Need advice on Grain Mills Please

[Deleted]

Would like some suggestions/advice on grain mills for grinding wheat berries for flour.  Am new to this, so any/all suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.   Thanks in advance.

[Deleted]

I have a Victorio, good quality, cheap, manual grinder. It will grind good quality flour at a rate of about one cup every 12-14 minutes, depending on how motivated you are to get it done. She doesn't like it and says we need one that she can comfortably operate in case the electricity and I go out at the same time. I told her if the electricity went out I would stay home, and She said that wasn't quite what She meant.

[horseyrider]

Most people are going to tell you that the best one is the one they own. Which is totally natural, considering that they made their selection and like to be validated. Hopefully everyone will list the pros and cons of their setup and then you can choose what's most likely to work with you, your budget, and your management style.

I looked high and low. Cost was a consideration, but it was secondary to value and performance. I ended up with a Nutrimill from King Arthur Flour, since they had the best price I could find on that mill. When you shop and arrive at a decision, check Pleasant Hill Grain as well as Amazon too.

I wanted a mill that would primarily grind wheat and corn, and could vary the grind so I could have fine flour or coarse meal. The Nutrimill does that, and I took the plunge because I figured if it didn't work out, I could sell it. It's an impact mill, not a grinder. The kernels are hit at a high speed and sort of explode.

Pros include:

Price-- Really reasonable, considering.

Has a large hopper which you can fill and walk away.

Flour is fine enough for cookies and cakes.

Storage and setup is nothing. You can even leave it on the counter if you wish, but I don't. But there's no need to bolt it to anything.

Flour stays relatively cool during processing.

It's electric. It can do the milling and I'm freed up to do something else for the few minutes it takes to grind the grain.

Cleanup is done with a pastry brush. No washing unless you want to.

Customer support is awesome. They're very interested in your satisfaction.

I've had mine for about four years and have ground almost all our flour in it-- wheat, spelt, kamut, and popcorn, and there's no sign of wear.


Cons include:

It's LOUD. I turn mine on and leave the room. I don't believe there is a power mill out there that doesn't sound like jet aircraft taking off.

If you want to grind five pounds of flour, you'll have to do it in two batches. The pan is really only big enough for about three loaves worth.

It doesn't grind oily seeds like flax or peanuts. It'd be a gooey mess. That takes a different kind of mill.

It's plastic. I don't like plastic much. Plastic is sort of ugly. But to me it's worth it because it functions so well. I keep it on a shelf where I don't have to look at it unless I want to.

Anyway, that's the lowdown on the Nutrimill. I look forward to the information here from others!

[okiemomof3]

I have had a Nutrimill for 7 or 8 years now and i LOVE it!!!

I don't think the Nutrmill is any louder than a vacuum.

It keeps flour well contained and you don't have flour dust anywhere.

it is pretty compact and will fit nicely underneath the top cabinets if you choose to keep out on counters.

You can turn it off even if the hopper still has grain/wheat/beans, etc. in it and it won't cause problems.

You can adjust the texture of the flour. i turn mine up a bit when i grind corn for cornbread, because i like the texture.

I have absolutely no reservations on recommending this. i have been totally happy with mine.

[feather]

I invested in the Nutrimill too. It is loud. It is new and I had little problem learning how to use it. I've had it for less than a year and I feel good about the investment.

[adirondackgal]

I have a Wondermill and love it. It is loud like a vacuum but does an awesome job. It is self-contained with no dust. I grinds very quickly.

[Deleted]

I had a Nutrimill, but it was loud and electric. I want something that will work in case of power outage. I've been looking at the Diamant, but that is a "wish" for a list in the future.

[spacecase0]

I have a country living grain mill, works fantastic, it can do pastry fine flower on the first pass.
it is physical effort to run it, but very possible to do,
electric mills are often way lower priced and are easier and faster to use.

also the hand mills do not heat up the grain when grinding, and I like the flavor better that way.

