Goodbye Corona Mill, Hello AMA Chopper

[MichiganCornhusker]

I saw this grain mill in another thread and decided to check it out and I'm very happy I did.
http://www.agristoreusa.com/collections ... in-grinder" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
It cost me $225, free shipping, money back guarantee.

Not as cheap at the Corona, but by the time you burn up the first drill motor and buy a replacement you are there.
I've only done one batch of home malted barley through it but it seems to work great, better finer meal/flour than the corona.
One pass through is finer than 3 passes through my corona, and it's effortless, just fill the hopper and turn it on.

It's very clean, the dust is contained by the barrel below, the hopper holds about 15 lbs of grain at a time.

The motor isn't too loud, and it comes with several size screens for different fineness of grinds.
It's not really a grinder, more of a chopper, like a lawnmower for grains.
To be honest, when I got it out of the box I was very skeptical thinking it looked cheap and wouldn't work very well, but somehow it does.
Super fine barley bits, quiet operation, and nothing to do but sit in a chair next to it and occasionally push grain toward the chute in the hopper.

I haven't used it for corn yet, but will post more info as I use it, good or bad.

Right now I can only come up with a couple nitpicky things to say about it.
The chopper head doesn't have a positive attachment to the barrel, it just kinda sits on top. It's stable, but a couple draw clamps might be nice to clamp it down.
The barrel is very nice for containing dust and it holds plenty of chopped up grain. Only thing is it's not the smoothest shape around the top, so pouring the grain out of it is a bit messy and hard to get all of it out.
These are very minor things I've noticed and are far outweighed by what a pleasure it is to operate.

I have no affiliation to grinder maker or Agristore, just letting you all know that this is a really nice way to chop up larger quantities of grain.

Edit: Thank you to DuckofDeath for helping me remember where I first saw this:
http://homedistiller.org/forum/viewtopi ... 6#p7524986" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[DuckofDeath]

I use the 1.5 screen with mine and it makes fantastic corn flour

[Antler24]

Nice! Looks like it'll fit nicely on a 5 gallon bucket too. Interested to see how this holds up for you, I've been eyeing a "Cereal Killer" w/ 7lb hopper.

[JellybeanCorncob]

A friend of mine has one and he ran 20lbs of rice through it for me. It came out a little finer than cornmeal. A little hot water, then enzymes. Boom ready to ferment. No cooking. Yay!
JBC

[greggn]

> I haven't used it for corn yet, but will post more info as I use it, good or bad.

I'll be very interested in your results with corn (whole or cracked).

[HDNB]

damn, that looks sweet. what's the actual thru-put? the site describes 66 to 460 lbs per hour, that's a big spread... How many lbs per hr for barley to coarse flour? or corn to coarse flour?

[MichiganCornhusker]

Here’s a photo showing the inside of the hopper:

It’s anout 15” dia overall down to a 9” flat spot with a 1-1/2” dia cylindrical chute down to the chopper blade.

Looks like it'll fit nicely on a 5 gallon bucket too.

Actually, no. The outside dia of the bottom of the chopper housing is just about the same size as the inside diameter of my 5 gallon bucket.
So it almost, but not quite, fits just inside the bucket, not on top of it. Wouldn't take much to make an adapter ring though.

damn, that looks sweet. what's the actual thru-put? the site describes 66 to 460 lbs per hour, that's a big spread... How many lbs per hr for barley to coarse flour? or corn to coarse flour?

I'll be running some home malted barley through it later today, I'll time it and get back to ya. Based on what I've already done it seems faster than 66 #/hr.

[DuckofDeath]

I take 17 lbs of whole corn to flour in about 15 minutes.

The blue wont fit into or over a 5 gallon bucket, the bottom section however fits inside a 5 gallon bucket nicely. After I am done making flour I put a bucket over the top and turn it upside down.

[HDNB]

17 an hr for corn sounds not bad.

MCH i'm interested in the malt numbers for sure. I can actually get my grains milled, but i have to do malt myself. the roller mill is too slow and i'm toying with the idea of firing up the hammer mill that tried to eat my finger last year...still get a bit twitchy looking at it though...

[StillerBoy]

I take 17 lbs of whole corn to flour in about 15 minutes.

How many passes through the mill to get to corn flour..

Mars

[s1nglebarrel]

I take 17 lbs of whole corn to flour in about 15 minutes.

How many passes through the mill to get to corn flour..

Mars

For me just one pass of TSC cracked corn will turn it to flour with the smallest screen.

Also to answer the earlier question about the large spread of lb to time it is based on what size screen you are using.

Obviously using the smaller screen to take things to flour will take a little longer then say taking whole corn to basically cracked corn size.

But this chews through in one pass cracked corn to flour in no time. I just did a grain bill of 28lb if cracked corn and chewed through it in about 20-25 minutes.

[StillerBoy]

Thanks SB for the info..

For what I have invested in the corona setup, and the small amount of mashes I make, the corona at present is still the best setup for me to ground about 50 lbs a month..

The only problem with the corona setup is that it takes many passes to get to flour or there about with corn.. but with all the other grains it doesn't take as much time, as the grains are drier and not milled down as much.. and that's after having learned how not to try to do it all in a few passes..

Mars

[MichiganCornhusker]

s1nglebarrel, thanks for bringing this mill to my attention, it was your info that got me to try it out.
My grind times seem similar to yours so far, roughly a minute per pound.
I’m using the next to finest screen, one pass.

StillerBoy, I used my corona for years and many many pounds of grain.
It worked great, but doing 50% with multiply passes did get tiring.

With this thing I can just sit there watching the grains funnel down the hopper.

[HDNB]

are you a pound a minute on malt too?

[MichiganCornhusker]

are you a pound a minute on malt too?

The time is dependent on the screen size, for malt I think I could grind much faster with a larger screen.

I’ll be doing some malted rye next week, I’ll experiment and post back.

[Twisted Brick]

are you a pound a minute on malt too?

The time is dependent on the screen size, for malt I think I could grind much faster with a larger screen.

I’ll be doing some malted rye next week, I’ll experiment and post back.

Any luck with the rye, MCH?

[MichiganCornhusker]

Any luck with the rye, MCH?

No, I've been the Great Slacker this summer.
No grinding, no malting, no mashing, no stillin'. I hope I remember how to do anything when I get back to it this fall.

[Twisted Brick]

No worries... It's been so hot here this summer I ran the first (HBB) strip yesterday I've made in 3 mos. Its all good.

[MichiganCornhusker]

Someone just sent me this link to a video showing a DIY hack to make your own version of this grinder. If I didn’t already have one I’d have tried it!

https://fb.watch/bDsnnmtX--/

[NormandieStill]

Someone just sent me this link to a video showing a DIY hack to make your own version of this grinder. If I didn’t already have one I’d have tried it!

https://fb.watch/bDsnnmtX--/

That's rather cool. Added to my projects list. Probably easier than building a container for my drill-powered corona mill.

[MichiganCornhusker]

McMaster Carr has lots of options for pieces of perforated steel with different hole sizes to control grind size

[Demy]

I have 2 types of mill, one with rollers and the other with "hammers", very basic, built with a washing machine motor