The times when it was necessary to build a large stone mill to obtain flour have long since sunk into oblivion. Modern devices for grinding grain are practical and compact, and allow you to obtain flour from different types of grain crops. At home, you can make two types of mill: manual and electric.
An electric homemade mill can produce flour of both coarse, medium and fine grinding. The fraction size is set in the settings. The advantages of a home grain mill are the ability to process a wide variety of raw materials: rice, buckwheat, wheat, soybeans, rye, corn, oats or millet.
The power of the simplest home device will allow you to grind a bucket of corn to a flour-like state in five minutes, and a similar volume of wheat in just two minutes.
Required materials and parts
Making a mill with your own hands is not difficult if you have all the materials and tools. Before making a mill, it is recommended to study the diagrams and drawings well. You can find them on the Internet on any thematic forum. The drawings will help you understand the principle of fastening parts, electrical components, cutting elements, and avoid many errors in assembly.
The mill structure includes:
- Motor (a motor from an old washing machine will do),
- Motor support,
- Stanin,
- Receiving bunker,
- Rotor and stator,
- Loading hopper.
Materials you also need to have:
- 20 bolts m6,
- Steel corners,
- Sheet steel with a thickness of at least 6 mm,
- Screeds,
- coupling,
- Sheet steel for the manufacture of the lid, at least 3 mm thick,
- 10 m6 screws,
- A pair of bearings, number 203.
Manufacturing process
The design of the grain grinder is very simple. Manufacturing also does not require much effort if you buy all the necessary parts. Some craftsmen prefer to make at home not only the device itself, but also the component parts.
In order to assemble a completely home grain mill, you need experience working with a lathe and drilling equipment.
Rotor assembly
The most important element of an electric mill is the rotor. The process of its manufacture is quite labor-intensive, and before starting work you need to remember several important points:
- The shaft of the rotor being manufactured must be of variable cross-section,
- The shaft is made of round steel,
- The work process is divided into several stages.
The first stage includes the preparation of metal blanks. The workpiece must have several identical holes with a radius of 5 cm. The second stage is erasing the outer layer of the workpiece so that the size of the groove decreases to 10.5 cm. With this size, the working teeth of the future rotor open.
Next, the rotor is sent for hardening. Hardening occurs in two stages. The first is in an oven at a temperature of eight hundred degrees, the second is in an oil container. It is not recommended to cool the workpiece with cold water: the metal will become brittle. The next step is vacation: the rotor is heated to four hundred degrees and left at room temperature until it cools completely.
The rotor is attached to the shaft with two bearings, which increases the strength of the mill. A small spacer ring is attached to the shaft between the bearings. They allow the bearings to move along the shaft to create more tension.
Stator assembly
It is very difficult to make a stator at home, so it is recommended to buy a ready-made element. Several threaded holes are made in the stator for the bearing caps and the stator itself, as well as for the branch pipe and the loading box. For greater accuracy of the mill operation, you need to correctly set the coordinates on the stator. This is done using several bolts.
Bed assembly
An important part of the mill is the frame. The base is made of thick steel sheet. The stator is attached to the frame using screws, which at the same time will hold the pipe. If a removable pipe is planned, then it must be attached to the opening in the base corresponding to the diameter of the part. The removable pipe is held in place only by friction.
A pipe is made from a section of pipe with a diameter of about 3 cm. The pipe can have either a round or square cross-section. Next, a loading box is assembled from a sheet of iron. The iron sheet is bent into the desired shape, and the seams are soldered. The finished box is installed on the stator and secured with bolts.
Engine mounting
The grain mill is operated by an electric motor. Along with the motor you need to have:
- Capacitor,
- Tumblr,
- Fuse.
- The motor along with its components is installed on a dielectric plate.
An important point: the motor shaft must be coaxial with the crushing rollers, and a coupling is used to transmit the rotating element.
The device is ready for use. All that remains is to pour the grain into the loading hopper and turn on the device.
Hand mill
A do-it-yourself mechanical mill is much lighter than its electric counterpart, and its productivity is quite high. It consists of two parts - a millstone and a frame with a handle.
