I did the mill twice at the LHBS before I got my mill. Boy did I get some strange looks!. But I did have better results when doing this. My LHBS actually does not sell mills, but told me if I bought sacks of grain from them, I could bring in whatever I needed to mill when I picked up yeast, hops, etc. I did that for a couple batches, but then I bought a mill and a corded drill. No issues with consistency or efficiency since. A corded drill is such a useful tool to have for so many different projects, glad I bought one for homebrewing