[reverseapachemaster]

I hand crank most of my batches but when I brew larger batches I hook up the drill. Most of my batches are small (1-2 gallons) so I can hand mill about as fast as I can hook up the drill and mill with power.

[denny]

I hand cranked more than a ton of grain through my first Schmidling Malt Mill before leaving the hobby for an extended period.   I went back to hand cranking malt through a new Schmidling Malt Mill when I re-entered the hobby last summer.  I am an AARP card-carrying fifty-something "get off of my grass" curmudgeon.

I'm an AARP card carrier who's enough older than you that I hardly recall being 50 something.  I use a drill fro my JSP and wouldn't consider and cranking.  AND I'm also a coot and geezer, besides a curmudgeon! 

[rjharper]

I have an MM3 that I use a power drill on. I used to use a cheap corded drill but it was to variable and the keyed chuck was a PITA. Now I use my 18v LiIon Makita on the slow setting. 400rpm is still a little fast but its more consistent, and less cables / keyless chuck etc is nice.

Never even contemplated hand milling. 

[S. cerevisiae]

I just finished assembling, aligning, and setting the gap on the MM3 that I ordered last week.  It has a 1/2" drive shaft; therefore,  I will not be hand cranking this mill.

I have word of advice for anyone who is contemplating purchasing a Monster Mill hopper.  Follow the directions, so that you can avoid having to assemble the hopper twice.  Resist the urge to attach the hopper side plates to the hopper end plates before attaching mounting brackets to the the side plates.   

[rjharper]

I just finished assembling, aligning, and setting the gap on the MM3 that I ordered last week.  It has a 1/2" drive shaft; therefore,  I will not be hand cranking this mill.

I have word of advice for anyone who is contemplating purchasing a Monster Mill hopper.  Follow the directions, so that you can avoid having to assemble the hopper twice.  Resist the urge to attach the hopper side plates to the hopper end plates before attaching mounting brackets to the the side plates.

Lol I did that too. But who's going to read the instructions when you can just jump right in!

[hopfenundmalz]

I just finished assembling, aligning, and setting the gap on the MM3 that I ordered last week.  It has a 1/2" drive shaft; therefore,  I will not be hand cranking this mill.

I have word of advice for anyone who is contemplating purchasing a Monster Mill hopper.  Follow the directions, so that you can avoid having to assemble the hopper twice.  Resist the urge to attach the hopper side plates to the hopper end plates before attaching mounting brackets to the the side plates.

When assembling, I figured that out and set the gap before attaching the side plates. All of those years working as an engineer pay off sometimes.

I hand cranked more than a ton of grain through my first Schmidling Malt Mill before leaving the hobby for an extended period.   I went back to hand cranking malt through a new Schmidling Malt Mill when I re-entered the hobby last summer.  I am an AARP card-carrying fifty-something "get off of my grass" curmudgeon.

I'm an AARP card carrier who's enough older than you that I hardly recall being 50 something.  I use a drill fro my JSP and wouldn't consider and cranking.  AND I'm also a coot and geezer, besides a curmudgeon! 

+1

Of course I am right behind you in age.

[klickitat jim]

I chose the Cereal Killer because it was reasonable priced. It also comes with a free dust cover.


I use a Ryobi D260H Hammer Drill to power it. $50 at local chain home improvement store. High torque, and has trigger dial speed control. Obviously you have to flip the hammer switch so its not hammering. Zip ties hold trigger down. Waterproof switch with extension cord makes turning off and on a breeze.

[69franx]

Looks awesome Jim! I will be in the market for a mill and drill set up in the next year or so

[klickitat jim]

Mill, drill, cord, switch, and table all for under $200.

[Delo]

I hand crank because I am a glutton for punishment.  I’ve been thinking of hooking up my drill but what I want to know from the powered mill users is how bad is it when you have a pebble in your malt?   I have had two the past year that have stopped my rollers.  I would think it would be worse with a drill.

[dkfick]

I've either never had a pebble in my grain in the last 150 batches or the mill has just 'processed' the pebble and I didn't notice it...

[Delo]

I had one pebble when I started milling about 6 years ago. And two within the last year probably from this sack of Golden Promise that seemed like it had a lot of junk in it.  I will say that I am blessed with getting the stuff that shouldn’t be there. Like seeds in seedless fruit, a pit in a slice of pie, hair in my food. Great things like that.

[Slowbrew]

I had a pebble or two over the years.  i had one stop the mill but that's it.  The motor was running, the belt was turning but the shiv was standing still.  It didn't hurt anything.

I think I had once while using a drill and it made the whole mill jump pretty good.  Other than my wrist not being very happy about it, nothing was hurt.  I had to dig them both out in order to get things rolling again.

Paul

[S. cerevisiae]

I just milled my first batch with my new MM3.  Holy smokes, I am going to mount this thing on stand before I use it again.  Keeping the mill on my grist bucket during start-up was like riding a bucking bronco.   I used my big DeWalt DW511 1/2" hammer drill on the drill setting.  It absolutely refused to budge at slow speed.  Running the grain through two crushing surfaces at once takes significantly torque than running it through one surface.  There's no way anyone is cranking this bad boy by hand. 

[Jeff M]

Cranked me MM3 with a clamp one time, it sucked but it worked:D