Perfect spacing for grain mill?

[Brewedout]

I'm thinking about making a grain mill. Is there a perfect distance between the rollers? If not what size range should I be looking for?

Thanks

Mike

[BenB]

I've heard 0.038"/1mm is about right. But my mill is yet to see action so might be wrong! Credit card thickness iirc....

[6470zzy]

I use the Barley Crusher mill and it is set at .039 inches. Works for me.

Cheers

[barneey]

I'm thinking about making a grain mill. Is there a perfect distance between the rollers? If not what size range should I be looking for?

Thanks

Mike

The best method is to do a trial on ALL the settings you have, take a few photo's and publish on here, the crush will also depend on the size of the grain amongst other things. Once set & assuming you still use the same base grain everytime leave it alone and dial in your system.

[Jocky]

It will also depend upon the speed the rollers are being cranked at.

My cordless drill on its slower setting cranks at about 300rpm. I found that at the 0.050" setting there were a lot of uncrushed grains, whereas at 0.025" everything was shredded, and like others settled somewhere in between.

[Brewedout]

Thanks to everyone for the information so far. On your grain mills do the rollers move apart in parallel or does one side remain fixed? Just thinking about the ways I can make the rollers move and for them to be adjustable.

[Jocky]

On mine only one of the rollers is cranked (the other moves, but only when grain gets pulled into it by the cranked roller), and you have to set each end of the roller separately, so you can have a wider gap at one end than the other.

I've never heard of someone wanting to have a wider gap at one end than the other, I think it's just a lot cheaper to produce that way.

[Cxp073]

Keep in mind that different grains need to be milled at different gap settings.
Here's an example.
I have my brewferm malt mill set at around .035 for Pilsner malt, which seems perfect. However, last week I brewed a mild using 85% Maris Otter, 10% crystal and 5% chocolate. The Maris Otter was fine at .035, but the chocolate and crystal needed a MUCH larger gap. I changed the gap by eye, and didn't check the gap required for the specialty malts listed above; however, it must have been double the gap.

[Brewedout]

Jocky does your grain pass through your mill easily with just one roller being driven? This would be an easier design for me to produce.
Cxp073 thanks your input, do you know the range of movement you have on your mill (so I can factor a sensible range onto my mill!)

[Jocky]

Yeah, it grinds everything easily, although I suspect having it go at 300rpm probably helps.

[Wonkydonkey]

I got a simular grain mill (Chinese style knockoff)

I've had no probs with it, untill now. But it's not the mill, it's the grain, I got some Minch malt, irish stuff. I did a few brews and just thought it was a bit lower efficancy. Till I took a closer look. It was the grain size, which was not very unform

I too use the bat drill on the screw speed not the drilling speed. Sometimes it takes a start stop and start approach to get it to grab the grain and get the other wheel to turn. But either way I'm happy to grind my grain so it fresh every brew.

[DeadFall]

With my old mash tun and conditioning the malt I could go as low as 0.7mm. But I've had to dial back now I use a grainfather, I'm currently on 0.9mm but think I need to get closer to 1mm. I've noticed that the efficiency is actually getting better with the gf as I get wider. I suspect this is due to better flow through the grain bed. As others say, the malt makes a difference too. I used to crush all of my malts together, now I do each one separate and judge by eye. I haven't bothered conditioning for the past few brews, this doesn't seem to help with the grainfather in the same way it did my old system.

[jmc]

I got a simular grain mill (Chinese style knockoff)

I've had no probs with it, untill now. But it's not the mill, it's the grain, I got some Minch malt, irish stuff. I did a few brews and just thought it was a bit lower efficancy. Till I took a closer look. It was the grain size, which was not very unform

I too use the bat drill on the screw speed not the drilling speed. Sometimes it takes a start stop and start approach to get it to grab the grain and get the other wheel to turn. But either way I'm happy to grind my grain so it fresh every brew.

I bought a 2nd hand mill (Barley Crusher) and have just about given up on it because of the stop start nature of it due to it being driven from 1 side only.

If you can do it I'd design it so that both wheels are driven so you dont end up with dangerous nudging of one (undriven)side to get it going.

[Wonkydonkey]

The other way I get going, is instead of start stop way, I turn the whole drill anti clockwise a bit then clockwise till I feel it grab the grain. So to be clear. if the drill handle is down in the 6 o clock position I turn it to 3 or 4 o clock with a twist of the wrist and a twist back to 6 o clock, if at any time I feel it grab the grain, my finger hits the trigger.

I had thought about getting an oring that sits tight on one side so it is actually just touching the othe side. That way both sides turn. But as it works I did not really see the point of fixing it. As it may not really fix it any better than it is. And of course the grain may well just help in it getting the oring chewed up.

An other way I had thought of trying at some point in time was to find a strip of plastic/rubber 10mm wide by 50 or 100mm long. just a bit thicker than the gap Then insert it a little between the rollers, add the grain and as you start the drill. The bit of plastic/rubber starts to turn the other roller. It drops into the bucket to be fished out later.

Also I do think it's the size of the grain and the roller spacing, ie if set to small it just can't grab the grain. If set a bit bigger it grabs the grain but does not really crush it.

I hope this helps.

[Brewedout]

Some really useful points and ideas. Certainly some food for thought.

I want to try and make a crusher with both rollers being driven, but I am struggling to come up with a simple adjustable solution. Does anyone have a crusher where both rollers are driven to post some close up images? Or any ideas?

Thsnks