$60 AHS Mill

[Zuljin]

AHS has a bare bones mill of unnamed manufacture on sale for $60. I bought it and mounted it to the scrap wood table I built for my Keystone 10 mill project. I can unbolt the new mill and still use the Keystone on this table. The hopper is a DME bucket from a "The Home Brewer" kit. The chute is also scrap wood held together with more tape than screws. Ha! Screws. Who needs 'em?

Here's the mill, the factory set gap and the crush. Wheat was really taxing my 6 amp drill.

 

[tracyk]

I am also in the process of putting together a stand for the mill that I bought from Austin Homebrew.

 

[captgreg]

I just bought a diy mill from Austin homebrew too. Definitely interested to see how you guys set up a hopper and stand for it.


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[Hop_Water]

Just finished this on thursday, basic/temp set up ... An official AHS Mill thread?

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[captgreg]

What kind of material is that?


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[Zuljin]

That's a nice looking hopper.

I was able to dump 6 pounds of grain in mine at a time with plenty room left. The mill gobbled it up. I did have to brush some into the chute from the bucket hopper, though.

 

[Hop_Water]

Not sure to be honest...Im guessing some type of very strong plastic material I recycled it from work. Not finished yet...

 

[Hop_Water]

That's a nice looking hopper.

I was able to dump 6 pounds of grain in mine at a time with plenty room left. The mill gobbled it up. I did have to brush some into the chute from the bucket hopper, though.

Thank you. I sat around with cardboard for hours over thinking it. After checking a few basic hoppers out online I tried a simple (hopefully effective) design. Hoping to break it in soon!

 

[captgreg]

Looks like some kind of starboard material, think I have some of that at work too. Will have to play around with it this week. I've been trying to think of a good upside water jug hopper method . Are you guys motorizing your AHS mills?


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[Zuljin]

Just a drill on mine. Wheat is the only grain it had trouble with yesterday. Wheat is hard. I had to reverse a few times to unbind, and could really hear the drill working hard.

I crushed 18 pounds of grain yesterday. Aside from a few kernels of wheat making it through relatively unscathed, this mill gave a good crush good right out the box. So much so that I had my first stuck sparge. Granted, I didn't use rice hulls, but that's not uncommon. One of the lhbs doesn't carry them. Some of the crush came out nearly as flour. May have something to do with drill speed. I tried to stay constant, but know I didn't.

 

[Chrisl77]

Just a drill on mine. Wheat is the only grain it had trouble with yesterday. Wheat is hard. I had to reverse a few times to unbind, and could really hear the drill working hard.

I crushed 18 pounds of grain yesterday. Aside from a few kernels of wheat making it through relatively unscathed, this mill gave a good crush good right out the box. So much so that I had my first stuck sparge. Granted, I didn't use rice hulls, but that's not uncommon. One of the lhbs doesn't carry them. Some of the crush came out nearly as flour. May have something to do with drill speed. I tried to stay constant, but know I didn't.

I don't know what type of drill you have but you could get one of these speed controllers to plug the drill into if yours is compatible with it. I picked up one to control the speed of my grinder and it worked real well. Was able to turn the grinder down till it almost stopped. All you would have to do is make a platform to strap your drill to and zip tie the trigger.

 

[shelly_belly]

Nice, I like the fleur de lis.

 

[SpottedDogBrewing]

Here is what I'm thinking



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[tracyk]

I just bought one of those speed controllers from harbor freight to use on my chop saw to cut metal, but could always use it with the grain mill being that I will initially be using my milwaulkee drill until I can get a motor mounter on it with some lovejoy connections.l

 

[tracyk]

I just bought one of those speed controllers from harbor freight to use on my chop saw to cut metal, but could always use it with the grain mill being that I will initially be using my milwaulkee drill until I can get a motor mounter on it with some lovejoy connections.l

Here is where I am at with my Grain Mill from AHS. I just need to put a door on it, trim it, stain it and put a clear coat over it. Still have a few things to go, but hopefully by this weekend it will be done. I used an Ozarka water bottle for the grain hopper. That way I can load it up and grind away. Eventually I will put a geared motor on it, but for now will use my 3/8" drill.

 

[BrewingChemist]

so overall - what is your guys' opinion of this mill? would you do it again or buy something else? especially interested since right now i could get the barley crusher for 99-120$ thx

 

[jekeane]

tracyk: Whats going on inside your mount above the mill? Are you basically dumping into a "box" above the mill?

 

[tracyk]

Yes and no. I am dumping it in a box with angled sides on the inside so it will feed directly to the rollers. I can take the top off, for I have the 2 screws on top set in with a couple of threaded wood inserts on the bottom. Then the ozarka bottle sits on top with a 2" piece of PVC pipe to connect the two together.

If you do not want the DIY effect, then the Barley Crusher would be the way to go. I do like to tinker out in my wood shop so this was right up my ally. Especially with a $72.00 finale ticket cost it was hard to pass up. I have only crushed a few pounds with it on my drill which came out nice set at the factory gap. I certainly would only use the handle that came with it as an emergency backup though. Only has one screw to hold it in place. I will probably tap the handle for another screw to secure it more in case I do have to use it on that rare occasion.

 

[Zuljin]

Mine does have one minor flaw. I hoped maybe the drive roller was just not set evenly, but no. The shaft to the drive roller has a slight bend in it. Not much, just enough to notice. It makes for a bit of shimmy. No big deal for home use. I'd return it for an absolutely true shaft if I were milling 100s of pounds of day, but a few pounds a month, meh, I can live with it for the price. It still crushes great. No regrets.

Track, if I fancy mine up, I'm going to copy the daylights out of your chute. I thought of building it outside the mill, but slapping together a chute that fit inside was the easiest with scraps on hand. All I had to buy was long bolts and wing nuts.