Millstones for the mill
For a productive mill, it is very important to find good millstones. The subsequent grinding and durability of the crusher depend on the quality of the stones. Typically, suitable stones can be found in special workshops, or found on the river bank and processed independently. Processing of future millstones is carried out using a grinder with a diamond disk of at least 23 cm in diameter. A powerful drill is needed to make holes in the center of the stones. The optimal diameter of the finished millstones is 22-24 cm, and the height is 10-12 cm. You can make larger millstones, but smaller ones are not advisable. The greater the weight of the stones, the better the grinding quality of the flour.
A hand mill should consist of two millstones and a base. The upper millstone is called the runner, and the lower one is called the nizhnyak. The runner is usually made lighter, since after each cycle of operation it is raised to remove the remaining flour. A hole must be drilled in the runner to reach the center of the grain. It is better to drill with a special drill with a diamond coating, and during the process, cool the drilling site with cold water.
The next step in making a home grain mill is cutting the notches on the millstones. They should have the shape of grooves with a triangular cross-section, about 10 mm wide, at least 2 mm deep and at least 4 mm in the lower part and runner, respectively. In the center of the runner, four large grooves are made, eight millimeters deep and fifteen millimeters wide. It will be easier to understand the location of the notches and holes if you find a finished project or drawings of a burr hand mill.
Making the frame
A home grain mill should have a durable wooden frame. It serves as a support for the lower millstone and centers the runner. A small cutout is made at the bottom of the wooden frame for flour. The hole can be closed with a sieve with a cell of the desired size - the flour will sift on its own and will not require additional processing. A metal clamp is attached to the slider, to which the handle is attached.
A do-it-yourself mill made according to this scheme will last for many years and is capable of grinding a wide variety of types and types of grain.
Who wouldn’t want to make delicious pastries and bread using homemade whole grain flour - a home mill is perfect for this purpose! All that remains is to choose a mill that suits your requirements and the scale of baking, order the model you like in our online store (we work without prepayment) and receive your new flour mill on the specified day. Manual or combined with an electric motor, the mill is stylish, original and guaranteed environmentally friendly - it will also show good performance.
How much flour can you make at home with your own hands?
It is quite possible to involve children in the process of using the mill - it is safe, exciting and practical. For example, this mill can produce in a minute in manual mode up to 100 grams of pure, homemade, whole grain flour, and from it you can already make cookies for breakfast, or bake bread for dinner with your own hands, according to an original or classic recipe.
There are, of course, mills with a more reasonable price and lower productivity: per minute, grains are ground into flour weighing from 15 to 50 grams. But believe me, you will want to turn the handle of your home mill for much longer than a minute - the process is incredibly exciting for both adult family members and little helpers.
If a larger amount of product is required, an electric motor (can be purchased for some manual models) or a fully electric mill, the productivity of which can reach 300 grams per minute of flour or 600 grams of cereal for porridge, will significantly increase the production volume.
What are the benefits of having your own mills?
Of course, the very idea is to have a home production, albeit small and for personal needs, but guaranteed clean, hygienic, in which you are completely confident. Having a personal mill is incredibly tempting. You know for sure that the flour does not contain any impurities, chemicals, or insects, the product is always the freshest, which means your baked goods will be excellent. And you don’t need to run to the store every time you want delicious pies, but, as luck would have it, your flour supplies have run out. If you have your own mill, you can have homemade pies, pancakes, your own bread, and many types of baked goods according to your desire.
And for homemade recipes, you can look here - on the blog you will find detailed descriptions of everything that can be prepared using homemade whole grain flour.
Also, kitchen mills can be used for more than just making flour. Mills with steel millstones cope with grinding sugar, spices, coffee and oilseeds. Combination mill models can also provide your family with a healthy breakfast in the form of muesli - a grain press function is provided.
Compared to the opportunity to provide healthy nutrition for yourself, parents, children, spouses and relatives, cost savings no longer look so impressive. But still, buying grain and making flour from it is much cheaper than buying ready-made flour, without quality guarantees. However, mill owners quickly recoup its cost.
Which millstones are better in mills?
