75%+ . Like I said, no issues so far just curiosity.