[hermitjohn]

I have an old cast iron Corona mill. I bought it new pre-modified so it will grind fine flour. From factory in South America they are made to crack grain, not grind flour, so burrs are too rough/uneven to grind fine flour. Anyway it was a PITA to turn the crank by hand. So I got to thinking how to "gear it down". Think about a vehicle going up a hill, you downshift, right? I was intending to motorize it, but girlfriend at the time said why dont you power it with bicycle. I did. Its fairly fast with a 2:1 ratio (two turns of pedal for every turn of the mill), but 3:1 means, though slower, even a child could pedal it or an adult if you are grinding a particularly large or hard grain. Takes about ten minutes pedaling to grind enough flour for a loaf of bread. CAn grind grain into flour in one go through.

Course living alone, and now diabetic... Dont use it much.

[Deleted]

I have the Whisper mill, which I think was purchased by the Wonder Mill. Whisper is only correct if you are next to a large operating engine.

Part of the reason I purchased it is I wanted to grind both Corn and Wheat, and several of the mills in the 90's did not approve the grinding of corn. I'm not sure if the Wonder mill allows the grinding of corn. I frequently mill corn and have had my mill for about 18 years, and it still works fine. I used to cook about 5 loaves a week, plus grind for a friend. I now only make 1-2 loaves a week and my friend moved away about 7 years ago, so my milling needs have gone down. I grind about 4-5 cups of corn once a month now, I used to grind about twice that much.

Dawn

[manygoatsnmore]

I have a WonderMill, and it is great for grinding corn. Nothing tastes as good as cornbread made from freshly ground corn. I like my mill.

I also have a Victorio hand mill, which is okay for a hand powered mill, but it wish it could grind wheat to flour in one pass. I end up having to sift to get the fine flour and then either make cracked wheat cereal or regrind to get more fine flour.

I actually grind more wheat in my old Vitamix than in anything else. It's fast, deafening (but so is the WonderMill), and effective.

[manygoatsnmore]

Oct 1, 2015 1:23:19 GMT hermitjohn said:

I have an old cast iron Corona mill. I bought it new pre-modified so it will grind fine flour. From factory in South America they are made to crack grain, not grind flour, so burrs are too rough/uneven to grind find flour. Anyway it was a PITA to turn the crank by hand. So I got to thinking how to "gear it down". Think about a vehicle going up a hill, you downshift, right? I was intending to motorize it, but girlfriend at the time said why dont you power it with bicycle. I did. Its fairly fast with a 2:1 ratio (two turns of pedal for every turn of the mill), but 3:1 means, though slower, even a child could pedal it or an adult if you are grinding a particularly large or hard grain. Takes about ten minutes pedaling to grind enough flour for a loaf of bread. Can grind grain into flour in one go through.

Course living alone, and now diabetic... Don't use it much.

If you ever want to sell it, let me know.

[hermitjohn]

Oct 1, 2015 3:39:17 GMT manygoatsnmore said:

Oct 1, 2015 1:23:19 GMT hermitjohn said:

I have an old cast iron Corona mill. I bought it new pre-modified so it will grind fine flour. From factory in South America they are made to crack grain, not grind flour, so burrs are too rough/uneven to grind find flour. Anyway it was a PITA to turn the crank by hand. So I got to thinking how to "gear it down". Think about a vehicle going up a hill, you downshift, right? I was intending to motorize it, but girlfriend at the time said why dont you power it with bicycle. I did. Its fairly fast with a 2:1 ratio (two turns of pedal for every turn of the mill), but 3:1 means, though slower, even a child could pedal it or an adult if you are grinding a particularly large or hard grain. Takes about ten minutes pedaling to grind enough flour for a loaf of bread. Can grind grain into flour in one go through.

Course living alone, and now diabetic... Don't use it much.

If you ever want to sell it, let me know. ;)

I had bought the Corona after giving away an OB mill that was also very hard to turn. It was useful as is to grind pearl tapioca into homemade "minute tapioca". Hey the pearl tapioca is lot cheaper or was, havent done tapioca for lot years. The elderly friend I gave it to wanted it for that. I then bought a regular Corona and was shocked to find it wouldnt grind as fine as the OB. The OB was better quality too.

