Monster mill - a piece of incomprehensible crap

I can’t make heads or tails of the monster mill three roller mill with hopper. The assembly instructions are incomprehensible and the alleged diagrams are worse. The instructions call for riveting or bolting the assembly. Riveting!!! I have no idea how to assemble this monstrosity. There are bolts with no nuts. There are nuts with no bolts. Which side of the mill is “up” with respect to the base? The only diagram doesn’t even bother to show the base. The only way I can see to mount it so that the drive shaft is outside the bucket is to mount it upside down - is this right?? A picture or two would have been greatly appreciated. Also, I had no idea that taking the shipping rubber bands off would mean that the whole assembly would fall apart. I think I have just been screwed out of 260 dollars. Can anyone help me?

I just got a MM as well, but the two roller. I did get it put together but agree that the instructions REALLY suck. I did a quick search on google for “Monster Mill pictures”, several came up, which ended up being really helpful. Also I couldn’t get something right and e-mail them a few questions. The owner got back to me in less then 2 hours. Don’t know what else I can say to help, but they are really friendly helpful people, so maybe a phone call or e-mail to them could provide you some answers.

Monster mills are far from crap, in fact they are very good mills. I put mine together, I think it is simple enough. Look at a pic of an assembled one, that ought to be enough. No you don’t have to rivet, use the little bolts/nuts to put together the hopper. The bolts for the mill base screw into the threaded holes on the ends of the mill. You have to come up with a base, usually a 1/2" piece of plywood or a board of some kind. The butterfly bolts screw into the side of the mill to secure the width-adjustment.

You should really change your title to something that indicates you are mechanically challenged and need help getting the mill put together. No shame in that.

+1 to Tom Sawyer
In addition make sure that when you bolt it to your base you square up the end blocks to each other.
Use a small carpenters square or a drafting triangle to do this, if not the rollers may bind slightly.
It’s a very good piece of equipment, be patient, and you’ll be a fan not a hater.

Just used my 2" 2 roller for the first time this morning.
I set it at 45 thousandths and it absolutely dominated 9#.
I ran it as slow as I could with my dewalt in 1st gear (of 3) and it took less than a minute.
Mash stuck like crazy. I love it already. :cheers:

I think with the 3 roller the mill goes under the base with the plates that hold the hopper to the mill samwitched betweed the base and the mill. Then the hopper goes on from the top. Just wild speculation looking at my 2 roller setup.
Have to drill a hole in your bucket to get your drill hooked up. Just WAG ing.

Top to bottom: Hopper, Mill, Base

I took the rubber bands off, too, had it come apart, and it was fine. The only nuts are for the hopper. The large bolts go directly into the mill, four from the hopper down into the top and four from the base up into the bottom.

Agree with Tom Sawyer. I have the 3 roller and love it. Yup, you have to put the hopper together, but I did it and I’m no mechanical ace. If your not happy, mail it back and get a refund. I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a MM owner that agrees with your title.

Here’s some verbeage from the MM website. Does look like the 3-roll model is designed to be mounted to the bottom of the base although it says you can do it either way.

“The simplest base is just a piece of 1/2” or 3/4" thick high density fiber board at least 8" wide and 18" long with a hole for a funnel over the gap, and four mounting holes for the mill. Make sure to drill the mounting holes oversized (at least 5/16") so that there is clearance to properly align the frames for perfect spinning of the idler rollers.

I personally have found it easiest to mount my mill underneath the base and cantilever it out over the edge of my brew stand at a height that is just above my 5 gallon bucket that I mill into. The mill is mounted at one end of the plywood and the other end is screwed into my brew stand. This way it hangs out so I can place my grist bucket under it and attach the drill.

You can also place the base on top of your grist bucket with the mill underneath and the shaft sticking out of a slot cut into the bucket. You can also top mount the mill and place another piece of fiber board on top of the mill with a hole or slot cut in it for the hopper/funnel.

All of our drill drive mills have threaded mounting holes on the top and bottom of the end frames for whatever mounting configuration you can come up with. We include plans for a simple base and hopper configuration like what I use. The drive shaft can turn clockwise, or counter clockwise, as long as it spins and pulls the grain down into the gap. We always like to hear how people are using their Monster Mill, and if you have a Brewing web page we would like to link to it to show other folks how Monster Mills can be configured."

