Just picked an old grain mill... have ???'s

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John Beere

Deep Six Brewing Co.
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Just picked up this grain mill at a garage sale for $10. The guy didn't know anything about it or what it was... Its old but had never even been put together. There is some surface rust on the rollers - don't know if thats going to be a problem or not. The rollers are 10" long and its fixed at about a 1/16" gap as best I can tell.

I had a sticker on it that says "MaltMill" by JSP (Jack Schmidling Productions out of Chicago).

So is it worth a damn? Is the fixed gap decent?

mill1.jpg


mill2.jpg
 
You got a hell of a deal. Take a wire brush and clean those rollers off and run some junk grain through it and then re-wire brush it again.
 
What a bargain, you got it for pennies on the dollar! Clean it up as others have said, then put some two row through it.

Only by examining the results will you know if the gap is correct or not. Ideally the husk should be left in several 'canoe' shaped pieces, and the kernel itself broken into two or three chunks.

Post a photo if you can.
 
Hey,
If you can't clean up the rollers, the Maltmill comes with a lifetime warranty!

They should fix it for you.

It is probably worth contacting JSP and seeing if replacement rollers are available.

-a.
 
You will be fine with that mill. I did not have a mill until this christmas(thanks to my dad who likes to drink my home brew) and i went over to a friends house to use his and he uses that very mill. 10 bucks huh, 125 at my LHBS.
 
One of the LHBS uses this mill for specialty grains (so the BIG mill doesn't get contaminated with dark grain). The BIG mill (you have to be 6'2" or over to use it) is a custom job.
 
I made an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee (~80 miles each way) today because our Best Buy doesn't stock the Sanyo fridge I'm turning into a kegerator... stopped by the Homebrew Den there and noticed they were using the same mill although theirs seemed to have a slightly larger gap and the rollers had a different pattern. Unfortunately I didn't get to talk to them much as they were busy and my kids were showing their arses.

Thanks for the advice. I'm off to go see if I can clean it up!
 
I just scored one at my local brew store used for $20.00. It has adjustable rollers on it but the hopper is cracked. It looks like a screw fell out so they put too large of screw to replace it and cracked the wood. Other then that this thing works like a champ. I'm super stoked!
 
This will be fine; the corrosion doesn't look that extensive. As someone said, maybe wire brush it a bit -or not- and run a pound of rice through it to clean the rollers off. Then you should be good to go. As long as there's no loose rust left on it, no harm done. Great bargain.....now to couple a nice AC drill to that thing.
 
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