Two roller grain mill for $25

[nacnud]

Hey guys,

I just made myself a grain mill out of a Pasta machine and I'm pretty chuffed with how it turned out so I thought I'd share it. I got the machine from Big W for $25.

They come with smooth rollers so I took to it with a drill for 10 mins and it turned out great.
Here it is before mutilation. I had run the drill across it a couple of times before I remembered to take a photo.

Here it is 10 mins later. There was a bit of cleaning up to do. Little shards of metal everywhere but I think I got them all. :unsure:

Here it is in action.

And here is the crush. The great thing about these pasta machines is that they come with adjustable rollers. This one has 10 settings.

Now I just need to build a hopper and catcher (I'm thinking 2L icecream containers) and I'll be laughing all the way to the brew shed. Maybe hook it up to the drill as well. Makes you wonder why it costs so much to make a real one but maybe I'll find out when I give it a proper run.
What do you think? Anyone else had a go at this?

 

[Diesel80]

Hey guys,

...
maybe I'll find out when I give it a proper run.

I certainly did. Then bought a Monster Mill 2.0 from the states, the very next day.

What do you think? Anyone else had a go at this?

Yes, some have had success, but i found it to be a total PITA. Your milage may vary.
Certainly some persons on this forum have succeeded, and fair play to them too!

A real mill is an investment you make once, and then it just pays you back with a consistent crush, time and time again.

Good luck with it whichever way you go.

Cheers,
D80

Edit: I see you are in Perth, where?

 

[Yob]

nice one.. will probably sort you out ofr a while, and for $25 and a bit of time tinkering, good job. is the Gap adjustable? it looks a fairly course crush (in parts)

Propper mills are worth their weight in gold, what are the rollers made of?

 

[nacnud]

nice one.. will probably sort you out ofr a while, and for $25 and a bit of time tinkering, good job. is the Gap adjustable? it looks a fairly course crush (in parts)

Propper mills are worth their weight in gold, what are the rollers made of?

Yeah, the gap is adjustable. It goes from 1 to 10 with 1 being wider and 10 being no gap at all. I had it on 3 so could go much finer. Will be interesting to see what efficiency is like.

 

[Yob]

what material are the rollers made of?

 

[nacnud]

Stainless steel I think. They feel pretty solid.

Diesel, I'm in Booragoon at the moment but moving north of the city next month. Closer to Brewmart! You're also in Perth I take it?

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Stainless steel I think. They feel pretty solid.

Diesel, I'm in Booragoon at the moment but moving north of the city next month. Closer to Brewmart! You're also in Perth I take it?

Closer to Gryphon Brewing :super:
Check out the site.Below
Nev

 

[PeteQ]

I made a grain mill from a pasta maker I found in Aldi for $10. The hopper i built out of timber I had lying around and used a speedbore bit in a cordless drill to power it.

It took a good half an hour to crush around 4kg of grain. I put my grain through 3 times to make sure everything was crushed properly as I was finding a couple of uncracked grains here and there. The rollers didn't spin in a perfect circle, there was plenty of movement but the crush was definitely no problems for BIAB, no good for braumeister style setup...

You can see sort of what looks like here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/88081994@N04/8062106420/in/photostream

After a few adjustments and plenty of playing around with it, it lasted around 9 months before I upgraded.

The rollers on the Aldi pasta maker is definitely some sort of mild steel, definitely not stainless...

 

[nacnud]

I don't know steels, it's shiny and metal . These rollers seem pretty good but I'm trying not to get too excited until I've put 5kg through it. I'm doing BIAB and I've only got one AG brew under the belt so far, so at this stage its all about keeping costs down until I know what I want and what I like I guess.

 

[PeteQ]

For the new BIAB brewer (which i definitely was at the time) it is absolutely perfect! Cheap and nasty!

The best efficiency I got with the pasta grain mill was BIAB 87% into the fermenter, it definitely does the job.

Well done and enjoy your all grain beers!!

 

[nacnud]

Can't complain about 87%. Should be good exercise too! until I get the drill set up.

 

[Maheel]

i made and used one for a while stove top BIABing

not sure what efficiency i got but the beer tasted good

 

[thedragon]

You can see sort of what looks like here - http://www.flickr.com/photos/88081994@N04/8062106420/in/photostream

Great looking setup