Steel or stone? In fact, the only difference is in productivity - it is higher for mills with metal elements. The quality of grain grinding and the uniformity of the resulting product are not affected by the material of the millstones; the resulting flour is equally pleasant to work with in both cases. Which of the home mills presented in our catalogs you would like to buy depends on your budget, needs, and purpose.
From us you can purchase a mill for any occasion:
- As a gift
- Small, for use by one person or a family of 2-3 people
- Productive, for the production of flour for the needs of a small team
All presented models are covered by a manufacturer’s warranty; in addition, you can always choose related equipment: spare millstones, electric motors. A number of useful accessories are also offered - for example, beautiful, convenient bags for storing grain or a baking dish.
Mills are delivered to all cities of the Russian Federation and some CIS countries, and there is a wide network of pick-up points.
About hand mills
True coffee connoisseurs and all lovers of making flour at home will definitely appreciate hand mills. On the website of the Bread Grinders company, all connoisseurs of gourmet cooking will find a large number of hand mills from different manufacturers.
Once upon a time, people used a mortar and pestle to grind grain. Years and centuries have passed, and today mills stand in orderly rows on store shelves: both manual and electric.
A home hand mill is a unit that grinds grain and other products. The website of the Bread Grinders company presents kitchen appliances that will become indispensable assistants for any housewife, both in the kitchen and on vacation or while traveling. Many people wonder what a hand mill is for, when you can choose an eclectic model? But there are some nuances here too.
Advantages of hand mills:
- - Complete preservation of the taste properties of the product
True connoisseurs of this favorite drink note that a hand mill allows you to completely control the taste and strength of coffee. The millstones of the unit carefully but thoroughly grind the grains, preserving the amazing taste and exquisite aroma. Therefore, a manual coffee grinder is an excellent option for properly preparing everyone’s favorite drink. And there is a simple explanation for this. Only a manual coffee grinder, which you can buy right now, allows you to correctly determine the number of beans that will be needed for one brew.
- - Compactness
Hand mills take up so little space that they can easily fit even in a small kitchen area. The unit does not require special storage conditions; the device only needs to be regularly cleaned from dust, as well as traces of processed grains and flour.
- - Environmental friendliness
The body of the hand mill models presented on our website is made of wood, and the millstones are made of basalt, steel and granite. Basalt is the material that has been used to make hand mills since biblical times! Granite is an igneous rock that is characterized by increased strength and hardness. Needless to say, units made from such materials will serve their owner for more than a year or two!
The Bread Grinding company sacredly honors the traditions of healthy nutrition. Hand mills are one of the prides of our company. After all, it allows you to grind grain into flour without losing its taste! A magical transformation, isn't it?
Modern kitchen appliances help us greatly facilitate housework. Among the products in this category, our online store offers household mills: manual and electric.
With the help of each of them you can grind grain and cereals to the state of flour. A distinctive feature of these devices is their high quality and operational reliability. You can easily grind wheat, oats, rice, as well as all kinds of dry grains. A cup of wheat flour is prepared in just a couple of minutes. As a rule, the device allows you to select the coarseness of grinding, so you can make flour for many recipes, for a wide variety of tastes.
Electric mills operate reliably and have variable speed settings. Most of the models on the site are made from environmentally friendly materials - expensive wood, metal, stone. Electric mills with a beech body are especially good - they look stylish, natural and original.
Homemade flour is distinguished by its quality and health benefits - it prevents diseases of the cardiovascular system, helps avoid strokes and heart attacks. Discover the unique taste of freshly ground grain!
Pros of home mills
- Fresh product - it is possible to prepare flour at any time.
- Without impurities - with such a machine you can be confident in the quality of flour.
- For any recipes, make coarse or fine flour.
- Variety - Cook with a variety of grains
Cons of household mills
- Expensive - home mills are quite expensive.
Once again, while surfing the Internet, my wife read a lot about how harmful modern flour is, that it contains all kinds of wild game, in the form of insects, that it is bleached, and so on. We decided to look on the Internet for some flour mills. In general, there are good electric ones made in Europe with stone millstones and decent prices, and there are inexpensive manual ones on Aliexpress. Since there are problems with the euro, we decided to try and order the cheapest hand mill we could find on Ali.
