My Ugly Junk- Corona Mill Station...

[CidahMastah]

Yupp, learned about it here on HBT from BrewKaiser. I use 2% water by weight of the malt, soaking for 20-30 minutes before milling.



It is a little messier, but not bad. Presoaking allows me to use a more aggressive mill setting without shredding the husks. The husks get kind of leathery. I get about 86% brew house efficiency, give or take a few percent depending on recipe.

Very cool. I feel like here we need to insert the chimes (**the more you know**)

Interesting stuff

 

[originalben]

taken directly from this thread, of course...

Does this degree of milling appear sufficient?
I did insert a single washer to each side.

 

[originalben]

Good to go?

 

[Ichthy]

Crank 'er down some more. It looks like there is A LOT of uncrushed grain.

If you are worried about shredding the husks you should condition the malt. Just spray it lightly with water right before you mill. Don't use too much as it will make it hard to mill.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I did insert a single washer to each side.

I would crush a little finer. The adjustment is done w/ the wingnut and eyebolt.

 

[rico567]

I'd agree with "wilserbrewer." He has a fine eye for these photos, and helped me get my crush dialed in when I started with my "ugly junk." I can identify what look like a number of uncrushed grains in that picture, and what is crushed doesn't look real fine.

 

[CidahMastah]

Yeah - crank 'er down.

For my crush I pretty much put the mill at its lowest setting. No stuck sparges here.

I also found that if I ripped through it fast (highest drill speed), crush quality went down. Try hitting a middle RPM and the mill will do a better, more consistent job (that is, if you aren't doing that already).

 

[originalben]

Thanks, gentlemen. I just did a cup or so before work to make sure it even worked;^)
I'll tighten 'er up this evening in preperation for tomorrow.
Sidenote- the absolute first bolt I grabbed fit the arm perfectly...and had a nut to adjust it's depth as well. WooHoo.

 

[rekoob]

View attachment 24548

not sure if it qualifies as ugly junk but it just got me 83% last brewday.

This is a very nice setup. BZ! I tried an inverted bucket on top of another bucket and it didn't turn out to hot. So, I clamped a 2x4 to my portable workbench and clamped up the mill to that. put a shallow container under it with a homemade cover over the mill and it has been working great.
If/when I get around to a stand or something of the sort I will be thinking of something like this.
Great job!

 

[brianj434]

I too have Jumped on this train. This mill works awesome for my purposes. A decent crush, fast enough to enjoy a HB while I grind and it was fun to build.

Perhaps the coolest thing about this mill is the intersection of family history and American history that led to it falling into my hands. If you are interested read below....

I needed an inexpensive, manual grain mill since I was going all grain. I put out a want add on C-list and was offered a mill for $10 bucks. To me, that was an awesome deal. I rode my bike ~9 miles to the guys house to pick it up, since he was a gentleman and it was about 5Fout he invited me in for a cup of tea. I obliged and we got to talking... He was an older guy; if I had to guess I would say 85. He started talking about his days in the pacific during WWII and mentioned he was on an aircraft carrier. As a shot in the dark, I asked if it happened to be the Wasp, the carrier my grandpa was on. Turns out it was. These two guys worked together with out knowing it (~ 2.5K men on that ship), participated in the last hostile action of the war together, AND I was buying a mill from the guy....

Two amazing men who live 30 miles apart protected everything we all love. Both agreed to a reunion, which I will document. To be scheduled soon....

 

[TANSTAAFB]

Great story man...yet another reason I love HBT!!! It's one thing to be able to say thanks to a young vet. It's quite another to say thank you to a guy who put his ass on the line over a lifetime ago for most of us. I ran a plumbing co. for years in the Texas Hill Country and had a lot of WWII pilots, grunts, & seamen as customers. Always loved listening to their stories.

PROSIT!!!

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

I have a victoria mill. I'm getting sick of hand cranking it. What kind of screw do I need to get so I can attach my power drill?

 

[rico567]

I have a handcrank that came with my Victoria, never used. Since I had a 13mm socket an and a 3/8" drill adapter already, I just went to the hardware store and got a 13mm bolt about 2" long that fit in the threaded hole in the back of the auger. I took the screw that comes with the mill in with me to check the thread pitch (it is METRIC, but I can't remember the pitch), and it cost about 50 cents. So that's all it cost me to adapt my Victoria to my ancient Craftsman AC 1/2" drill. Works like a charm- I can maintain a nice drill speed of about 150 rpm or so with no trouble, get a great crush.

