been a long time since i have posted here. but i figure this is the place for answers. For some reason my barley crusher has stopped catching and grinding grain. i will be cruising along and all of the sudden the rollers will just start spinning and not crush the grain. i have a tough time getting it to re catch and then it grinds a little and then stops again. has anyone ever had this issue? how did you resolve it?
Thanks in advance.
Flip the drive roller to get fresh knurls in on the action. If that doesn’t quite do it, flip the free roller too.
I believe the factory roller gap setting is .039. Is yours wider?
[quote=“Shadetree”]Flip the drive roller to get fresh knurls in on the action. If that doesn’t quite do it, flip the free roller too.[/
the main roller doesn’t seem to come off. is there a trick to it?
thanks
I’ve never taken mine apart, but can’t you just remove the four screws and slide the end plates off?
Are the knurls clean? If they’re packed they won’t grab. The only time I’ve had a problem is when double crushing.
The fluffy grain won’t drop and creates a void.
Wish I could be more help.
[quote=“mrv”]I’ve never taken mine apart, but can’t you just remove the four screws and slide the end plates off?
Are the knurls clean? If they’re packed they won’t grab. The only time I’ve had a problem is when double crushing.
The fluffy grain won’t drop and creates a void.
Wish I could be more help.[/quote]
Yep, remove the screws and the whole thing comes apart. I (and many others) have done this to clean things out. This seems to be a common occurrence with these mills. I’ve been using canned air to clean mine and haven’t had problems since I took it apart.
^^^ This. Before you reassemble it is a good idea to clean the rollers with a clean wire brush to remove any compacted husk material.
Flipping the rollers is a great idea which I’ll have to try at some point. I haven’t had to do that yet, but have had success with disassembling and wiping down the end plates and roller ends with a clean cloth and rubbing the rollers with a dry vegetable brush. Good luck!
This happened to me today. Took forever to get through 9 lbs of grain. Was not a happy camper!
I’ve only had the mill 6 months and I clean it with a small paint brush after every milling. Guess I’m disassembling…
I bought a stainless steel wire brush at Lowes that does a great job digging the debris out of the rollers on my MM III.
I disassembled my mill to try flipping the rollers as advised above. Maybe I’m missing something…I don’t see how you can flip the drive roller.
I just purchased my mill in January so I find it hard to believe the knurling is getting dull anyway. I sent an email to BC support so will see what their response is.
I’ve enjoyed using the BC up to this point but after the last 3 brew sessions I just want to throw it against the wall. :x
[quote=“dannyboy58”]I disassembled my mill to try flipping the rollers as advised above. Maybe I’m missing something…I don’t see how you can flip the drive roller.[/quote]Yeah, you can’t really flip it. What you do is re-assemble the mill with the driven roller on the other side - I recall it’s stock on the left and so you flip the end pieces over and move the drive roller to the right side, so you’ll be driving it with the drill in reverse. This uses the other side of the knurls.
I sprayed PAM cooking spray on mine when same problem, and seems to have loosened up nicely. No disassembly or anything else.
Gotcha. Thanks Shade.
Mine did it again a couple of weeks ago and I had to break out the hand crank. Which works fine, so perhaps if you hook it up to a pulley system to get very low RPM, it will work with a drill. I took it apart and still had problems crushing a batch last Monday. I’m thinking of getting a new mill 
Did it still have problems after disassembly and wipedown to get rid of the grain bits? That really made all the difference for me. I would have a couple batches where I had to reverse the drill during milling once or twice, but then I would have a batch where it was a real PITA and afterwards I would disassemble / clean and all would be good for another 6 - 10 batches or so. Good luck, I hope it all works out – at first I was annoyed at the cleaning, but as brewers it seems par for the course. Cheers!
Really wanted to brew today but my grain mill referenced herein, a Barley Crusher less than one year old and maybe 30 grain bills through it, had to be returned for service because it wasn’t taking up grain properly.
I don’t like to bad mouth a product or company but it took me several emails and almost a month to get them to agree to take it in for service.
I sent it back December 5 and after multiple emails asking when it will be returned, I finally got an email yesterday with a UPS tracking link that says I’ll get it back Monday January 5. Even if it’s restored to perfect order that’s not acceptable service and turnaround for me.
Maybe I shouldn’t condemn then until I get my mill back but at this point, I would never consider a Barley Crusher mill again in the future. Very unhappy with the product longevity and their customer service.
I threw in the towel on mine and bought a Monster Mill when NB ran a 20% off sale a couple of weeks ago. I like everything about it better than the Barley Crusher - bigger rollers, bigger hopper and easier to adjust the gap.
Got my mill back yesterday. One month to the day since I sent it back to BC Products. No note or communication from BC as to what was done.
The rollers feel much sharper/rougher than when I returned it and they also installed an o-ring around the secondary(non-driven) roller. I guess that’s to assist in starting the secondary roller?
The rollers appear new. As a matter of fact I’m almost certain the drive roller is new since the drive shaft shows no sign of having my drill on it previously.
The gap was back to factory setting. I tightened it back down to my preferred .030 gap. Will remain to be seen how long that o-ring lasts with that gap setting…
Ran 9 lbs of grain through without a hitch. Picked up the grain and took off, crushed perfectly, no issue.
I have to say I’m pretty pleased with performance of the unit now. I just hope it will last and I won’t be back where I was in another 9-10 months. Took me a few emails and 2 months to get it resolved so that’s not great but at least I’m not out for a new mill yet.
Credit where credit is due, BC said they’d get it working like new again and they have done so.
Danny that was my issue with BC as well. I needed service about 6 months after receiving my mill. A bolt loosened up creating a huge gap between the rollers and body and grain would fly every where. It didn’t matter what I tried the bolt would not budge. I got no response from BC through multiple emails. Nice lifetime warranty.
I promptly switched to a dual adjustable JSP Maltmill and couldn’t be happier.
