Anyone try those cheap eBay motorized grain mills?

[RampantOctopus]

That’s awesome. I did pull the trigger on the cereal killer and will use a drill for now— that motor looks pretty ideal for a long term solution. Thanks for sharing those pics.

 

[day_trippr]

I would be impressed if a 35 inch pound gear motor even at that slooow speed would work with a 3 roller mill. My gear motor spins at 180 rpm output shaft speed but it is only rated for 40 inch pounds (36 in reverse) and there have been "events" over the years driving my old BC 2 roller and once with my CK 2 roller where it bogged to a stop (conditioned malt husks forming a husk log)...

Cheers!

 

[ITV]

Cons:
# As was talked about before and from my other comment - it's slow. The motor is speedy, but the reducer gear slows it down. This is obviously turning speed into torque. I considered getting a new stepper gear to speed it up, but why polish a turd? How slow, you ask? About 9# of grain in 20 minutes.

9# of grain in 20 minutes would drive me nuts, on the other hand it would keep up with filling my brew kettle with my RO water filter system.

 

[odie]

I bought that exact mill. Probably from that seller. I think we landed on a $145 offer if you care to know. I didn't buy it as my forever mill. I just needed something to get me by for a couple years. I've had it for about a year and a half and use it very regularly - about once a week. Here's a bit of a breakdown of my impressions:

Pros:
# It's cheap. As mills go, it's a pretty good bargain.
# It does the job. It mills grains as you would expect. I don't hear the motor laboring, but that's likely because of the reducer gear (more on that later)
# it uses a standard computer cable so my 6 foot one works just fine.
# It's easy to adjust and I've only had to adjust it once.

Cons:
# As was talked about before and from my other comment - it's slow. The motor is speedy, but the reducer gear slows it down. This is obviously turning speed into torque. I considered getting a new stepper gear to speed it up, but why polish a turd? How slow, you ask? About 9# of grain in 20 minutes.
# Hopper assembly. This is a joke... It is so flimsy. Simple tab and slot design makes it feel even cheaper than it is. Not something that wasn't overcome by a few strategically placed pop rivets.
# Hopper size. It will only hold about 4 - 5 #s. I have to top it up at least once when milling.

Neutral:
# I will outlive it. I knew this going in though. I just needed something to get me by.
# The set screws when hand tightened will not hold it. I have to use pliers to give it that extra twist to keep it from going out of gap. It feels like you could easily strip it, but I haven't so I'm just neutral on this.
# A few times I turned it on, poured the grain in, and nothing is milling. I hit reverse then forward and it starts going. Not sure what makes that happen or if that happens with better mills, but it's only happened a couple times.
# It's kinda awkward sitting on my bucket. Not a fear that it will fall really. There's just not a whole lot that tells you "this is where the bucket goes".

At the end of the day it does work as advertised. Hope that answered most of your questions.

I'm also looking at this grain mill. I see several on ebay and the same looking mills on Amazon. One thing I do notice and that I really want is a gear driven second roller. Most of these ebay ones like you just bought show gears on the roller shafts in some pictures. But sometimes show a couple pictures without the gears on the same ebay listing. Did yours come with gears?

20 minutes sounds kinda long, but then I think about how much time my hand drill powered one takes and having to sit there and hold the drill verses dump grain in and walk away for a few minutes...well that is not a bad trade off IMO

 

[RampantOctopus]

I'm also looking at this grain mill.

IDK about that one, but I wound up grabbing the Cereal Killer with a plan to use it with a drill. I'll let you know how it goes when I get it. It'll be cheaper out of pocket for me anyway...

 

[ChiknNutz]

Point of comparison, I recently bought my first mill...the Cereal Killer from AIH. I first used it in "manual" mode and then of course quickly grew tired of that. For my second batch I grabbed my simple 12V Ridgid drill, used it on the low speed (0-350 RPM). While 350 RPM may be a little too fast it worked perfectly fine and gobbled up 13 lbs of grain in short order with no complaints at all. This may not be the best long term solution but it worked just fine.

 

[Spikybits]

IDK about that one, but I wound up grabbing the Cereal Killer with a plan to use it with a drill. I'll let you know how it goes when I get it. It'll be cheaper out of pocket for me anyway...

I've had a Cereal Killer now for a year and change. I have put several hundred pounds through it using a harbor freight drill. You'll be happy.