SS Brewtech Grain Mill Rollers not Parallel

[day_trippr]

Jeeze, a 10 mil wobble is actually huge considering a typical barley malt gap is around .030-something.
Very disappointing to read that John B's company could be so disinterested in quality...

 

[dipa2]

Jeeze, a 10 mil wobble is actually huge considering a typical barley malt gap is around .030-something.
Very disappointing to read that John B's company could be so disinterested in quality...

I'm hoping there's hope. They have responded, and said the mills do have an internal adjustment to make them parallel, they are searching for a spare piece for that adjustment.

I brought this to their attention when I purchased the mill, and after a couple exchanges it came to the message below. I wouldn't care except that my mash efficiency is all over the place. I brewed the exact same recipe twice and got a mash efficiency of 63% and 72%. So, obviously they are delusional that a feeler gauge is not important and the mill gap should be the mill gap without a huge variation. I can't think of any other reason I would get that sort of variance on the same recipe with my BrewEasy Classic.

"As far as our testing and measuring went, we were able to find similar deviations in the gap from side to side and have since updated our statement on gap settings:

The Blichmann Pro grain Mill is a precision machined tool, but all manufacturing has some degree of tolerance. Our specification for gap variation is +/-0.005 inches (about the thickness of two hairs). This tolerance has proven to easily produce an ASBC “normal” grist crush. The fine adjustments on the mill will allow you to easily dial in your mill for your desired lauter and mash efficiency. How a mill performs in a brewery is more important that how it stands up to a feeler gauge. If you are having problems achieving your desired crush parameters, set the desired gap using a feeler gauge in the middle of the rollers to average out the deviation. Then check the ends to verify they are within the above tolerance."

 

[day_trippr]

You have double the wobble as that spec considers. Plus there's the whole metal grinding thing.

I felt fortunate to have a one-on-one email conversation with John Blichmann almost two decades ago and at the time found him to be quite agreeable as a fellow engineer and receptive to my considerations. That apparently his company is standing behind a wobbling, metal grinding grain "mill", does not fit the mental image I've held for all these years.

Hoping you get this sorted in a rational manner...

Cheers!

 

[VikeMan]

I felt fortunate to have a one-on-one email conversation with John Blichmann almost two decades ago and at the time found him to be quite agreeable as a fellow engineer and receptive to my considerations. That apparently his company is standing behind a wobbling, metal grinding grain "mill", does not fit the mental image I've held for all these years.

I don't know what's going on with the company, but I do know that John is retiring. At the end of this month, IIRC.

 

[Zenmeister]

I had the metal grinding thing on my Blichmann mill as well, and it sounded exactly like the sounds that dipa2 is getting. Turns out it was the blades on the cooling fan hitting the black metal safety guard covering the blades. I contacted Blichmann and they sent me a new safety guard which I installed and the grinding sound went away.

 

[dipa2]

Sorry, I created confusion here. It was tyler180 that had the metal grinding. I just had a non-parallel gap, off by 0.010 side to side. Blichmann support just got back to me. They found a spare plate that they said I can replace on my mill to get the gap parallel. Hopefully, this fixed the inconsistent mash efficiencies I'm had . We'll see.