SAMAP F100
Has anyone here used one of these before? I bought one second hand from a lady whose husband only used it a few times. At any rate, I had a lot of problems with it initially. I found it hard to manipulate it. It clogged up every time I put the tiniest bit of grain and shut off. One day I got so tired of it that I got some Dust Off and sprayed the stone grinders. Probably not the best thing to do, but since that time I've ground about 15 lbs of flour.
The problem I'm still having is that it's still not grinding very fine. Also, it apparently came with a jar to catch the flour, but the original owner didn't have it. I have tried to find a jar that would fit, but no such luck. I'm just wondering if anyone else has used this grinder? If so, have you had these same issues?
Thanks!
I have used a SAMAP F-100 for years but have just given up trying to make it do what I need and have ordered a Meadows 8" mill. One of the commenters to this post mentioned the need to have a lid on the grain hopper.This is correct. A vacuum is created when the hopper is more or less air tight which facilitates the flow of the grain to the grinding stones. One of the several reasons for my abandoning my mill is that I lost the lid and my improvised solutions -- tying (or holding) a plastic sack lid over the hopper opening is a poor longterm solution. I have been frustrated in trying to order a replacement part.
But the main problem is that this mill turns at a fantastic RPM. It is not designed to make powdery flour or to grind wheat in a nuanced manner that would enable you to make a proper white flour. It tends to pulverize the bran and grind the endosperm into its more granular structures.
This said, you will improve the quality of your flour if you temper the grain. There is already a good post on temperating at this forum so I won't repeat it. Only to suggest that if you haven't been adding water to your grain before milling (see the post) that you may find that doing so will help you get out of the SAMAP what you are looking for.
I have only just arrived at this forum but feel that our experience is worth sharing. We have had our SAMAP F100 mill for 25 years and use it regularly milling about 3 kg of wheat grain every week to make our own 100% wholemeal loaf. First it is important to understand that it is producing traditional not commercial, stoneground wholemeal flour; Hipocrates said let their flour be coarse and that's what it produces. To set the machine up for the first time my advice is to run it empty and very gently adjust the stones so that they are JUST touching, you'll hear the noise. Now turn the setting back a very little such that the noise ceases, now lock that setting. We use a plastic bag secured with an elastic band to collect the milled flour as we are milling about 1½ kg each time for our bread. The goblet is calibrated and you must put the lid on securely as the cyclone on the mill will not function properly unless there is a slight pressure generated in the goblet.
If you want to make cakes or pastry you will need to sieve out some of the coarse bran and thus produce nearly white flour. Do NOT throw away the sievings as they are full of vital vitamins, put them on you morning cereal or add them as a little extra bran to you bread. You can find the quick bread recipe I use at: http://www.healthscams.org.uk/bake-your-own-bread.html I use 1,20kg of flour with 800ml of warm water and dissolve my salt in the water before adding it to the flour. I mix the whole lot in a Kenwood Chef which is very quick and make two loaves of about 850g cooked weight from start to finish in less that 1 hour 15 minutes.
Do make sure that your grains are dry as you want to avoid clogging up the stones.
I would point out to William Rubel that the cover on the hopper enables a pressure to be created not a vcuum so that the cyclone where the flour is discharged can function.