Grain Mill Recomendations

[JohnSand]

I love my Mallar's Mill.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

Depends on which side one mounts the drill shaft... if mounted to turn clockwise toward the larger side of the wood base your good if mounted the other way you need more hands. I used the have the same setup before building a wooden bucket/mill setup like above myself and motorizing it for my CK.

THe CK comes configured 2 different ways? Mine came pre assembled to drill clockwise.

 

[Aristoi]

I just built a motorized Kegco 3 roller, upgraded from a drill operated Barley crusher. Very nice indeed for the price, it very well outlast me brewing 15-20 5 gallon batches a year

 

[augiedoggy]

THe CK comes configured 2 different ways? Mine came pre assembled to drill clockwise.

im talking about when you mount it to the board it comes with.. You can mount it one way or flip it around and mount it the other.. one way it will just use the larger wooden side as leverage to stay in place if you mount it the other way its not as stable.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

im talking about when you mount it to the board it comes with.. You can mount it one way or flip it around and mount it the other.. one way it will just use the larger wooden side as leverage to stay in place if you mount it the other way its not as stable.

Dont screw it on that way

I forgot the base didnt come attached....its been a while

 

[bja]

I've had my barley crusher for 12 years. When it starts acting up I just clean it. Problem solved.

 

[beerbomb]

I wasnt being rotten I was being realistic. At the average 5 gallon batch it would take 23 years to reach 15K pounds brewing every single week nonstop...thats askin a little much

But ya I dont know how your setup requires 3 hands. Did you modify the base at all for some reason?

What do you mean by "small dowel pins"

No rotteness taken!
Ok my set up is a little precarious hence the 3 handed comment!
There are 3 short dowl pins drilled and glued into the underside of the base that are meant to hold the mill tightly to the pail underneath. They however don't fit tight enough to really work, allowing it to slide around.
The picture someone posted with theming pieces of wood protruding down into the pail looked like a much more stable set u p. Cheers.

 

[d40dave]

I took my cereal killer apart and realized this is the type with bearings but the bearing on the slave roller is falling apart. I cleaned the mill and put it together but is just won't mill anymore. Should I just scrape it or is it repairable?

I decided to get the Kegco 3 roller ($162 delivered). I was able to get it to mill at 0.32 but no finer in one pass. Today I tried it again to test various roller spacings and it's misbehaving. Sometimes it just turns but does not catch the grain, even at the coarsest setting. Eventually with some tweaking of the roller spacing it started. It seems once it starts it works fine but getting it to start can be problematic. Is there a problem with my mill or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

 

[augiedoggy]

I took my cereal killer apart and realized this is the type with bearings but the bearing on the slave roller is falling apart. I cleaned the mill and put it together but is just won't mill anymore. Should I just scrape it or is it repairable?

I decided to get the Kegco 3 roller ($162 delivered). I was able to get it to mill at 0.32 but no finer in one pass. Today I tried it again to test various roller spacings and it's misbehaving. Sometimes it just turns but does not catch the grain, even at the coarsest setting. Eventually with some tweaking of the roller spacing it started. It seems once it starts it works fine but getting it to start can be problematic. Is there a problem with my mill or am I doing something wrong? Thanks.

the bearing assembly pops out and there is the bearing assy part number on the bearing case.. google it and buy the replacement which are usually $2-5 bucks.
I dont know if your mill had a problem or your doing something wrong theres no way to tell that from here. you could try sharing more info like how you drive it and if your cleaning it and how. I can share that I have been using my cereal killer for over 5 years driving it with a motor through a large pulley belt system which should put more strain on the bearings than anything and my mill shows no signs of failure or wear thusfar. I have never cleaned it with anything more than a paint brush to knock of graindust and even that is rare.

I also have the kegco 3 roller at my brewpub where we have now made about 1500 gallons of beer with it and had zero problems. I'll admit I see not reason to play with the gap adjustment myself, when adjusting it before and after the first couple brews to get it set where I wanted I noticed the markings on each end are no good to go by. you need to use actual feeler gauages to adjust the gap evenly as I also needed with the CK mill where the roller would bind if I went by the stamped markings on the ends. I have heard this complaint about every brand of homebrewing mill from at least one owner.

The gap on a 3 roller mill doesnt mill the same way as a 2 roller
I have my kegco 3 roller opened up as far as it will open and the crush is still very good netting us 80-87% efficiency on our 3bble brew system which we are still dialing in. Even at this setting much of the grain is going right through the false bottom holes and I will be replacing my false bottom but for now I use BIAB material laid over my false bottom which works well.

 

[d40dave]

I'm having a hard time removing the bearing. It seems to be pressed in pretty tightly. Is there some sort of trick to it.

The rollers on the kegco can be adjusted either clockwise or counterclockwise. Someone suggested that I adjust the roller in the opposite direction. It seems to have helped but only time will tell.

How do you measure the gap with feeler gauges. I find that I need to take off the hopper and front an back plates. Is that what you need to do. Thanks

 

[d40dave]

I just came across this video, it seems to confirm that I adjusted the rollers in the wrong direction. At about 6:00 he discusses this.

 

[augiedoggy]

try a wooden dowel and tapping the bearing out to remove it.

 

[d40dave]

The bearing that fell apart is pressed into the "slave" roller. There is no way to get behind it. The roller is solid. The "master" roller has it's bearing in the body. These should be easy to remove. None of the bearings turn. They act more like bushings. I can get the 4 bushings for about $12. Maybe I will try to fix it. I ended up removing the one bearing with a grinder attachment on my Dremel.

 

[d40dave]

I got my replacement bearings and now the cereal killer works great.

 

[tellyho]

I think I'm late to the game, but you need a blind bearing puller for this. Replaced bearing in my cereal killer a couple years ago after using my compressor to clean. Now I use vacuum.