Barley Crusher problem

[jajabee]

Hi all, just got my BC yesterday, love it! I think I need to widen the gap, though, it crushed my Hefeweizen grains a little too fine, had my first stuck sparge. What do you all set it to? I'm going to buy a set of those little gauges.

So, my 4 pounds of Pilsen went through fine yesterday, but I had some trouble with the 7 pounds of wheat. I had it hooked up to my corded Ryobi drill, and after going through about a pound of it, the rollers just stopped crushing the grain. The roller the drill attached to kept spinning, but the other one didn't, and no grain was actually being pulled through. I took off the drill and tried the hand-crank, which eventually worked (though it took a while, it was still free-spinning without crushing for a while). But it crapped out a few times again after that. I couldn't figure out what was causing it to stop actually pulling the grain through. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

 

[Catt22]

Be sure that the side plates that hold the rollers are parallel and not binding against the roller ends. I've heard of grain flour gunking up the bushings and roller ends. Might require disassembly and cleaning. You could try blowing it out with compressed air if you have it available. Maybe some food grade silicone lub like Lubrifilm on the bushings would help. I'm guessing on this as I do not have a BarleyCrusher, but just some possibilities.

 

[samc]

The rubber o ring has come off, that happens on everyone's BC according to what I have read. It came off within 30 seconds of my drill crush. Once that comes off only one roller is driven.


edit - you most likely need to adjust the gap for your grain now that only one roller is driven.

 

[BrewBeemer]

Be sure that the side plates that hold the rollers are parallel and not binding against the roller ends. I've heard of grain flour gunking up the bushings and roller ends. Might require disassembly and cleaning. You could try blowing it out with compressed air if you have it available. Maybe some food grade silicone lub like Lubrifilm on the bushings would help. I'm guessing on this as I do not have a BarleyCrusher, but just some possibilities.

Those are oillite bushing thick lube like silicone lube or grease will seal the pores of the oillite material plugging up the passage of oil to the spindles causing them to run dry.
They're call oillite not greaselite bushings there is a reason why.
I would take it apart making sure the roller end stubs are polished not full of machining or tooling production marks as well clean and relube with food grade oil into the bushings. Reassemble, align and try it again. Keep the end clearances to a minimum to keep dust and from collecting in the bushings.
I've had my hands on only three Monster Mills, mine and friends, I polished the spindles in the lathe, cleaned up the knurling from metal chips wuth dish soap and a nylon brush, lubed and set up tight clearances while assembling. Two out of three working without any problems so far, mine is still apart in the shop so no report on that one. A medical srason stopped me on my mill build.

 

[Sherpa FE]

Hi all, just got my BC yesterday, love it! I think I need to widen the gap, though, it crushed my Hefeweizen grains a little too fine, had my first stuck sparge. What do you all set it to? I'm going to buy a set of those little gauges.

So, my 4 pounds of Pilsen went through fine yesterday, but I had some trouble with the 7 pounds of wheat. I had it hooked up to my corded Ryobi drill, and after going through about a pound of it, the rollers just stopped crushing the grain. The roller the drill attached to kept spinning, but the other one didn't, and no grain was actually being pulled through. I took off the drill and tried the hand-crank, which eventually worked (though it took a while, it was still free-spinning without crushing for a while). But it crapped out a few times again after that. I couldn't figure out what was causing it to stop actually pulling the grain through. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

I've had the SAME problem, except mine has been doing this for about 6 months now. I have contacted the company, and they gave me all kinds of suggestions on how to fix it, or "common problems" but alas, nothing worked.
I am sending it back tomorrow for repair, or replacement.

It's frustrating, sepecially when you are trying to mill 32 lbs of grain, and it takes about 4 hours, due to all the emptying the hopper, start it with a handful of grain, pour in some more, it stops milling and repeat process.
For me, it would only mill for, literally, a few seconds, then I would have to take all the above steps over again.

Oh well, it wont be a problem anymore.

Best of luck to you, hope you get it working well.

 

[BrewBeemer]

Be sure that the side plates that hold the rollers are parallel and not binding against the roller ends. I've heard of grain flour gunking up the bushings and roller ends. Might require disassembly and cleaning. You could try blowing it out with compressed air if you have it available. Maybe some food grade silicone lub like Lubrifilm on the bushings would help. I'm guessing on this as I do not have a BarleyCrusher, but just some possibilities.

I would think blowing it out with compressed air will force flour dust and grain particles all the more into the bushings and roller spindles causing more unnecessary wear. This happens with people blowing sawdust out of tablesaw motors under high pressure then later end up with the motors ball bearings starting to make noise before failing later on. If it were my mill I would not do this.

