Monster Mill help

[Kershner_Ale]

I have a MM-3. I'm having trouble with the grain (US 2 row) not getting pulled through the rollers. The grain just spins between the rollers, almost like the knurls aren't grabbing the kernels. I understand the top two rollers have a fixed gap so I can't adjust that. The rollers free spin so I'm sure it's mounted to the board squarely. I'm using a 1/2" corded drill to power the mill. Any thoughts?

 

[stevehaun]

Is it brand new? I don't mean to offend but are you running the drill the correct direction? The only things I can think of is the knurls are worn or you are running the drill the wrong direction. The fixed gap is 0.060 which should facilitate moving grain between the rollers.

 

[Hello]

Is it brand new? I don't mean to offend but are you running the drill the correct direction? The only things I can think of is the knurls are worn or you are running the drill the wrong direction. The fixed gap is 0.060 which should facilitate moving grain between the rollers.

I did exactly this. It took about 5 minutes and a slight temper tantrum before I realized.

 

[Kershner_Ale]

Yup, brand new and turning the proper direction. I'll pick up a feeler gauge just to double check the gap.

 

[raysmithtx]

Yup, brand new and turning the proper direction. I'll pick up a feeler gauge just to double check the gap.

Instead of a feeler gauge you can use the thickness of a credit card. All credit cards are .030 thick. That's how I check my crusher.

 

[Kershner_Ale]

Good tip, thanks. I tried it again today. If I start the drill before dumping the grain it things seem to work fine. But I'm only testing it with 3-4 oz of grain at a time. When I use 25 lbs of grain for a Barleywine next week we'll see how things go.

 

[jmark]

I have the same mill and have all sorts of problems at any gap size if I condition my grain. I don't bother anymore, and now have no issues. A couple of other things to look at though - 1) make sure the gap is the same on both sides - the adjustment knobs do not necessarily end up in the same place, so you really do need to check both ends with a feeler gauge (or CC!). 2) check out the video below [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OauHVc9Idr8[/ame] After following the video instructions very carefully (and not using conditioned grain) I no longer have issues and I've ground barley down to .020 (not recommended - just wanted to see how far I could get).

Be patient... It is painful/frustrating at times getting the MM3 dialed in but once you do it's a great mill.

 

[Kershner_Ale]

I've done a couple test runs using 6-8 ozs of grain now and things seem to be working fine. Still not sure what's different now compared to before but its working so I won't complain. I do start my drill before dumping in the grain and it seems to suck the grain through just fine. Need to find a way to lock the trigger on at a low RPM so I don't have to manually squeeze it the entire time. Wish my drill was variable speed but it only has a 1 and 2 setting. Even on 1 fully squeezing the trigger is too high RPM so I have to go about half way.

Originally I had a 1.5" diameter circle opening where grain was leaving the hopper (an inverted 5 gallon water jug with the bottom cut off) and falling into the mill. In examining the crush I was seeing some grain kernels uncrushed. I think I was getting some spillage over the back side of the top two rollers. Thus some grain was falling behind the rollers and going uncrushed. I reduced the opening over the rollers to 1.0" diameter and that seems to have solved the problem.

 

[stevehaun]

Your problem may be your hopper design. I assumed you had a monster mill hopper.

 

[Kershner_Ale]

Your problem may be your hopper design. I assumed you had a monster mill hopper.

I thought that as well but even when I trickled the grain in I had that problem. But all seems well now so will run with it.