My Ugly Junk- Corona Mill Station...

[smooreland]

You're right Rico. You'd really have to like burr mills to pay for one of these new. No way I'd pay that much. It does all come down to dialing in what you've got on hand and getting the efficiencies you want.

Unless you like grinding rocks a lot.

By the way Rico, were you serious about soaking cast iron in Oxy Clean? I think the result of that experiment would be hilarious!

Thanks for the input tho...

(mmm Jalepeno ale reminds me of the jap wine I've made.)

 

[rico567]

I don't think I'd personally do anything with it except run some corn from the feed store through it, like "wilserbrewer" suggested, just to knock anything loose out of the mechanism. Anything that goes through there gets mashed at Pasteurization temperatures anyhow, then the liquid is boiled for an hour. No worries.

 

[wilserbrewer]

"As far as the play in burr mill plates, here's a vid showing how much there is on this particular mill."

Your vid just shows how loosely adjusted that mill is, likely about where it should be to "crack" corn, I would guess. The outer plate "floats" on mills of this type. Observe it again tightened down and grinding grain to see if it holds true to the mounted plate.

 

[smooreland]

Sure thing, but I do want to do a few things before that. Plan to run a couple buckets of feed corn from the farm through it like you suggested.

I'll throw up a vid of the grind when I get my order in.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Twofox]

My mom has an old meat grinder that adjusts to fine, med, course. I'm thinking this isn't going to do the job, or is it?

 

[Ichthy]

My mom has an old meat grinder that adjusts to fine, med, course. I'm thinking this isn't going to do the job, or is it?

I don't think it will work. Meat grinders cut (with a blade) and press meet through a plate. The size of plate adjust how large the grind is.

The mills we are using have two plate plates that crack the grains open. The only real similarity b/w the two are the auger drive shaft.

Check out the video posted above for the grain mill and then look at a meat grinder that is diassembled and you'll easily understand the difference.

 

[Twofox]

Ok, that's what I thought. thanks!

 

[tarponteaser]

Thanks for the thread with ideas...I just scored a Victoria corn mill on ebay(after 3 weeks of bidding and not getting my price) for a great price and plan on going with unmilled grain on my next order. Just getting into partial mash and plan on going all grain after the next batch.

Regards

 

[RLinNH]

With your thread title, I thought I was going to see another Bret Favre Pic when I opened this up... :cross:

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Got a Corona for Christmas :rockin:

Now I just need to uglify my junk...probably should wait till the mimosa, bloody caesar, delirium tremens, hog heaven barleywine, and Irish coffee wear off though

Now THAT would be some ugly junk!!!

Merry Christmas, Go Cowboys, Hook 'Em Horns, Go SPURS GO, and Happy New Years!!!

 

[klyph]

I guess I haven't posted these in this thread yet, it's basically a direct ripoff of wilserbrewer's design, but the hopper is a bit different. I JB welded the plate with a small bolt replacing the cotter pin. This trued up the plate and eliminated almost all the wobble. I get a fantastic crush and have less than $30 invested.

 

[wilserbrewer]

There ya go...you must be a belt and suspenders kinda guy...ya got the mill clamped and screwed down...earthquakes up north?

 

[rico567]

Actually, I added the screws to mine a few months ago. I was running it clamp-only, but I noticed the mill was moving around some no matter how tight I clamped it. Of course, we're only 200 miles N of the New Madrid fault here, too....

 

[redgum]

This was the most fun two hours or so reading I've done in the past couple of months! I've got a Victoria which is soon to have some ugly junk mounting

Pics to follow (soon I hope). Thanks all who's contributed to this thread.

 

[klyph]

There ya go...you must be a belt and suspenders kinda guy...ya got the mill clamped and screwed down...earthquakes up north?

I tend to over engineer things by a factor of about 500.

 

[Clifton]

I use a Schmidling Maltmill.

Gesundheit!!!

LOL!! Thanks Revvy, I needed that.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I got my Victoria mill for Christmas and have it mounted (pics to come, I promise!) but am struggling with getting the plates lined up. I replaced the pin w/ a bolt but it is still a little crooked so the plates rub on one side, keep turning, no rubbing, etc. I have not tested the crush yet (long drive to LHBS) and am not going to get too carried away trying to get this thing perfect until I see if there is even an issue where it counts.

That said, I have read through most of this thread and have not seen anything about greasing these things. Dave Miller's old book says you should but just wondering if anyone who uses one does, where you apply lube , what lube you use , etc.

Also, do you do anything else to break them in? When tinkering with this I noticed some metal flakes as I was testing out the drill conversion...what's the consensus? Just a little extra iron in the diet :cross: ?

 

[Quaffer]

I got my Victoria mill for Christmas and have it mounted (pics to come, I promise!) but am struggling with getting the plates lined up. I replaced the pin w/ a bolt but it is still a little crooked so the plates rub on one side, keep turning, no rubbing, etc. I have not tested the crush yet (long drive to LHBS) and am not going to get too carried away trying to get this thing perfect until I see if there is even an issue where it counts.

