The inevitable reply (barley crusher sucks), is absolutely useless. It doesn't address the problems inherent in the BC, or for that matter any mill of similar design. I've run well over 100 batches through mine, and in that time, I've had to dismantle it 2 or 3 times for cleaning.......... not an unreasonable amount of maintenance as it takes minutes only.
Here's the problem with the BC. First, it is a mill where only one roller drives. That means that the driven roller has to grab the grain, pull it down and drive the other roller. the diameter of the rollers is small compared to the grain, which results in a less than optimal ramp angle. The result is that the undriven roller must be able to turn very easily. The BC is built with two heavy aluminum ends connected by thin plates which are incapable of holding the works in perfect alignment. To make it completely rigid would add considerably to manufacturing cost, and it would no longer be an inexpensive mill.
This outlines the problems you must overcome.......... and I have. You have two choices..... buy an expensive mill, or loosen the two bolts that hold the mill down, which allows the ends to self align. The stupid solution.........the typical solution is to sell the mill cheap to someone else and spend a few hundred more. The intelligent solution is to look at the nature of the problem an simply loosen one or both bolts slightly. Mine is mounted on a three legged stand made of steel. My neighbor and I have ground many hundreds of pounds of grain through it with almost no problem. Once in awhile I have to reach under and spin the non-driven wheel to get things going....but not often.... maybe every 5 batches. I do NOT tighten the two mounting bolts, and I have two pieces attached to the platform that keep the mill from moving around excessively.
It's really quite easy...............
If I had my "druthers", I'd manufacture my own mill with 4" diameter wheels or so, both driven. It's the sort of thing I do all the time. But the BC does an excellent job, and has for several years now and shows no sign of wearing out. It's served me very well, but unlike some folks I don't just say "junk throw it away"........... A lifetime of engineering quickly revealed the problem and the solution. You can throw money at the problem as many have done, and buy something fancy and expensive, or you can take half a turn of a wrench...........
You don't always get what you pay for, but you seldom get what you don't pay for.....
I've communicated with the manufacturer about this, and the reality of manufacturing is not alien to me. I've discussed the solutions with him, and the costs. You aren't going to get a monster mill or cereal killer for the price of a BC mill. It's unfortunate that he hasn't seen fit to address this, at least to the extent of providing instructions to his buyers.
Again, there have been many hundreds of pounds of grain run through my BC, but it took me only one or two uses to discover and resolve the problems. Since then it's been reliable and trouble free.
H.W.
I'm hoping somebody can offer some insight...
I got a Barley Crusher a month ago in preparation for my 1st AG batch. It came set at .038, I double checked the measurement, and I rolled with it. My efficiency came out low, so after reading some posts and some blogs, I decided a factor may have been the mill setting.
Yesterday, I set the crusher at .036, and the first hopper went through like a dream...I couldn't get the 2nd hopper to feed. After fiddling for 20 min, I backed off the crush and re-set it at .038 and it flew right through.
Has this happened to anybody else? By all accounts, the BC is a good mill...but I don't like that it wouldn't mill consistently at .036. Thoughts?