Anyone have a manual grain mill?

[Concrete Cowboy]

We are looking into purchasing a manual wheat grinder. Any opinions would be welcome. Most of the grinding will be wheat into flour.

Thanks

[Use Less]

I bought one at the flea market some years ago; price was too good to leave it there? But have actually never used it. I think we tried grinding coffee beans relatively unsuccessfully once. The questions I ask myself now re buying additional appliances, hand or powered, is how long will it take to make up the cost of same compared to just buying the product ready-made. And in the case of hand-operated, is the cost in time to use it worth whatever improved quality of product, if there IS an improvement. My answers now are often, nope- too pricey, too much time, makes so little difference it doesn't count, but you have to work this out for yourself. Sue

Lots of folks here have manual mills so you can get plenty of opinions.

But to give the best advice we need to ask some questions.

How much do you want to spend? With mills like most anything else you get what you pay for.

How often do you think you will really use it and how much flour at any given time do you think you will want to mill?

Manual mills range in the low-end from about twenty five bucks to the high end of eight hundred dollars or more. The bottom end mills either won't mill fine flour in one pass or they won't mill very much of it for the amount of effort you have to put into doing it. Still they can all be made to work with some extra effort. Most of the good mills are in the one hundred to three hundred dollar range.

.....Alan.

[homebirtha]

We had a Family Grain Mill. It was about $90, I think. It can also be motorized later, if you wish. It was pretty decent. I did have to run the grains through twice to get fine enough flour for baking. But for the money, it was pretty nice.

I only got rid of it to help pay for a Vitamix, which I now use for grinding.

[veme]

I have an old one.
I run my wheat through 3X for bread

http://grannymillerblog.blogspot.com...rain-mill.html

[Sparticle]

we've been looking for months for the same thing at local resale shops and on craigslist. nothing for me so far.

[Concrete Cowboy]

Originally Posted by A.T. Hagan

But to give the best advice we need to ask some questions.

How much do you want to spend? With mills like most anything else you get what you pay for.

How often do you think you will really use it and how much flour at any given time do you think you will want to mill?

I'd like to keep it between 200.00 and 400.00 We do make all our own bread so it will see plenty of use. I think we grind 15 cups each time we make bread.

For fifteen cups at a time and regular extended use I'd start with the Country Living grain mill which retails for roughly $365 for the mill itself. If that's too rich I'd then look at the Family Grain Mill and the manual Retsel mills.

.....Alan.

[Gideon]

Weighing your costs is OK unless you cannot get any "product". When stores cannot sell you flour what are you going to do?? Do you have a years worth of flour stored-if so it may become rancid. Wheat will last "forever" if properly stored and you can grind it when needed. So, what is the cost of the grinder worth to feed your family. We have probably 60-70 gallons of wheat put up and am going to triple-+ that asap. I might not have beans but will have biscuits and "hocakes" to go with canned soups and berries. Hard to beat such a meal, wc

[claytonpiano]

I agree with AT Hagan. The Country Living Grain Mill is the best. You can motorize it later because of the fly wheel and it works really well. You get quite a workout turning it by hand, however. We also have the grain attachment for our Champion Juicer which we use almost every day.

[ChristyACB]

Veme,

Your grain mill looks awesome and seems like you aren't working as hard as some I've heard of to turn it. Is that true? Does anyone recognize that grain mill by chance so I could track it down...

Thanks!

[insocal]

I have a Country Living grain mill. I LOVE it - it's a real work horse. Made of cast iron with a heavy enamel finish baked on, so it's beautiful to look at. You can motorize it if you want but I haven't.

[Pink_Carnation]

Since you said 15 cups of flour at a time I would ask how many people are going to be taking turns grinding and how in shape are you? I am out of shape so without long breaks I can only do around 4 cups of flour.

[Concrete Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Pink_Carnation

Since you said 15 cups of flour at a time I would ask how many people are going to be taking turns grinding and how in shape are you? I am out of shape so without long breaks I can only do around 4 cups of flour.

I'm in pretty good shape...but from what you say, it sounds like my kids will start to earn their keep, or at least earn their bread.

If you go with the Country Living then be sure to get the Power Bar. It's still a lot of cranking, but the leverage advantage the bar gives you takes some of the oomph out.

.....Alan.

[stranger]

Originally Posted by Concrete Cowboy

We are looking into purchasing a manual wheat grinder. Any opinions would be welcome. Most of the grinding will be wheat into flour.

Thanks

I bought a porkert from Jung seed co. for 72. , it does a nice job on wheat and corn, but after i grind 5 pounds of either, my arms feel worse that they used to feel if i unloaded a rail car full of grain.

[veme]

Originally Posted by ChristyACB

Veme,

Your grain mill looks awesome and seems like you aren't working as hard as some I've heard of to turn it. Is that true? Does anyone recognize that grain mill by chance so I could track it down...

Thanks!

It's not hard work to turn my mill.
I think that's because it's so heavy.

I contacted C.S. Bell Co. and it seems that it may be a one of their gristmill/coffee mills from 40-100 years ago. Apparently that type of mill was very common in general stores.
C.S.Bell told me they would check their archives when they get the chance.
I hope they get back to me because I'm curious.

[SimplerTimez]

There are only two of us so I don't grind much at a time, 2-3 cups and I use a small Schnitzer manual grinder that I bought from E-bay. I am very pleased with it - takes about 30 minutes for two cups, so I am not sure that it would come close to meeting your needs! I only have to grind once for nice flour, and it cost me about 55.00 including shipping. I love some of the others mentioned here, but the expense simply isn't justified for our small house hold. Do be aware, that if you set up a manual grinder for electric (or bicycle run, or whatever) it CAN on some models void your warranty. Good luck!

[piglady]

We have the Country living and use it all the time. My husband thought it would be like the tread mill (never used) but we've had it a year now and make the best bread, cookies, corn bread, etc, I only gind once and it is perfect flour. Has a lifetime guarantee too!

[rmaster14145]

we hope to order a COUNTRY LIVING GM next week. i look at it from the POV..if the power goes out i can still grind grains/corn.

rm