What am I doing wrong? (Malt mill problem)

[Mer-man]

I bought a MattMill Kompakt and a Einhell TC-MX 1100 E paint and mortar mixer and cannot get it to work.

I must be doing something wrong. The rollers spin freely with no grain. I load the supplied funnel with some fresh Weyermann Pilsner malt. I set the drill on the lowest forward speed and engage it. Immediate jam.

The maker of the mill recommended this drill, so I am perplexed.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[burdbrew]

What is your gap?

 

[Mer-man]

Factory, which I believe is 2mm.

 

[Paulaner]

I bought a MattMill Kompakt and a Einhell TC-MX 1100 E paint and mortar mixer and cannot get it to work.

I must be doing something wrong. The rollers spin freely with no grain. I load the supplied funnel with some fresh Weyermann Pilsner malt. I set the drill on the lowest forward speed and engage it. Immediate jam.

The maker of the mill recommended this drill, so I am perplexed.

What am I doing wrong?

Contact Matthias Hoßfeld @Mattmill on this site and I'm sure he can help you out, I've been waiting to order the Mattmill Komplett, but have a few other items I need to purchase prior to upgrading my mill.

 

[Mer-man]

Yeah I emailed him -- he suggested the Einhell when the mill jammed using my regular drill.

 

[IslandLizard]

You may need to increase the drill's speed to get it started. Then reduce it once it spins.
Speed is not really regulated directly, it's power to the motor, like a light dimmer. There's quite a bit of torque (energy) needed to get past the initial friction the grain exerts on the machined (textured, knurled) rollers.

2mm (0.079") is a really wide gap. I'm not familiar with your particular mill, but on most US 2-roller homebrew mills a gap of 1mm (0.039") is considered about the maximum. The narrower the gap, the finer the grist, the faster and more efficient the conversion in the mash.

For comparison, I mill on 0.034" (0.86mm), but wheat and rye (small kernels), and flaked good on 0.028" (0.71mm). I batch sparge and do not recirculate the mash.

Hope this helps.

 

[Mer-man]

Thanks @IslandLizard, I will try that. Maybe I can keep the grain off the rollers as I fire it up and then let the grain fall in ... I will try that and report back!

 

[IslandLizard]

Thanks @IslandLizard, I will try that. Maybe I can keep the grain off the rollers as I fire it up and then let the grain fall in ... I will try that and report back!

YVW! Contacting the manufacturer is also a great idea.

I didn't refresh my memory of that mill when I answered you previously. I just did, it doesn't use knurled, but fluted rollers. Gap setting are indeed going to be a bit wider with the flutes than with knurls. There's additional space between the knurls, flutes don't have.

Adding grain to the hopper while holding the drill really needs another set of hands, so I hope you find a better solution. If the torque on that drill is substantial, you probably need 2 hands on it for safe operation.

With my Monster Mill I mounted/clamped the drill onto the mill's customized baseboard. It never gets away from me anymore, and I have 2 hands free to fill the hopper.

 

[Mer-man]

It worked nicely -- I have never had such a torquey drill and was afraid to go full-throttle. Now, as you point out, I just need to anchor it all down.

Case closed!