Mill wear ?

[Goose]

Any crankandstein owners out there ?

I've got the 3 roller version but recently noticed I am having trouble getting the first "bite" that gets all 3 rollers cranking. Instead only the drive roller turns. After a bit of fiddling by manually turning the second roller or reversing the drill direction do I eventually get it to bite.

Once it starts it will mill through 10 kg in a jiffy without any recurrence of the problem and the crush is fine. I'd have thought that if there was any wear that I'd also experience slipping or a slower crush, but not so, its just getting it going that's causing me grief.

Do I have worn knurls or something ? Its getting to 5 years old now and been used extensively... its an expensive thing to replace.

I have adjusted the gap setting with feeler gauges and a wider or narrower setting seems to make no difference with the startup issue.

Any clues welcome.

 

[roller997]

Yes, I had the Crankandstein 3D which never missed a beat. I then traded up to a 320D which I purchased second hand (so no history on how much grain was put through it) and that had similar issues.
When I contacted Crankandstein I was told that most often this is due to the two plates being too tight and the rollers not moving loosely enough. I spaced out the two end plates to give it about 1mm gap between the rollers and the plate and I haven't had a problem since.
Perhaps in your case there is some material that has slipped between the rollers and the plates or the plates have moved a touch? Make sure to have 1mm gap between the roller ends and the plate and see how that goes.

Cheers

Roller

 

[Black n Tan]

I would say it just needs a good clean. I have this problem before with other quality mills and it has always been a build up of flour and grain material between the passive roller and the plate causing additional resistance. Pull it apart and give it a good clean and I bet you will be good to go.

 

[komodo]

Also check your end plates are square. I've had a similar issue with my MM3 a few years ago