Millmaster Gear Guard Bulk Buy

[KillerRx4]

Mine was one of the initial pre-order mills too. Tried to fit the guard today & not gonna happen.

Not really getting what was said about installing the rollers with the gears on the other side??

 

[leiothrix]

Mine was one of the initial pre-order mills too. Tried to fit the guard today & not gonna happen.

Not really getting what was said about installing the rollers with the gears on the other side??

The guard is not symmetrical, one side is wider before being bent down than the other, and this side is meant to go over the gears. It didn't work out that way on my mill, so the skinny side is over the gears. That is because one roller is slightly higher than the other and my mill was backwards to other peoples.

Once the hopper is on you can't tell from the outside, and there's not much difference between the fat and skinny sides anyway.

Rob.

 

[jeddog]

PM sent

 

[white.grant]

I used my mill with the new guard yesterday and was most pleased. The new guard certainly beats the bit of cardboard I was using. Again, well done Sully.

cheers

grant

 

[Sully]

Guard arrived today thank you.

My mill is one of the original pre-ordered jobs, after a bit of jiggling around and using about 1 mm of spacing it's looking good. Will try it with some grain on the weekend and if it works as expected and is a lot easier to crank over, I might reduce the size of the crank handle which sure is a an awkward length to use as it is at the moment.

Good work Sully, the variations on the different production runs of these mills must have really tested your metal but you stuck with it :icon_cheers: .

Mine was one of the initial pre-order mills too. Tried to fit the guard today & not gonna happen.

Not really getting what was said about installing the rollers with the gears on the other side??

The guard is not symmetrical, one side is wider before being bent down than the other, and this side is meant to go over the gears. It didn't work out that way on my mill, so the skinny side is over the gears. That is because one roller is slightly higher than the other and my mill was backwards to other peoples.

Once the hopper is on you can't tell from the outside, and there's not much difference between the fat and skinny sides anyway.

Rob.

Guys that have the pre-ordered mills, sorry it didn't work as easily as anticipated. I was unaware there was any difference.


HOWEVER:

I MAY have a solution for you. The original batch they folded the tabs the wrong way which could possibly work with these pre-order mills.

BUT:

I have handed them back to the steel mob so I will give them a call Monday and see if they still have them. If so you could be in luck.

Cheers

Sully

 

[glaab]

good thinking Sully, youre' just not a pretty face!!

 

[real_beer]

Guys that have the pre-ordered mills, sorry it didn't work as easily as anticipated. I was unaware there was any difference.


HOWEVER:

I MAY have a solution for you. The original batch they folded the tabs the wrong way which could possibly work with these pre-order mills.

BUT:

I have handed them back to the steel mob so I will give them a call Monday and see if they still have them. If so you could be in luck.

Cheers

Sully

Hi Sully,

I don't think there is any difference with the specifications of pre-order mills and the later ones, my comment was based on a thread that Ross mentioned that there had been a problem with some of the early model mill rollers being out of round. I figure most of the problems with the guard are because of this more than anything else, hopefully the quality control of later production runs got better.

To set mine up I pulled it apart and tried the rollers in different positions with the gear guard sitting loosely on top to find the setup with the least amount of scraping and catching. I then set the roller gap to a pretty fine setting and used the gear guard to cut out cardboard shims from some manilla folders, I ended up using two shims. I then carefully installed the hopper without moving the gear guards position and it seems okay with the gap the mill is currently set at. I was thinking that latter I might make the shim out of a cheap silicon baking tray so I can loosen the hopper bolts and maybe get another setting or two for courser crushes if it looses compression and lifts the guard slightly up. Obviously this depends on the side clearances of the guard as well so I'll wait and see. I'm glad I didn't have to resort to grinding and filing and spoil the finish, I always seem to end up with rust problems.

It would be interesting to see if someone near you with a pre-order mill did get better results with one of the other guards.

Make no mistake there's no complaints from me with what I've got, great job for solving a design flaw in the original product.

:icon_cheers:

 

[dakron]

View attachment MM.pdfFor those that have pre-order mills like mine...

I have attached a quick-and-nasty diagram of what I did to my mill. Essentially, I took off Side B (there are 2 bolts on each end), pulled out the rollers, reinserted them so that the gears were towards Side A and put the side back on.

