.Hi all! I finaly got around tousing a drill with my barly crusher mill. I bought this used from a fellow brewer and so far its been ok…though tedious to hand crank…Her,s my set-up… I,m brewing a wheat beer tomorow so this evening i conditioned the grain . the mill is set to.30 . I had to run the drill full blast and slowly pour a little grain at a time to keep it from jamming up. In the end I got a good crush but I,m lookin fer some pointers…should,nt have been that hard I believe. maybe i,m set to tight?
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They say if you have nothing good to say you shouldn’t say anything right? So I’ll say nothing about barley crusher.
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I find when crushing wheat, it runs through my JSP mill much easier if I mix the wheat and barley then feed it in. No real ratio but having some barley in there seems to run the wheat through better.
Can’t really tell you if your crush is too tight as that’s system dependant. What kind of drill are you using? I once tried a smaller volt cordless and it just didn’t have enough power to turn the mill initially. I use a corded dril and have no problem. Of course I agree with @dannyboy58 so I own a JSP.
OK guy,s my malt both wheat and barley where mixed. I had 6lbs wheat malt and 4.5 lbs barley malt. I bought a brand new electric drill just for this.
How many amps drill?
It does take a pretty powerful drill to drive it well at the low revolutions you want to crush grain. Hence the reason most cordless drills don’t work well.
The drill was 5 amps,3/8 variable speed (0-3000 rpm) brand new from wal- mart
Maybe someone else will chime in. I’m not sure if that’s powerful enough. The one I use is 8 amps.
Thanks danny… I stripped down and checked the mill it seems OK…maybe I oughta start checking out JSP mills…lol
About Cordless drills
I have NB’s 3-roller mill, with the plastic hopper and
I have a Royobi One 18V cordless (Home Depot)
They work together quite nicely. Granted, the drill is a bit warm by the end but the low speed setting and proper roller tension work through the grain bill nice and easy.
Tip on using drills at low speed. Same as when using the drill to drive screws. Run the drill at high speed for a couple of minutes to lengthen the life of the brushes when you are done.
Yes, maybe best to spend a bit more and git a 1/2" drill with variable speed and thats geared for a lower speed and you will be set for life…. Even look at a pawn shop to find one. Sneezles61
1/2" corded Makita hammer drill on my mill. It’s a beast. It will hurt your wrist before giving up. I did try a smaller cordless once just to see how it would work and it could not do the job.
I’m usually crushing 50lbs+ at a time so the hand crank is out of the question.
I haven’t yet done this, BUT, I will git one and disassemble it a bit. I want to attach it to the mill some what permanent but remove the handle and find a way to use a threaded bolt to adjust the speed via the trigger… And use a hose clamp to secure the motor to a board and so on and so forth. Hands free ifn you will… Sneezles61
This is my next step as well I do have a half inch drill but it would be to much…boy was I wrong lol
My cereal killer came with a handle which is pretty useless. It would take a long time to hand crank . I use a 1/2 heavy duty drill at full speed and you can feel it working. I did a couple batches with an 18 volt cordless but you have to make sure you have a couple fully charged batteries if you crushing 20+ lbs.
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I have a cereal killer and I use a craftsman 3/8 12 volt cordless,no problems what so ever. I run it on low speed. I think my mill is set at about .38. I use wheat in some of my grain bills and the mill handles it no problems.
I use a FEIN 2 speed 14.4 drill to run mine. Typical grain bills range from 12ish up to as much 20+ for double batches. I’ve never had any issues with it.
Rad
