MillMaster Mini Mill slow after adjusting gap

[Florian]

That email sounds like it's talking about non geared mills, which the mini mill isn't.

EDIT: beaten and confirmed...

 

[Beerisyummy]

Tallie, I have experienced the same problem to you fairly recently. Grain struggles to get dragged through... You can feel it in the drill that it isn't taking properly etc... I was at .9mm so I opened the gap to 1.5mm. Worked fine again. Closed it back to 1.2-1.4 and still works sweetly but now I crush twice. Second run only takes a minute.

Haven't gone back to under 1mm yet.

I'm convinced its a knurling issue. My old Crankenstein had a really aggressive pattern on it, much more so than the mini mill.

Maybe our mills were built on a Friday afternoon?

Hi Nath (and Tallie),

From what I've been told an aggressive knurling is not the answer.

I've got the same mill ( I think) and it's been working a treat. Using a high torque dc drill between 200 and 400 rpm is my routine.
Lower would be better IMO.

With settings below 1mm it will kick grain back up unless the hopper feed stops it.
If grain is pushing down on top of the grain feeding into the rollers it does not kickback.

As much as I'd like to crush grain in one pass, I'm moving to the two pass method for consistency.
I've also heard of people wetting the grain prior to milling which might be more sensible.

PS. The last few brews I've just hosed off the mill and put it in a good spot to dry with no ill effects rearing up so far.
They are an awsome piece of kit.

 

[bradsbrew]

Tallie, did you resolve this problem? My mini mill is giving me the ***** lately. Unless I do a double pass I am waiting at least 25 minutes for 4kg. With just a handful of grain it just bounces around when set to around 1mm. If I set it any wider too many uncrushed grain get through.

Cheers

 

[Spiesy]

Tallie, did you resolve this problem? My mini mill is giving me the ***** lately. Unless I do a double pass I am waiting at least 25 minutes for 4kg. With just a handful of grain it just bounces around when set to around 1mm. If I set it any wider too many uncrushed grain get through.

Cheers

How old is your mill and how much use has it seen?

 

[bradsbrew]

How old is your mill and how much use has it seen?

Not quite sure on age but probably 2 years and would have done a few hundred kilos. Are you saying these things have a life span at a homebrew level? This is a pic of the gap, will upload a video of how it performs at this gap setting shortly.

 

[huez]

Tallie, did you resolve this problem? My mini mill is giving me the ***** lately. Unless I do a double pass I am waiting at least 25 minutes for 4kg. With just a handful of grain it just bounces around when set to around 1mm. If I set it any wider too many uncrushed grain get through.

Cheers

there's another thread on this forum that i posted my issues in with this mill. Contact mashmaster or whoever you bought it off. I had exactly the same problem. Craftbrewer ended up sending me a new mill but frank from mashmaster offered to send me new rollers.

 

[Spiesy]

Not quite sure on age but probably 2 years and would have done a few hundred kilos. Are you saying these things have a life span at a homebrew level? This is a pic of the gap, will upload a video of how it performs at this gap setting shortly.

Everything has a life span.

I'm no metallurgist, but I don't believe stainless is the most hardy of metals for wear, not the sort of wear that a mill roller sees. And I don't believe the knurling found on the MiniMill is overly deep, so it is going to wear over time - I guess it just depends on when.

How often you mill, how much, what time of gap and what types of grain would dictate how long that life span is.

I used a MiniMill for a year, commercially, and in the end I was getting a similar result to you.
At a rough guess, our mill may have seen 3 tonne go through it, which for the average homebrewer could mean a lifetime of milling.

 

[bradsbrew]

Everything has a life span.

I'm no metallurgist, but I don't believe stainless is the most hardy of metals for wear, not the sort of wear that a mill roller sees. And I don't believe the knurling found on the MiniMill is overly deep, so it is going to wear over time - I guess it just depends on when.
How often you mill, how much, what time of gap and what types of grain would dictate how long that life span is.

I used a MiniMill for a year, commercially, and in the end I was getting a similar result to you.
At a rough guess, our mill may have seen 3 tonne go through it, which for the average homebrewer could mean a lifetime of milling.

Yeah I get that everything has a life span and If I thought I had over used and got my moneys worth then I would just buy another. However I do not believe this to be the case and to be totally honest I think I achieved a better service from my old marga mill (that I gave away to a brew club member) than this thing.

The knurling "looks" as good as when I got it?

 

[Spiesy]

Yeah I get that everything has a life span and If I thought I had over used and got my moneys worth then I would just buy another. However I do not believe this to be the case and to be totally honest I think I achieved a better service from my old marga mill (that I gave away to a brew club member) than this thing.

The knurling "looks" as good as when I got it?

Perhaps you should contact your retailer.

 

[bradsbrew]

Here is a video,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoN9mm9N6oc

 

[bradsbrew]

Perhaps you should contact your retailer.

Yeah, was just checking here for a solution before I do.

 

[huez]

its the knurling, mine wore after only 6months of very light use.

 

[bradsbrew]

its the knurling, mine wore after only 6months of very light use.