Then saw ad from place in Utah selling modified Corona mills that would grind very fine flour. When I got it saw all they had done is even out and flatten the ridges in burrs. Anymore think I could do that just briefly holding each burr briefly flat to side of chop saw blade. Could make a quick wood jig to hold it, if any doubts on ability to free hand it accurately.

For large sprocket on the mill, I just cut the end off the original crank handle that fit the mill shaft, and welded bicycle sprocket onto it. For the second ratio, welded on a spacer and then the smaller sprocket. Thus having choice of two ratios. Bicycles as they come from factory have large sprocket on the pedal crank, I cut that off and welded on smallest sprocket I could find. If you want to judge ratios offered by different sprockets you find, count the teeth. For example for a 3:1 ratio, you want the sprocket on the mill to have three times the number of teeth on the pedal crank.

There, all the secrets to converting a hand mill. Not rocket science. Any handyman with a welder could easily do this. Now if you wanted a electric motor powered mill, remember you want to keep rpm down to under 50. These cheap hand mills dont have bearings, just natural good wear properties of cast iron so you dont want to try to turn them faster than this. For standard electric motor, no doubt it would require at least one intermediate jack shaft as you would never find pulley or sprocket large enough to reduce rpm enough, and if you did, it would be unwieldy design to use.

Now if you wanted to stick to the hand crank, you could just extend it out three or four times its original length. Though it would require maybe an uncomfortable range of movement to turn. A flywheel would help too. Though finding a large flywheel that wasnt overly heavy might be problem. Such things existed on some antique farm/commercial equipment, think like those old large hand crank coffee grinders in stores, but not much on modern stuff.

Oh and matter of personal preference but I liked the mill mounted in front of the handlebars. First I tried it mounted behind the seat lower down. It seemed more balanced design (lower center of gravity) and used shorter chain, but was annoying to be turning around to see my progress when grinding grain.

And I used old cheapie exercise bike I got for $1 at an auction. It was already stationary bike though you could easily convert a regular bike if thats what you had. Not rocket science. All you really need is the pedal crank assembly off a bike, chain, and some sprockets. The rest of frame could be made of whatever you had handy. Bike chains can be spliced together for any length you need. Junk bikes are cheap, but suppose you could buy heavier duty sprockets and roller chain from place like Tractor Supply or off the internet and fabricate everything from scratch... Bicycle stuff is plenty heavy duty enough for this.

[freelove]

I also have a Country Living mill and love it. DH motorized it for me and it has been working hard for 10 - 12 years. I use it a lot!

If you go to the Country Living site there is a picture of my mill and an illustration and explanation of how DH motorized it.

[jassytoo]

I have a Country Living grain mill. Mine can either be used by hand or I can run the motor. It works like a charm, I love it. It was expensive but worth the money IMO. It is made not far from where I live so I got to pick mine up and see where they are made. Nice folks, DH had a good time talking bees and checking out hives with the owner.

[jupiter]

We have a Country Living mill. We love it!

[Deleted]

Thank you all for the replies. I'm still undecided, I'm torn between the Nutrimill, Wonder Mill Jr & the Country Living Mill. It's only my DBF & I & we're both around 65 yr old, so, it's not like we're youngsters with a large family.

For those of you with the electric grinders (Nutrimill,Wonder Mill), do you also have a manual grinder as backup for when/if electric goes out?  If so, what kind?

Thanks again, for all the replies.

[Deleted]

Well, placed the order today for the Nutrimill from Pleasant Hill. I still would like to get a manual mill for backup for when our electric goes out. Thanks everyone for all your input.

[horseyrider]

@cntrywmn, congrats on your decision. I think you'll enjoy this mill for many years.

You asked if those of us with electric mills have manual ones for backup. No, I don't. I had a friend years ago that had a manual one, and the time and energy spent to crank it left me wanting electric only. Our electric goes out sometimes too, but we have a whole house generator that turns itself on automatically if the power's out more than fifteen seconds, so outages are no longer a concern. We also make 120% of our electricity with solar, so I'm not concerned about consumption. Electric mills are fast, and can work their magic while I'm heating the liquid for my bread. I like being free to do something else rather than cranking for long periods.