I was looking at those large diameter nylon fender washers that a good hardware store would have that come in different thickness, add the thinnest ones you can locate or make your own, place between the rollers and the end plates. I dial calipered a set 1 1/2" OD by 1/4" ID by only .006" thickness nylon washers at a surplus store last week. My thinking is to mount the endplates on both sides, top and bottom on a alumunim plate 1/4" thick that is longer than the mills end plates for a mounting point of the mill from under the table as well for a chute below the mill to direct the crushed grain into the bucket. This to prevent grain from making a mess missing the bucket plus easy mounting under a table. Mount the hopper on top with threaded brass screw in inserts into a wood table with theaded knobs for holding the hopper in place. The 1/4" plates would allow maintaining the mills end clearances and alignment at a close tight clearance like 0.001 to 0.002" end clearance plus a siff frame to maintain bushing alignment, these tight clearances will also reduce four, dust and dirt from getting into the bushings extending their life in a cleaner environment. I was not impressed on the way my MM3-2.0 arrived as it needed attention before it could be used at all as a mill. I only paid $246 for this mill what was I expecting? Bushings to be fully pressed in or with a few thousanths sticking in past the end plates was their desig, I got one sticking out 0.084" causing the roller gap to end plates to be 0.084" wide on the other two rollers for a end float of 0.084" of clearance, not good. Production machining on the spindles with the tooling used was rough enough to eat up soft oilite bushings without polishing them first before being put into service. Done ranting about production quality control flaws. This made in America mill made me think it was more likely made in China.

 

[k1v1116]

It doesnt sound like this is your problem, but every few batches I get some grain that has foreign material in it (usually small rocks) they get into the gap and prevent the second roller from spinning so no grain is sucked through, the only solution I know of is to dump the grains back into the bag find the rock and start over.

 

[TommyBoy]

Maybe your drill is turning the roller too fast? (Not sure though) Next time try mixing some barley in with the wheat also.

This is weird. First time I ever heard something other than good stuff about the BC.

 

[Beerrific]

Wheat is much harder than barley. It (along with rye) can be a real pain to crush. It is possible that the tougher wheat kind of clogged things up in there. Next time try mixing the barley and the wheat before crushing. It make a huge difference.

 

[Catt22]

Man! Just take the mill apart, clean and inspect it closely. Lube the bushings and assemble it squarely. This is not a complex machine! It's a couple of rollers riding on bushings. It's not like we're dealing with roller bearings or something with a lot of moving parts. There could well be a manufacturing defect of some kind with this unusual malfunctioning BarleyCrusher. It has a good track record AFAIK.

Don't know what to say about lubing the oillite bushings, but I use Lubrifilm on them regularly. It's not really a grease, it's a much thinner silicone spray and it isn't sticky or gummy. I also use compressed air a lot to blow the flour dust off of the mill, motor and stand. It's never caused a problem with my mill and since I don't think it would be a good idea to flush the mill with water, it's the next best thing.

 

[jajabee]

Thanks everyone. I hope I didn't get a bad one. I'd rather not take it apart, and I don't really want to go out and buy stuff to try to make it work... the whole reason I shelled out the money for this vs. my DIY pasta-mill crusher was because I didn't want to have to worry about this stuff. I've got another batch coming up this weekend, without the wheat, I'll see if it goes any better. It really wasn't a problem till the wheat on this last batch, so that might be it. If so, I'll just remember to mix the wheat and the barley on future batches, that'd be fine.

 

[Blender]

Hi all, just got my BC yesterday, love it! I think I need to widen the gap, though, it crushed my Hefeweizen grains a little too fine, had my first stuck sparge. What do you all set it to? I'm going to buy a set of those little gauges.

So, my 4 pounds of Pilsen went through fine yesterday, but I had some trouble with the 7 pounds of wheat. I had it hooked up to my corded Ryobi drill, and after going through about a pound of it, the rollers just stopped crushing the grain. The roller the drill attached to kept spinning, but the other one didn't, and no grain was actually being pulled through. I took off the drill and tried the hand-crank, which eventually worked (though it took a while, it was still free-spinning without crushing for a while). But it crapped out a few times again after that. I couldn't figure out what was causing it to stop actually pulling the grain through. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

On my machine I sometimes have the roller problem you mentioned. I don't know what causes it but I just tap the hopper a few times and eventually it starts to crush properly again. I doesn't happen every time but at least one in three uses it occurs.