At first we didn’t have any semblance of a mill, and the bad idea came to use an old coffee grinder that was lying around for grinding. What can I say, a little flour came out, but the coffee grinder died successfully. The parcel arrived surprisingly quickly. I made an order, paid and we went on vacation abroad. Having bought a local SIM card and connected to the Internet, I received a letter that the courier delivery service wanted personal information from me in order to deliver the order. The order was placed on September 11, and when I returned from the trip on October 2, I already received my parcel, which was waiting for me at the delivery company’s office for a couple of days.
Unfortunately there is no photo of the packaging. The box seemed small. Everything was packed in a foam container of decent thickness, wrapped with tape. There are no photos left. Nothing was damaged. There were no instructions included, just a mill with two attachments in a plastic bag. The mill itself resembles a meat grinder, and the principle of feeding raw materials is the same. Also, the mill is smaller in size than it looks in the photo, probably again due to comparison with more massive meat grinders.
Contents of delivery: 
From left to right, top to bottom: The moving part of the millstone, the stationary part of the millstone, the mill body, the feed spiral screw with a handle attached to it (correct me if I called it wrong). In the second row we have a nut that is screwed in by hand and a pressure plate. Below you can see two more disks, the purpose of which is not very clear. Probably for some kind of preliminary grinding: 
All parts are generally made well, from cast iron and steel. The body is covered with some kind of film-like coating. Everything is holding up well, no paint shedding has been noticed so far. The non-working surface of the millstones is also covered with red paint.
Millstone from the inside: 
Millstone diameter 10 cm: 
And here is the feeder of raw materials, from which the pin is trying to get out: 
Pen: 
Assembled mill with height measurement: 
Well, we looked at good quality Chinese cast iron, but we didn’t buy it to stare, we need to test it in action.
The first drawback is the bracket for attaching the mill to the table. I haven’t found such a thin tabletop; the maximum thickness of the tabletop on which you can attach the mill is a little more than 3 cm. You won’t get much faster( 
What to do - screw it to the stool. We take wheat from the village - our parents sent it and after cleaning we put it into the mill: 
In the video, flour is ground on the third pass:
Here the second drawback is revealed - not all dishes could be placed under the flour and bran, the distance from the table to the lower edge of the millstone is also small. Either a tray or low container will do. Also, during operation, flour from the millstone is scattered, so it is better to take a wider bowl.
It should be noted that grinding flour is the lot of strong men; you have to make a decent effort to achieve some result. Well, the flour is extracted in several passes. In my case it's three or four.
On the mill, as written above, there seems to be an adjustment due to a pressing spring and a nut that is tightened by hand, but I was able to grind only with an almost full tightening, with the millstones pressed as much as possible. Otherwise, if the millstone is not pressed sufficiently, it warps and the grain falls out practically unground.
The next drawback is the wooden handle, which constantly unscrews and needs to be tightened. It may be possible to tighten it, but then it will probably slip in your hand and rub your palm.
And finally - one more drawback. During the grinding process, the millstone spring had to be tightened too much, which led to friction between the spiral feeder and the mill body. As a result, fine mellallic dust began to fall. 
I won’t show how dirty I got, I was sitting right on the floor by the stool and the lion’s share of the iron fell out on my leg... (The main part of the iron fell out, but something also got inside. Maybe it’s possible to somehow optimize the process, do some or a washer-spacer, but so far I haven’t gotten around to it. No metal shedding has been noticed from the millstones.
Result after sifting through a coarse sieve: 
After all this torment, within about an hour and a half, we managed to get less than a glass of flour without bran. A shaky stool, a low, inconvenient container, the need for several passes, a handle that unscrews, and friction between metal and dust nullify all the advantages of this device. I believe that this device is not very suitable for grinding flour, more for spices or something softer. For flour you need to take something electric and more productive. In general, not grinding, but continuous flour.
Let's summarize. Minuses:
- The price is not very attractive, but there is nothing cheaper.
- Little freedom of adjustment of the bracket; it cannot be attached to every tabletop
- You can’t use every container to collect flour
- The handle unscrews
- Metal parts rub and this causes metal dust to appear.
Pros:
+ Fast delivery, but this does not qualify as functionality.
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