So I had a few pints of brew and an idea (DIY Grain Mill)

Has anyone ever modified a paper shredder into a grain mill?

I did a search for "paper shredder" and got no hits. Am I to believe I had a new idea no one else has had?

I was just looking at my shredder, and it looks like if you turned it upside down and hit the reverse button you'd be like 90% of your way to "modifying" it for grain milling usage.

So, before I tear apart my $19.99 Staples special (and piss off SWMBO) is there some inherent flaw in a paper shredder that makes it useless for this purpose?

I've read about it on here, but not sure anyone has tried it. The general consensus was that it would be more like cutting the grain than crushing it, which will give you a less than optimal filter bed. If you do enough modifications it may work, though I know you need a good strong motor to crush grain, I've destroyed a few cheap ones trying to build a motorized grain mill out of a pasta roller.

Hey, we're already on a mythbusters-kind-of-attitude. Just build, try it, and let everyone know how it went. Whether it works or not doesn't matter... just enjoy tinkering and relish the fact that yer tryin somethin new. :rockin:

Rice Hulls..........

why not just drop a single grain in there on its regular cycle and see what happens? Kind of proof-of-concept kinda thing.

I don't think its robust enough for any regualr use. Forget milling wheat malt. There is a reason most mill rollers are metal.

I tried this. At least with my shredder, it definitely doesn't work. The "crush" is just awful. Some pieces are (as one might imagine) shredded while many others remain completely untouched. And then of course you also have shredder oil all over the grain that makes it through.

Um, there's no gap setting. The rollers are half plastic and some cheesy soft metal. You'd be light years ahead with a cheap corona mill.

wildwest450 said:

Um, there's no gap setting. The rollers are half plastic and some cheesy soft metal. You'd be light years ahead with a cheap corona mill.

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Ah yep took another look, lotsa plastic in there. And yeah I'm guessing 15 pounds of grain would kill the motor.

You enjoy oil in your grain?

Yes it was tried here and no it did not work. Too much grain gets through the cutting wheels and the oils from teh nachine muck everything up.

IrregularPulse said:

You enjoy oil in your grain?

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Who knows it could be the flavor additive you've been searching for to make the prize winning brew! Kinda doubt it though