Country Living Grain Mill

[big country]

Well, I finally broke down and bought a hand crank grain mill. I've got an electric mill that we've been using for awhile but it makes a huge mess whenever we run it (nutrimill). Spews very fine flour everywhere.

I've been having this little voice in the back of my head telling me that I needed to get a hand powered mill recently so I decided to pull the trigger when I have some extra cash due to some early christmas gifts. Once it arrives in the mail I'll be an official owner (even though I bought and paid for it I don't OWN it until I HOLD it...I feel like there is a quote in there somewhere ;))

I didn't buy any other accessories with it this time as it was expensive enough by itself ($365). My next purchase will be the corn auger so I can make my own corn meal and the repair kit/extra burrs.

[Road Runner]

Good for you! My daughter in law got one a couple years ago and makes all her flours. She said she gets the added bonus of a workout while she grinds the flour!! I think hers cost around that amount also.

[osprey]

That mill is on our short list too. Congrats!

[Mouse]

You all shall be very strong before the lord.

It's a serious workout. I cannot judge other grain mills, just went with research and country mills was pretty much the most expensive and also the most likely to last FOREVER. We have ground up some with it but even with the long crank it's a hella workout.

They are easily converted to bicycle or motor, but the RPM requires a motor with very low speed. We have been keeping an eye out for a busted up washing machine as the motors have several gears and the sloshing gear for just washing is pretty low rpm.

If all else fails, mine is mounted on a bench in the garage and we will have bread or a heart attack - guaranteed. I suspect it will be bread, as I will be to busy chopping up wood to kill myself making flour.

Don't come in empty handed either, you better be packing some splits if you come in this door. Set em there on the pile.

Thanks

[osprey]

What about adapting a variable speed drill to it?

[Desolation LineTrimmer]

I have a hand crank assessory to my electric mill but since I bake all my own bread I couldn't imagine using it by choice, as the job is big enough already! Now if I had a regular spawn of 6 to 8 kids, a farm wife, and the rest of the good life intact I might think differently.

[Cobalt]

It's a serious workout. I cannot judge other grain mills, just went with research and country mills was pretty much the most expensive and also the most likely to last FOREVER. We have ground up some with it but even with the long crank it's a hella workout.

They are easily converted to bicycle or motor, but the RPM requires a motor with very low speed. We have been keeping an eye out for a busted up washing machine as the motors have several gears and the sloshing gear for just washing is pretty low rpm.






You can make a standard electric motor turn a shaft just about any speed you want using several different sized pulleys driving a couple belts.

[Mouse]

Wow! I didn't realize that. I should go study some more. That's incredible new news to me. To think that I could harness the power of wheels and gears to make work. WOW.

You need a gear reduction motor such that the RPM going to the grinder is about 75-100 or less. That's not just easy to do out of the box. As I suggested in my post, you can attempt with a laundry motor run in low mode which might work well.

As you prefer - we can run it off a 3750 RPM 1HP unit and have gear reducers made of 26" bicycle wheels. It's all in the mathematical details.

If you have a working solution that does not involve spending $300 or whatever for a kit, please post it. Otherwise you are really just pointing out things that are fracking obvious to anybody with half of a working assemblage.

Merry Christmas anyway.

[Dogman]

Wow! I didn't realize that. I should go study some more. That's incredible new news to me. To think that I could harness the power of wheels and gears to make work. WOW.

You need a gear reduction motor such that the RPM going to the grinder is about 75-100 or less. That's not just easy to do out of the box. As I suggested in my post, you can attempt with a laundry motor run in low mode which might work well.

As you prefer - we can run it off a 3750 RPM 1HP unit and have gear reducers made of 26" bicycle wheels. It's all in the mathematical details.

If you have a working solution that does not involve spending $300 or whatever for a kit, please post it. Otherwise you are really just pointing out things that are fracking obvious to anybody with half of a working assemblage.

Merry Christmas anyway.


Or buy the and find a scrap washer or dryer and use this setup http://www.mykitchencenter.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=1409

Or buy pulley's of he correct diameter(sp) and hunt down ether a, a.c motor with a scr speed control or a d.c motor with a speed control.