Your stuck sparge may have been caused by the wheat to barley ratio. The wheat malt gets pretty doughy and rice hulls probably would have helped.

 

[jajabee]

Well, I crushed another grain bill this weekend, and had the same problems. 7 pounds pale malt, 3 pounds wheat malt, 1 pound caramel 77, all mixed in together as suggested. I'd widened the gap a little too. Only worked with the drill for about a pound, then I had to hand crank it the rest of the way, occasionally having to stop, empty the hopper, flip it over, unstick the second roller with my fingers, then start over. I guess maybe some flour or grain is getting in there and sticking it, so it won't spin with the other one. But this isn't a common problem? I'm wondering if I should try to return it.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

I've had the same issue as well, and it's getting worse with every brew. Sometimes I can flip the drill into reverse real quick, then back to the forward setting and that will get it rolling again. However, each brew it's occurring more often and is harder to get started again. Any suggestions? Should I send it back?

 

[McKBrew]

If anyone is having problems with the BC and nothing is working, definitely contact them and arrange for a replacement. From what I've heard the owner of BC stands behind his product and would gladly fix an issue.

 

[luvmy40]

OK, this is just an off the wall possibility...
Check the eccentric bushings and make sure that are set up to the same position. It is conceivable that if they were out of sync with each other (non driven roller not parallel) that the roller could bind.
I have crushed upwards of 100lb. with my BC with out a problem.

 

[AnOldUR]

. . . Sometimes I can flip the drill into reverse real quick, then back to the forward setting and that will get it rolling again.

This is the method that I use also. I visualize the problem as odd shaped, hard or just plain stubborn grain blocking the gap. A quick hit on reverse redistributes it and allow the grain to flow again.

 

[Sherpa FE]

I've had the same issue as well, and it's getting worse with every brew. Sometimes I can flip the drill into reverse real quick, then back to the forward setting and that will get it rolling again. However, each brew it's occurring more often and is harder to get started again. Any suggestions? Should I send it back?

It will get to the point where it is impossible to mill grain. When you run it backwards, you put unmilled grain in with the milled grain, so your efficiency will suffer.

I ended up having to put my arm in the hopper and move the grain around the rollers with my finger tips. Yeah, yeah, I hear ya...I didnt look at that pretty warning at the top of the hopper...LOL but what are you going to do when you have to get the grain milled.


HELL YES send it back, its a lifetime warranty, and you should not have to pay for something that doesnt work as its supposed to.

 

[The Pol]

Send it back.... this "rash" of issues is new to me, I have never had this issue, and never heard of it prior to this thread. Maybe they got a bad lot out there.

In any case, they will want to see the mill, if there is a mfg. problem, they will be wanting to know what it is and fix it. Otherwise, they will end up like GM and Chrysler...

 

[EdWort]

I have crushed close to a 1,000 pounds of grain with my Barley Crusher and much of that is with only one roller turning with the drill. The other roller turns as the grain is pulled through it with the roller attached to the drill.

So far, the only problem I have had was burning up an old Craftsman drill. My new DeWalt rocks with the BC.

 

[The Pol]

I have crushed close to a 1,000 pounds of grain with my Barley Crusher and much of that is with only one roller turning with the drill. The other roller turns as the grain is pulled through it with the roller attached to the drill.

So far, the only problem I have had was burning up an old Craftsman drill. My new DeWalt rocks with the BC.

I got a low speed 1/2" drive Chicago Electric from HF... $20 I think and 8 amps... I run my mill tight and slow, I LOVE the BC and the low speed drill.

Like I said, send it back, your problem is not "common" considering the # of mills out there and the # of complaints I have heard. Which ammounts to about 4.

 

[Sherpa FE]

As a side note, it was frustrating me enough to resort to this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-grain-mill-cabinet-pics-124495/

Once mine gets back however, I will have a Barley Crusher for sale.

 

[jajabee]

Thanks everyone, Midwest is sending out a replacement now, I'll let you know how it goes. Fingers crossed!

 

[jajabee]

Just wanted to update this thread and say that Midwest did indeed send a replacement BC, months ago, and I finally got around to using it last week. Worked like a charm, chewed through 12 pounds of grain in no time with my drill, didn't hesitate at all. I'm very happy with both Midwest for being so cool about replacing it, and the BC people for making such a fine product.

 

[The Pol]

I posted in this thread about 3 months ago... in that time I sent one mill back and recieved a new one. My previous mill became completely UN adjustable, every time I tightened the set screws, it threw off the adjustment.

All of this became a problem after on of the drive roller shafts FELL OUT of the drive roller and the roller was hanging in there limp.