Which Mill To Buy...

[pmunny]

Gent's,
Looking at the number of different mills on the market as i'm just getting into AG and unsure which to buy.... Dont want to go buying a Marcato when i should have bought a crankenstein...
Moneys not the number one factor, more reliability and easily adaptable for a drill.
Will be using a Braumeister (if makes a diff).
Thanks in advance

 

[Maheel]

http://www.craftbrewer.com.au/shop/details.asp?PID=1987

i have this one and am happy. seems a very solid build from a great sponsor

$99 bunnings spade handle high torque drill drives it easy

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

I've got a monster mill with the base and hopper. This serves me well and I'm happy with it. I bought it mainly because building bases and hoppers isn't my thing but also because it was a pretty reasonable price.

However If I was to buy a new mill I'd probably be inclined to go for the mashmaster mill. The gear driven rollers and roller gap adjustment are features that the Monster Mill doesn't have and would be very handy.

 

[komodo]

No doubts in my mind that the Mashmaster mill is the way to go if $ arent an issue. I've a Monstermill MM3-2.0-SS and I had it working perfectly but stipped it to move it and I've not been able to get it to run right since and its giving me the *****. When it was working though it was brilliant.

 

[Malted]

I've got a monster mill with the base and hopper. This serves me well and I'm happy with it. I bought it mainly because building bases and hoppers isn't my thing but also because it was a pretty reasonable price.

However If I was to buy a new mill I'd probably be inclined to go for the mashmaster mill. The gear driven rollers and roller gap adjustment are features that the Monster Mill doesn't have and would be very handy.

Yep my vote would be for the mashmaster also. Very easy to adjust the roller gap width, other brands are adjustable too but this appears to be the easiest for on the fly adjustments. You might want different gaps settings for wheat, barley and rye (though with a Braumeister you want a coarser crush than some other systems).

The new Mashmaster mills are price competitive - they used to be a bigger and more expensive unit.

 

[Hammo7]

I've got a monster mill with the base and hopper. This serves me well and I'm happy with it. I bought it mainly because building bases and hoppers isn't my thing but also because it was a pretty reasonable price.

However If I was to buy a new mill I'd probably be inclined to go for the mashmaster mill. The gear driven rollers and roller gap adjustment are features that the Monster Mill doesn't have and would be very handy.

+1.

I have the MM3-2.0 connected to one of the Motion Dynamics worm drives. Home made hopper and base. I am more than happy with it. It will start with 5 1/2 KG grain in the hopper from 1 rpm to approx 120 rpm.

 

[Markbeer]

Hi

I am happy with my mashmaster from craftbrewer. 1050W $90 Bunnings drill run on the low gear runs it perfect too. I crush wheat at 0.8MM width and it handles it no problem.

Mark

 

[bignath]

Hi

I am happy with my mashmaster from craftbrewer. 1050W $90 Bunnings drill run on the low gear runs it perfect too. I crush wheat at 0.8MM width and it handles it no problem.

Mark

Word for word what Mark said. Apart from the crush size. I tend to run my mill at 1.1mm but may go back to 1.0mm (im a 3v brewer though).

Awesome mill, strong as, and that ozito spade handle drill is high torque low rpm and does it's job fantastically.

Just be careful when selecting mills if you are gonna go with a drill to power it though. I had a crank' before the mashmaster and that was a 10mm shaft (most drill chucks are 10mm). The mashmaster is half inch (closer to 12/13mm) and my old mill couldn't take the shaft.

If you go with a motor setup, this won't be a problem, but i'm more than happy with my drill running my mashmaster. Easy as on the fly adjustment, and geared rollers too. Built like a brick *********.

Don't be put off by the term "mashmaster mini". It's the same size as most monster and cranky's.

I believe it's the mini because i suspect the original masmaster was quite a large item. Could be wrong on this though.

 

[Jace89]

Just a quick question since this thread is here...
With the mill shaft do you think it would be reasonable to grind down the shaft to fit a drill? I.e grind down the 12/13mm shaft to fit a 10mm drill chuck.

 

[djneli]

Just a quick question since this thread is here...
With the mill shaft do you think it would be reasonable to grind down the shaft to fit a drill? I.e grind down the 12/13mm shaft to fit a 10mm drill chuck.

No. Not unless you have a very accurate lathe as if you were to slightly mis-sahpe the shaft you may as well chuck the whole roller away.

 

[komodo]

for what a drill with a 1/2" (13mm) chuck costs these days upgrade your drill - or setup a motor and pulley

 

[Jace89]

Make sense, thanks guys

 

[warra48]

I have one of the original MillMasters, and I'm more than happy with it. I'm sure the mini version will perform very adequately. I'd say, go for it.

The best thing about it is that the rollers are geared, so you'll never have slippage. Adjustment is easy. I run mine at 1.1 mm, but I still hand crank mine. Takes about 1 minute per kg of grain, so it's not really much of an effort.

 

[pmunny]

thanks guys, the minimill it is! should be in my hands in a few day's...
gonna go the crank and see how i go seeing as i'm only doing 20 litres i prob need the exercise anyway. Guess I was scared it might take an hour to mill, thats all

 

[pmunny]

Got the minimill today from mashmaster. Had a tinker and a google on how to set the right width, now to get creative and start designing my hopper etc...
Once again if anyone cares to add any do's or don'ts feel free, otherwise thanks for the advice on this mill! it sure is gonna get a workout after the melb bulk buy I assure you

 

[peaky]

Got the minimill today from mashmaster. Had a tinker and a google on how to set the right width, now to get creative and start designing my hopper etc...
Once again if anyone cares to add any do's or don'ts feel free, otherwise thanks for the advice on this mill! it sure is gonna get a workout after the melb bulk buy I assure you

Nice one. It'll be a good mill. Make sure you design the hopper so that all the grain runs into the rollers without having to put your fingers or a paintbrush in there. I know you will only be using a hand crank for a start but later you may decide to motorise it. Fingers should never go near a running motorised mill, and I've seen a few vids of people putting their fingers a little too close for my liking!

It'd be be like one of those shows, 'When good times go bad...'

 

[yardy]

Got the minimill today from mashmaster. Had a tinker and a google on how to set the right width, now to get creative and start designing my hopper etc...
Once again if anyone cares to add any do's or don'ts feel free, otherwise thanks for the advice on this mill! it sure is gonna get a workout after the melb bulk buy I assure you

Mine's a MM2 but building the hopper will be basically the same for your mill i think if you want to go with aluminium

as peakydh says, the hopper should finish in a valley over the rollers but it's not a problem with my crush as i just brush the last of the grain into the rollers.

the ali sheet was fairly cheap from the local scrap dealer, the ends are pop riveted in place with some ali angle and a bead of silicon in all the joins, the hopper comfortably holds 6kg.

Yard

 

[chadjaja]

I bought the monster MM2 a few days ago and thought the $40 for the hopper pre made to size AND the base cut out and beveled was a good deal. All up I paid $215 delivered for the lot!

 

[komodo]

^ you didnt happen to get the hopper extension also did you?

 

[stux]

^ you didnt happen to get the hopper extension also did you?

I'm looking at acquiring the hopper extension next