Myself knowing it would look sort of funky, I would go with the scrap motor and pulleys ,If you are clueless working with d.c or a.c , Shirley (nod to the recently passed on actor) you know a friend that can do the electoral hookups and would jump at the challenge (easy) and cheaper.

Put a motor on the dam thing, you will not regret it, it will save your arm and joints in the same.Look at granger for the pulleys of the correct o.d and i.d dimensions (sp).

Edit: in the long run you will thank yourself for doing it. ;D

[Cobalt]

Wow! I didn't realize that. I should go study some more. That's incredible new news to me. To think that I could harness the power of wheels and gears to make work. WOW.

You need a gear reduction motor such that the RPM going to the grinder is about 75-100 or less. That's not just easy to do out of the box. As I suggested in my post, you can attempt with a laundry motor run in low mode which might work well.

As you prefer - we can run it off a 3750 RPM 1HP unit and have gear reducers made of 26" bicycle wheels. It's all in the mathematical details.

If you have a working solution that does not involve spending $300 or whatever for a kit, please post it. Otherwise you are really just pointing out things that are fracking obvious to anybody with half of a working assemblage.

Merry Christmas anyway.




Trying to reduce the RPM down too a workable range will most likely involve a minimum of 4 pulleys because you are needing such low final RPM.
Example
If you used a motor with an RPM of 1725 with a 2 inch pulley on it, the driven pulley would need to be 36 inches to get you down below 100 RPM and would actually calculate out too a final dive speed of 94.875 RPM.

Now if you take the same motor of 1725 RPM with a 2 inch pulley driving a 10 inch pulley, that will give you a shaft RPM of 345 so from there you install a 2nd 2 inch pulley running back to a 2nd 10 inch pulley and that will give you a final drive speed of 69 RPM.

I can't help with how much HP the motor needs too be since I don't know the resistance value of the mill shaft.

Merry Christmas back at ya :)

[Mouse]

It's a serious workout. I cannot judge other grain mills, just went with research and country mills was pretty much the most expensive and also the most likely to last FOREVER. We have ground up some with it but even with the long crank it's a hella workout.

They are easily converted to bicycle or motor, but the RPM requires a motor with very low speed. We have been keeping an eye out for a busted up washing machine as the motors have several gears and the sloshing gear for just washing is pretty low rpm.






You can make a standard electric motor turn a shaft just about any speed you want using several different sized pulleys driving a couple belts.




Apologies for my dickish reply.

[big country]

Got the mill finally. I came factory direct and I'm sure they were a little backed up with Christmas. I didn't mind too much, I'm just pumped to have it!

Here is how it came after I removed all the packaging. The fork is there for scale.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0585.jpg

It went together really easy, not really any how-to instructions on how to put it together except for a small text blurb but it was enough. I like that it included an exploded diagram so it should be easy to put back together if I yank it apart (so long as I don't lose the drawing I guess!)

Here it is all put together.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0587.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0588.jpg


It is actually a little harder to crank then I expected. I tried it last night after my 2 hour fencing lesson so I may have already been a little tired but I was worried then. I used it again tonight when I got home from work (no fencing) and it was much easier so I think my body was just a little exhausted already. If you notice in the pictures I clamped it to the counter, it still was sliding around so I put some of that no-slip shelf liner under it and it solved the problem completely. I don't want to mount it permanently since we're renting and I doubt they would appreciate holes in the counter...

[ximmy]

Curious as to how well it is built... is it a cast iron body, plastic???

[osoab]

What were you grinding and how did the flour turn out?

[big country]

its cast aluminum body, but powder coated and protected on any part that touches the food. No way aluminum could even touch the food unless you royally scratch the coating somehow. Its built REALLY well, I'm impressed. Says "MADE IN USA" stamped right into the hopper part of the mill (you can kind of see it in the first picture on the slanting part of the hopper). No way you could ever break it under normal using conditions. The body/hopper is all one piece so you could only drop a part and (doubtfully) break it if you dropped the whole mill. There are replacement parts that they sell called a "Just-in-case" (http://ourhappyhomestead.com/index.php/country-living-grain-mill-just-in-case.html) kit that includes all major parts that are likely to break (doesn't include grinding plates, but those are available too) such as the crank shaft, new bearings, spring auger, locking keys, etc.