Before making this change, the gaps between the guard and the fixed roller was wrong (i.e. unless I put the narrow side of the guard on the gear side). Once the rollers were swapped, the gap between the guard and the fixed roller is almost spot on; I might need to add a shim for the other roller depending on it's position (i.e. the gap setting).

I suspect that the original batch of guards would have fit the pre-order mills. That said, the original batch of guards should fit newer mills with the gears swapped to the other side.

If anyone needs more detail, please let me know and I'll try to put something together when I have a bit more time.

Cheers,

dakron

BTW Sully, I'm more than happy with the guard - it didn't take much to pull the mill apart etc (nothing like the effort you went to for the rest of us). Thanks again. :icon_chickcheers:

 

[leiothrix]

dakron, that's a good idea, i might try that tomorrow.

And Sully - I am happy with the way it is at the moment. With the hopper on top you can't notice the difference anyway. I'll give dakron's idea a go mainly because I am a bit of a perfectionist, but I don't really have an issue with the way it is now.

Rob.

 

[KillerRx4]

Dakron,
Did the gears come off the end of the rollers & screw onto the other end? Or did you reverse the entire roller?

Does the input shaft remain in the same end as before?

 

[dakron]

Dakron,
Did the gears come off the end of the rollers & screw onto the other end? Or did you reverse the entire roller?

Does the input shaft remain in the same end as before?

The rollers need to be "reversed" so that the shaft ends up on the other side of the mill. This was not a big issue for me as I haven't permanently mounted the mill yet. That said, if I turn my mill over, the guard appears to fit just as well as it did with the other side of the mill facing up and the shaft is back on the original side.

 

[nifty]

The rollers need to be "reversed" so that the shaft ends up on the other side of the mill. This was not a big issue for me as I haven't permanently mounted the mill yet. That said, if I turn my mill over, the guard appears to fit just as well as it did with the other side of the mill facing up and the shaft is back on the original side.

I've got a pre order mill and when I went to fit the guard there was a lot of scraping.

The mill's not permanently mounted yet, so I loosened the 2 bolts holding it down, flipped it over, fitted the guard and away it went, no problems

When I tightened the hopper back up there was some scraping so I added a washer on the gear end as a shim, fitted everything back together and bingo, she's up and running with no scraping noises.

If I over tighten the hopper bolts, then it seems to warp the frame a bit and the scraping starts again.

That's it, easy as....

Thanks Sully, love your work....

cheers

nifty

 

[KillerRx4]

Yeah theres the problem. Mine is setup & mounted, turning the mill over or reversing the rollers is going to require a major reworking of the frame.

I havent really had a problem with the gears anyway, guess the motor & gearing have enough torque to drive it as is.

If anyone wants my guard its up for grabs.

 

[real_beer]

Just run 5 kg grain through the beast, its definitely a major improvement for us hand crankers :icon_cheers: .

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Fitted mine tonight, had to grind a small amount of the metal so the rollers would not screech. Not a big drama. But as others have said the rollers don't seem to be perfectly round. Still get my average of at least 75%. Will be crushing on Friday so hopefully I can wack the grain through a little faster now.

BYB


Thanks Sully.....

Just an update: Ran 14kg through the mill yesterday without a hitch. Achieved 78% efficiency :icon_cheers:

 

[Cortez The Killer]

Haven't received mine as yet - any one else in NSW waiting ?

Cheers

 

[Andyd]

Mine hasn't arrived in Vic either...

 

[Sully]

Mine hasn't arrived in Vic either...

:blink:

That's Aust post for ya!! :angry:

Let me know at the end of the week if it doesn't arrive and I will put in a missing parcel request.

Cheers

Sully

EDIT: Wife informs me that she has had parcels sent on the 18th of Nov that have only just arrived in the last few days in Vic. God bless Aus Post.

 

[Sammus]

Haven't received mine as yet - any one else in NSW waiting ?

Cheers

That's weird mate I got mine about a week ago now...

 

[reVoxAHB]

Mine hasn't arrived in Vic either...

Hey Andy, a couple of us in ICB ordered guards which arrived last Thursday, fwiw.

Cheers