Well, the obvious drawback to an electric mill is that it requires electricity to use it. No power, no grain milling. The big plus is that it's a power tool which means you can mill all the flour and meal you want without having to crank the thing yourself. Even the best manual mills are not easy on the arms if you need any real quantity of flour and the bottom end ones will eventually give you weight lifter's arms if you have to mill significant quantities very often.

If you end up milling your own regularly chances are you're going to wind up with both a manual and a power mill.

If I had to choose which one I'd get first I'd get a quality manual mill. They'll work whether it's a no-power emergency or the ordinary every day. It'll get your toes wet in the home baking business and by the time you've had quite enough of cranking the thing you'll know whether you want to go on to an electric mill.

.....Alan.

 

I started with a manual, since it'll work no matter what. Eventually I'd like an electric one for the speed and convenience.

 

If you want to have both, look at the Family Grain Mill - it has both motorized & manual attachments, so if you pick up the mill with a manual attachment and later get a flaker or other attachment with a motorized base, you'd have the best of both worlds. Another option is a lot of times they include a manual handle with the motorized base - Lehman's & Healthy Trader's both do this.

 

I have a Family Grain mill. My six year old uses the electric base and the grain grinder to make flour for bread. I have her put the flour through twice (maybe not really necessary), and it takes about 15 min. to make enough flour for a two pound loaf of bread. (We use a bread machine to make the bread.) We also have a Whisper mill that I use when I am making bread. It takes about 2 min. to make enough flour for a two pound loaf. It is also very loud. (Not as loud as the Nutrimill that I borrowed from a friend once when my Whisper Mill was broken.)

If I had to do it over again, I would start with the Family Grain Mill. The grain grinder does a good job, and the flaker attachment makes great oatmeal. I have only used the hand crank a couple of times, but it wasn't that difficult to crank. The kids even took turns cranking. I like having the hand crank as a backup.

 

Thanks for the information....one other question...how easy is it to motorize the Country Living Mill? That is the one I am leaning towards but I am thinking I would prefer it to be motorized(but with the option for manual milling).

 

We have a Country Living Mill for about 1 year now.

We didn't buy the "Factory" motorized kit, but made one with the following:

Got a 12 volt motor from Foley-Belsaw used for their key cutting machine, then hooked that into a 1 x 60 gearbox, can be found pretty cheap and then adjust your pulley sizes to get the speed you want. Went with a 12 volt motor instead of AC so we could run it off a battery/solar system.

Now the warranty does say that it will be voided if not using their system for $250 or more, but I feel that since I replaced the pulley, hard to tell.....and don't foresee any problems, built like a tank.

Then, just weld you up a table, with space for the 5 gallon buckets under, enclose belts and pulleys with expanded metal and away you go. Simple system, cost around 85.00 for the whole thing. Metal and gearbox were bought at recycling place, motor brand new.

 

I'm wanting a manual myself
opinions please of
the Back to basics
or
the Corona.

My electric is great But I am not wanting to spend for that pricy Family unit.

Pop eye arms no problem . . . . . . . .

 

You might consider a Daimant. It's a wonderful manual mill, but has this great huge flywheel that will accomodate a belt if you want to motorize it. At this point, I have resisted motorizing - I call grinding wheat and kneading bread dough labor intensive calories.

 

My first mill was a Back to Basics. It makes good flour, but is probably the slowest mill available. I've got a mill from Lehman's, the one they call 'our best', and it's a little faster than the Back to Basics, and will grind corn (the Back to Basics won't). Both of these will definitely give you strong arms -- and probably tennis elbow! (I was having problems with my elbow when I was using the Back to Basics mill regularly -- I haven't used the new one very much yet, so don't know, but suspect it's likely to cause the same problem.)

As has already been said, the difference between manual and electric is that the manual mills will still work when the power goes out. You might not be concerned about the power going out, at least not permanently, but I still think your first mill ought to either be manual, or dual.

Kathleen

 

Mine is huge and electric- with a long handle so I can also use it without elec. I guess I should find out the brand.....It grinds many grains just as fine as I want it- even corn.

 

We have the Retsel Mill-Rite. It's electric but we got the optional handle so it can be operated manually. It was expensive but it's SOLID and a real work horse. We love it.

 

Is anyone familiar with this mill? Opinions?
http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/pro...shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=1136&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=mills

 

It looks like a Porkert to me. A better quality than the Corona in my opinion. For the price it's not a bad mill.

.....Alan.

 

Thanks, Alan, I'd never heard of Porkert mills before. I did a bit of research on the Corona last year and the reviews I saw indicated they were actually for grinding corn and did a poor job of grinding wheat. It looks like the same is true of this Porkert. Still, not a bad idea to have something like this put back even if you use it exclusively for corn.

 

If you'll mill it as fine as the plates can go without actually rubbing against each other then run the resulting product through a sifter or fine sieve you'll get bread quality flour. The coarser bits can then be run through again.

An extra step to be sure, but its' a way to get bread flour from a mill meant for making meal. Not bad for fifty bucks.

....Alan.

 

Non-electric all the way!Thats just my theory though.

 

I purchased the "Sunshine Nuggett" manual grain mill. Then motorized it with a 13" Pulley, a 1 1/2" pulley and a 1/2" wide v-belt to an 1100 rpm 110v. motor. Works great, and I still have the manual handle if I need to switch back. It contains both steel burrs and stones. Makes good flour in 1 pass. I sift the finished product as it comes out and very little has to go back for a 2nd pass.

 

We have an electric Nutramill. I grind grain for a morning once a week for a bucket of flour. I'm not really worried about losing electricity here. I have an old manual out in the garage just in case.