I was grinding Hard White wheat with it, flour came out nice and fine. its very adjustable by turning the knob on the front of the plates, you can see it in the third picture. I just used the "factory" setting, they included a flour sample and the book said that the sample was ground using the setting that came on the mill. EVERY mill is tested and wheat is ground in it before you get it. The flour sample included is actually ground WITH YOUR MILL. The box was a mess, flour and wheat berries everywhere on the inside (they didn't even clean it really after the test grind.)



I plan on grinding wheat and corn with this mill. I still need to buy the corn auger, but we don't use any other kinds of flours/meals right now, so those would be the two I would grind.

[CrufflerJJ]

Curious as to how well it is built... is it a cast iron body, plastic???


The Country Living Grain Mill is built to last. Cast aluminum body (powder coated). Everything else is cast iron/steel/wood. I couldn't ask for a better grain mill.

For those "out there" thinking about this unit, contact the manufacturer & ask about the availability of "factory second" units. These supposedly have cosmetic flaws, but I could see NO flaw at all on our grinder.

The manufacturer is GOOD FOLKS. Where else would you call to place an order, and hear the sound of kids playing in the background?

[freespirit]

i'm curious how much it can produce in say an hours work or so...i don't imagine you'd want to give 'er every time you wanted to make a loaf of bread, per se...

is it the sort of thing that you'd want to spend a saturday doing? or can it make a decent sized amount of flour in a short time?

[beefsteak]

What about adapting a variable speed drill to it?


I've actually done that, osprey, or to be more accurate....had a friend of mine with a metal lathe reduce the male end of the auger and then square it, to fit into the biggest hand-held electric drill chuck I had already in my possession. Noisy but effective.

[big country]

i'm curious how much it can produce in say an hours work or so...i don't imagine you'd want to give 'er every time you wanted to make a loaf of bread, per se...

is it the sort of thing that you'd want to spend a saturday doing? or can it make a decent sized amount of flour in a short time?


So far in using it I would say with an hours work I can produce around 3-4 cups of flour. That would on a very fine setting. If you take it a little more course, it is easier to grind and it grinds faster where you could probably do 5-6 cups in an hour. Now that is my short term experience. Also remember that I haven't been doing it log enough to be conditioned to the type of work and muscle usage it requires so I think I can improve that over time by just doing it and getting my body used to it.

I've been leaving the mill setup on the counter (I have it clamped, not screwed in since we're renting) so far what has been working for us is just walking past it and cranking it for 5 minutes then continue with the task at hand. every other night I've had an extended grinding session of 20-30 minutes. I don't get tired so fast when just walking past and cranking, and the flour still adds up. Our electric mill is MANY MANY MANY times faster then what this mill is (nutrimill), I don't even think you could compare them.

[Heimdhal]

you have to use the StackerKen Method, which includes taking off the crank wheel and attaching a power drill to the drive shaft of the mill and using it on low to medium speed.


It seems to work very well ;) ;D


Seen here:
http://gold-silver.us/forum/preparedness/looking-for-a-grain-mill/msg103088/#msg103088

[osoab]

How's the mill working out big country?

I have been looking for one and after reading this guys report, I think i will pony up for the country living rain mill.

http://www.grainmillcomparison.com/

I was looking at the wonder mill deluxe model (has the accessories) but the above review got me to thinking differently.

[big country]

Its been working good still. We've been using our electirc mill mostly since we have electricity still...and It will grind 20 cups of flour in about 5 minutes. The hand crank is nice to have, its a pain to grind enough for 2 loaves of bread (and I'm pretty sure I burn more calories then I get from the two loaves of bread...)

Thats not to say we don't use it because we do, and it is holding up great. I'm pretty sure this thing will still work great when I'm 80 (27 now). Its expensive, but it is built to last. I have NO complaints at all.