Ok, thanks huez. Will get onto them.
For the RRP of these things you would think they would last a bit longer.

 

[Crunched]

I've got the same problem and don't believe it's the knurling as mine's been doing it since day one. I thought that's just how they were and have been running grain through twice. I might contact MM now that I know that some people have no issue with them.

 

[iambj]

The problem has to be the knurl on the rollers, they either wear very quickly and this would not happen with quality stainless. Or the knurling was not aggressive enough to start with, knurling stainless is difficult and the knurling heads would need to be replaced now and then to keep the same quality as the heads do wear. (perhaps you guys scored rollers towards the end of a run?)
Considering these mills are marketed as a superior mill, with price tag to match I would be very disappointed if I had recently bought one.
Also three tonnes of grain on a home brew scale is nothing, my mill has done may more than that without any issues at all.

Good luck and keep us posted with the manufacture follow up.

 

[Pogierob]

The problem has to be the knurl on the rollers, they either wear very quickly and this would not happen with quality stainless. Or the knurling was not aggressive enough to start with, knurling stainless is difficult and the knurling heads would need to be replaced now and then to keep the same quality as the heads do wear. (perhaps you guys scored rollers towards the end of a run?)
Considering these mills are marketed as a superior mill, with price tag to match I would be very disappointed if I had recently bought one.
Also three tonnes of grain on a home brew scale is nothing, my mill has done may more than that without any issues at all.

Good luck and keep us posted with the manufacture follow up.

3 tonnes of grain at an average of 5kg per batch is about 600 brews. ball park 1200 slabs of beer, by my count that is a fairly large scale homebrew operation.
Perhaps I'm just not brewing enough though.

 

[iambj]

If you believe in replacing your mill often, I have had mine 10 years.

Some of us do brew quite a bit. :beerbang:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/84417-how-many-litres-did-you-brew-in-2014/

 

[Pogierob]

slabs stubbies years stubbies per year stubbies per day
1200 = 28800 / 10 2880 7.89


Fair enough..

good mileage for your mill.

Edit. puts it at 1.15 standard batches each week.

 

[Spiesy]

If you believe in replacing your mill often, I have had mine 10 years.

Some of us do brew quite a bit. :beerbang:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/84417-how-many-litres-did-you-brew-in-2014/

And if you're brewing every second week, 25 batches a year, 600 batches would last you over 20-years - sounds pretty acceptable to me.

 

[Alt Atude]

slabs stubbies years stubbies per year stubbies per day
1200 = 28800 / 10 2880 7.89


Fair enough..

good mileage for your mill.

Edit. puts it at 1.15 standard batches each week.

Very good mileage I'd say!

Then there's rather bad as well.

Yeah I get that everything has a life span and If I thought I had over used and got my moneys worth then I would just buy another. However I do not believe this to be the case and to be totally honest I think I achieved a better service from my old marga mill (that I gave away to a brew club member) than this thing.

The knurling "looks" as good as when I got it?

I've got the same problem and don't believe it's the knurling as mine's been doing it since day one. I thought that's just how they were and have been running grain through twice. I might contact MM now that I know that some people have no issue with them.

its the knurling, mine wore after only 6months of very light use.

 

[Pogierob]

I guess that is the point, if Spiesy smashed out 3 tonne (600 batches worth of grain) on one of these bad boys before the knurling was worn too much, then the guys having issues after such a small time shouldn't hesitate about contacting the supplier.

 

[BrissyBrew]

Mashmaster did have some issues with knurling on a previous batch. If you have any issues please contact us via our website or email [email protected]

 

[Alt Atude]

Mashmaster did have some issues with knurling on a previous batch. If you have any issues please contact us via our website or email [email protected]

As someone in the market for a mill I thank you now for this information. Not much from the retailers selling this mill of late but.
Good luck hey?

 

[Crunched]

Email sent! Never realised Mashmaster were in Brisbane!

I hope mine is one of the dodgy batches, so I can finally get it working properly! (and then tell all those people I told not to buy a MM to maybe go out and get one now!)

 

[Camo6]

By MM do you mean a Mash Master, a Mini Mill, a Malt Muncher or a Monster Mill? FFS, who comes up with these names?

 

[seamad]

monster mash ?


the topis is for the millmaster mini ( mashmaster )

 

[Crunched]

FYI - already received a response to my email (on a Sunday) from Mashmaster - and they're more than happy to help out. That's great customer service.

 

[Dunkelbrau]

Nevermind

 

[bradsbrew]

FYI - already received a response to my email (on a Sunday) from Mashmaster - and they're more than happy to help out. That's great customer service.

Yes I too was pretty impressed to get a response the same day on a Sunday.

 

[5150]

This forum is amazing as a resource, I've just read all the way through the post hoping for an answer as I've only done 5 brews and hoping for a solution. Last time I milled it was 16.45Kg and it took well over 30 mins, which I didn't expect as it has been awesome and lived up to everyone's amazing reviews. And there is a solution I will contact Brissybrew and fingers crossed.

For the people who have resolved any issues please comment so the full picture can be painted,

Cheers.