I’ll give you $50 and save you the frustration.

I’ll give you $50 and save you the frustration.[/quote]

I will give you $75 and some both of you the frustration! :smiley:

Thanks for all your replies. I posted my rant out of frustration and I was out of line. I was having problems putting my MM together which were the result of my misunderstanding of the instructions exacerbated by never having actually seen any grain mill. (I know there are zillions of YouTube videos out there but they seen to be mostly about the mill in operation and not how to construct it.)

Anyway, I did get in touch with Fred Francis (Mr. Monster Mill) and he set me straight. My frustration pretty much stemmed from the fact that I am a mechanical idiot and there is nothing Fred can do about that!

The construction of the mill is first rate and is well worth the money - I am happy with my purchase and believe this mill will serve me well for years.

Now, about that new HERMS setup that I am wrestling with . . . .

I think if you’re happy with the product / company now, it would be a nice gesture to edit the title of your original post to something that doesn’t make the company look bad. That post will be there for many years.

So, you don’t want to sell the mill now? :cry:

If you can, post a pic or describe how you put it together. I’d be interested to know how it is set up.

This is how I assembled the hopper, base, and 3-roller mill from NB. Given the length of the bolts, shape of the hopper, and the thickness of the base, I don’t think you can assemble it any other way without modifying parts. What you don’t see from this pic is that the opening cut in the base is as wide as the mill and there are 4 bolts coming up through the bottom (lined up with the ones on top).

My new configuration with dedicated motor has the mill suspended an inch below a tabletop. The opening in the tabletop is only about an inch wide and slightly less than the length of the rollers. Unfortunately, the hopper will have to be modified or pieces of it replaced, due to the design that wraps the metal around the sides.

Due to my OCD about assembling things,
The only thing I was dissatisfied with was those 2 bottom bolts that bolt the hopper to the angled plates had to go from the inside out to get a phillips on it.
It looks better with the screw heads on the outside.
Really glad I just got the package deal,
I have a sheet metal brake and all that good stuff at work and there is no way for 40$ I could bend one that fit that perfectly. Exceptional engineering.CNC.
Except for those 2 bolts. I’m really okay with it I’ll just walk counterclockwise twice around the mill before I use it and I’ll be able to sleep at night.

That’s exactly why I decided there was no way I was taking a saw or plasma torch to remove the side pieces. I’ll be using the funnel portion of the hopper and fabricating some very simple V’s to bolt to the tabletop.

[quote=“Scott Miller”]Due to my OCD about assembling things,
The only thing I was dissatisfied with was those 2 bottom bolts that bolt the hopper to the angled plates had to go from the inside out to get a phillips on it.
It looks better with the screw heads on the outside.
Really glad I just got the package deal,
I have a sheet metal brake and all that good stuff at work and there is no way for 40$ I could bend one that fit that perfectly. Exceptional engineering.CNC.
Except for those 2 bolts. I’m really okay with it I’ll just walk counterclockwise twice around the mill before I use it and I’ll be able to sleep at night.[/quote]

Um, I don’t know how to tell you this, but all the nuts go on the outside of the hopper.

Oh no you did-nt.
Hope this thing breaks in in the next batch or two or I might have to back it off to .050.
Really stuck my mash, although, it was 98% bohemian pils.
Probably not the crush to blame, it just locked the whole bed surface down with protein.
Nothing getting through that stuff.
Nuts out? I dont know man.

[quote=“Scott Miller”]Oh no you did-nt.
Hope this thing breaks in in the next batch or two or I might have to back it off to .050.
Really stuck my mash, although, it was 98% bohemian pils.
Probably not the crush to blame, it just locked the whole bed surface down with protein.
Nothing getting through that stuff.
Nuts out? I dont know man.[/quote]

Nuts out.
Also, what are you using for draining, how fast, how much head on the bed? If you have a 3 roller you can make flour. Thats, pretty easy. There are many reasons for your issues.