Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Up and Running!

The micro-mill model #1 is up and running now.  The basic specs are 250 mm Engstrom millstones, 3/4 hp electric motor reduced about 8:1, and a 12" diameter bolting reel with 640 micron stainless steel cloth.  Here is a decent video showing it under operation:


As-built the bolting cabinet is pretty much a requirement for making good flour.  Although the stones can be set to make very fine flour, for some reason a few poorly ground berries do get past the stones.  I worked very hard to get the stones flat but I think they are still flawed.  I'm disappointed that the factory did not provide me with well dressed stones to start out with.  I did learn from the quality person at Engstrom that small stones do not make the very best flour, but I think the lack of flatness is contributing to this problem.  Anyhow, this means that right now if I want to make 100% extraction flour I have to re-grind the bran to get enough bran into the flour.  If I ran the mill without the bolter there would be a tiny amount of unground berries in the flour.  I may try to set up the bolter with even courser cloth, so more bran will fall through, but I think the long term fix is larger stones.  I am trying to source 600 mm stones now.

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