Will my drill be ok for attaching to a mill?

[metasyntactic]

I have one of these. Will it be sufficient for running a mill like the Cereal Killer, Barley Crusher, or Crankandstein?

 

[originalben]

I have a cheap $40 Harbor Freight that runs my Monster Mill 2 just fine and the specs look the same. Should work.

 

[kevinb]

Just don't run it on the hammer setting

 

[fork]

Yes that would be fine, but to repeat, don't use the hammer setting

 

[jchawk]

Just my two cents. I had a lower amp drill and I smoked it this weekend on my 3-roll crankenstein.

I ordered a 10amp drill instead that is a beast.

 

[Jayhem]

It is amazing how much torque is required to run a Barley Crusher on a fine setting...none of my drills will turn it at a low RPM so I just use the hand crank...it's a nice arm workout!

 

[metasyntactic]

Would the torque requirement be less for a mill with shorter rollers, like the Crankenstein?

 

[Jayhem]

Would the torque requirement be less for a mill with shorter rollers, like the Crankenstein?

Yes, the torque required is related directly to how much barley is being fed through at a given moment.

 

[Montanaandy]

Just my two cents. I had a lower amp drill and I smoked it this weekend on my 3-roll crankenstein.

I ordered a 10amp drill instead that is a beast.

I use a 7.8 amp DeWalt on a 3 roller Crankenstein which is what I recall the manufacturer recommended. It is hot after milling a batch of grain (I mill very slowly with a lot of torque).

 

[orion7144]

I use a Porter cable 18V drill with the trigger half way in on my cereal killer gapped at ~.032. get 75-80%

 

[Atl300zx]

i use a 14.4v cordless dewalt on a 2 roll cranknstein. Been using this set up for years. I do use an entire battery charge though for a 10 gallon high gravity batch.

 

[jchawk]

I use a 7.8 amp DeWalt on a 3 roller Crankenstein which is what I recall the manufacturer recommended. It is hot after milling a batch of grain (I mill very slowly with a lot of torque).

Montanaandy makes a great point. You need a ton of torque at low speeds. The slower you can go the better crush you get, the better efficiency you'll see later.

Having a well constructed mill that you can use will make a world of difference compared to what you were use to seeing from you LHBS.