You can see the adapter and the 13mm socket in this picture, but only the shank of the bolt where it goes into the auger.

 

[brianj434]

Its a standard thread. Just go the the hardware store, get a 1.5 inch hex head quarter/20 bolt. Then thread it into your mill, put a socket on your drill and watch the dust fly.

Make sure that you have some bolt shaft stocking out. Then if you snap the bolt (unlikely with the torque involved) you can grab it with some vise grips and get it out.

Unless the rest of the community think it would be better for the head to be bottomed out, I havent done this yet but maybe they can weigh in on that...

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Gotcha just the info I needed thanks =D
I need to steady my plate on the other end as well. If I remove the cotter pin would the 8/32 bolt listed earlier in the thread work for a victoria mill?

 

[originalben]

To be safe, I would put a nut on the bolt you attach and have it set the depth. I did mine last week and it was very smooth- first bolt I found in my cluttered stash fit perfect and had a nut on it already.
Pics of the setup in my gallery.

 

[CidahMastah]

For my Victoria mill I used a stainless 5/16'' x 2'' hex bolt

 

[rico567]

Gotcha just the info I needed thanks =D
I need to steady my plate on the other end as well. If I remove the cotter pin would the 8/32 bolt listed earlier in the thread work for a victoria mill?

I ended up using a 8/32 bolt & nuts in place of the cotter pin, but I had to ream out the hole with an appropriate drill before it would go in.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Thundercougerfalconbird,

As a more primitive option if you don't have the socket and adapter to drive the bolt, simply cut the head off the bolt and chuck the drill on the headless bolt.

 

[rico567]

What I'm going to ask is pretty much antithetical to the "ugly junk" concept, but has anyone put a permanent motor on a bucket setup, rather than just use a drill? So far, the ideal configuration would appear to be a large truck wiper motor. It's already geared down and the torque spec looks good. Used ones are priced right...the biggest problem is, of course, that it's DC and therefore requires a separate power supply.

 

[wyzazz]

How much is a wiper motor vs a cheap drill? How would one mount something like this? Got a link to a wiper motor that you've got in mind?

 

[wilserbrewer]

How much is a wiper motor vs a cheap drill?

No idea on the wiper motor...but the Harbor freight 10 amp 1/2" D-handle drill is on sale for 32.99, so with a 20% off coupon it's almost free.

Yea i know it's cheap chinese...but it tears through grain very easily and is variable speed w/ a dial not by the trigger. Could be mounted pretty easily. I have been trying to come up w/ a cheap and easy way to configure my mill to run unassisted. Kneeling down for 5 minutes holding the drill is getting old...or maybe i am.

 

[bucfanmike]

anyone conditioning their grain before milling? Setting up my discount tommy mill this week and looking forward to a go at it

 

[BeerEagle]

anyone conditioning their grain before milling? Setting up my discount tommy mill this week and looking forward to a go at it

There's a current thread about this. I don't know how to link on my mobile, but search on "Conditioning Grain == Awesome"

 

[bucfanmike]

There's a current thread about this. I don't know how to link on my mobile, but search on "Conditioning Grain == Awesome"

yeah im on that on also, cross posts since i knew everyone on this post was using a corona type

 

[wilserbrewer]

anyone conditioning their grain before milling? Setting up my discount tommy mill this week and looking forward to a go at it

Thought about trying it...but im lazy, and "if it ain't broke"

 

[wyzazz]

No idea on the wiper motor...but the Harbor freight 10 amp 1/2" D-handle drill is on sale for 32.99, so with a 20% off coupon it's almost free.

Yea i know it's cheap chinese...but it tears through grain very easily and is variable speed w/ a dial not by the trigger. Could be mounted pretty easily. I have been trying to come up w/ a cheap and easy way to configure my mill to run unassisted. Kneeling down for 5 minutes holding the drill is getting old...or maybe i am.

I was going to pick up that very drill today since my cordless finally took a dump!

I believe if you watch ScubaSteve's video about the Unibrew 5500 you'll see that drill mounted under a table turning his mill. Maybe cut a hole in a tabletop or piece of plywood to fit your bucket in there and set the drill on the table mounted with some zip-ties to keep it ugly?

 

[wilserbrewer]

wyzazz, I doubt you will be disappointed w/ that HF drill...the thing is a beast!

 

[wyzazz]

Good to know, thanks!

 

[Rivenin]

how to motorize your corona!
GFs daughter, she didn't want to stop! but i had to pull her aside 'cuz we still had like 5lbs of grain and i was at strike temp already!