September 3, 2013 - 9:53am
C.S. Bell #2 steel burr mill
I found a #2 mill at the antique mall yesterday for $80, it looked complete but dirty. After a serious cleaning I ran a half cup of wheat berries thru it & sifted the results. I'm happy with what I see but this is my 1st mill so any info on what I just screwed to my bench would be appreciated. I didn't use the flour & I wont until I clean again & disinfect with some bleach solution.
Charlie
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Here's maybe a good starting point:
"...a steel burr mill is not considered the ideal machine for producing high-grade flour, but the metal grinders do have one exclusive use: as tools to prepare livestock feed (particularly chicken scratch)..."
Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/manual-grain-mill-zmaz80ndzraw.aspx#ixzz2dqrdXFYt CSBell contact info: http://www.csbellco.com/hand-grist-mill-2.asp
Country Living, and Diamant mills both use steel burrs for the grinding surface and have good reviews from people making flour.
With all due respect to mother earth news, how a material is used is more important than what it is.
Did you ever try making flour with your C.S. Bell mill? If so, how did it go?
Charlie, I would take as many photos as possible, then disassemble until you can see the faces of the burrs, and clean them off with a toothbrush ( there may be flour caked on them ), then reassemble and run a little rice through, discard the ground rice, and start using the mill. I don't think bleach is a good idea in that most mills are not designed to be cleaned by water, and it may lead to rust. I found this photo, but not much in the way of descriptions. http://www.csbellco.com/hand-grist-mill-2.asp From that photo, it looks like you take off the two bolts on either side of the front, and the assembly holding the moveable burr will come right off. I have a burr mill, along with several stone mills, and don't notice a difference in the flour. The biggest difference is how close you set the burrs - I would set them so close that they just start to make a grinding noise without any flour and back off slightly.