This is just my impression, but I think the plates are made like that to be self-aligning. Once my Corona has malt in it the plates are not wobbling.

I like the feedback from the crank, it tells me something about how tight the plates are and the condition of the malt. But now that I hope to make more 10 gallon batches I will look into motorizing it. It is just too much work to crank it for big batches.

 

[dilbone]

I just picked one up this week from discount tommy...but I don't have my ugly rig setup yet.

I've spent quite a bit of time getting through this thread today...probably too much.

I can't figure out though why everyone is putting spacers in between the bracket and the body of the mill. Mine seems to have more than enough adjustment with the bracket flush to the body...what gives?

 

[Revvy]

I just picked one up this week from discount tommy...but I don't have my ugly rig setup yet.

I've spent quite a bit of time getting through this thread today...probably too much.

I can't figure out though why everyone is putting spacers in between the bracket and the body of the mill. Mine seems to have more than enough adjustment with the bracket flush to the body...what gives?

You're going to have to run some grain through to evaluate your crush. Without the spacers creating a gap you will get a heck of a lot of flour.

 

[dilbone]

You're going to have to run some grain through to evaluate your crush. Without the spacers creating a gap you will get a heck of a lot of flour.

There is a healthy 1/4 inch gap in there right now, I can't see me needing more than that...am I still missing something? other than the fact that I need to get an 8-32 bolt as well...

On another note, as I was inspecting this thing last night I saw a small hole in the cast of the outer burr plate...anyone have this? I emailed folks at DTX International to see what they can do. I hope they'll just send me a new plate and I'll send this one back. It probably won't end up being an issue, but if there's a weak point in the cast there could be cracking down the road.

 

[RegionalChaos]

I was gifted with a Corona for Xmas as well. Pretty stoked. I'm planning a double bucket mount like I am seeing folks do here. Looks good! As always, thanks for the ideas.

 

[dilbone]

Got an email back from DTX International about the mill with the bad casting job...they said they're sending me a new one...and that I can, "discard the old one or keep it around for spare parts."

Seriously...I was just hoping for a new burr plate...wow

Discount Tommy does take care of the customer.

I've been putting off setting up my ugly rig until I heard back from them, I guess I can start on it now...will have ugly pics soon...maybe two sets of ugly pics...lol

 

[camiller]

There is a healthy 1/4 inch gap in there right now, I can't see me needing more than that...am I still missing something? other than the fact that I need to get an 8-32 bolt as well...

Like most things with these mills, they are all different. Mine also does not need spacers. I also didn't need a bolt, with the cotter pin in the shallower detentes in the ring piece that holds the plate I have virtually no wobble.

Edit: I notice from your pic that the head of the cotter pin seems to be bent, which might cause you to have more wobble than if the pin was straight.

 

[dilbone]

Well, here's my ugly junk...looks just like several others here. HUGE thanks to everyone for posting your pics and ideas for all of us to cheat off of ya.

Should be trying it out on my first batch next weekend...hopefully I'll get a good crush.

 

[D0ug]

Can you but a kit to convert a meat grinder to do the same thing?

 

[rico567]

Based on the one we have (my Mom's / Grandma's), the answer is NO. They both work on the same principle, but the worm in the Corona mill pushes the grain between two plates, where the texture on the plates crushes / grinds the grain, while the worm on the meat grinder forces the meat out through a number of holes in the periphery of the front of the main casting. As the meat is forced out of the holes, it is cut off in small pieces by the rotary bypass cutter running on the front of the mill. There would be no way to adapt the meat grinder we have to grain, IMHO

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I promised pics of my ugly junk...

Victoria Corona knock off 2 bucket (thanks to whoever suggested getting icing buckets from the grocery store!) design with plastic water carboy hopper straight stolen from wilserbrewer...Thank you sir, you are an inspiration

I ended up using a heavy sanding disk on a pneumatic air gun to shape the wood down to final fit and it worked great.

All hardware is stainless. Added screws that stick out a little so the heavy upper bucket quit getting stuck in the lower grain catch bucket. Kinda wish I would have swapped buckets though...the mill is mounted in the larger bucket with the handle and the lower bucket is smaller, no handle, but that can be swapped out later!

The plates are really uneven on this one even with changing the cotter pin for a bolt. I will probably follow advice on this thread and put the pin back in, let the plates have a little wobble, and let the grains even things out

Now I just need to get some grain to dial in the crush and I am off and brewing. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.
Broke ass brewers unite!!! Brew on my friends

 

[Twofox]

I've got an old meat slicer that's missing parts for the blade attachement. All nice and chromed/stainless. Was thinking about cannibalizing that and using the motor to drive one of these mills. Been looking for a good pic of it, but can't find one off hand. Whattya all think?

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I've got an old meat slicer that's missing parts for the blade attachement. All nice and chromed/stainless. Was thinking about cannibalizing that and using the motor to drive one of these mills. Been looking for a good pic of it, but can't find one off hand. Whattya all think?

I think the only way that will work is if you post pics