Problem with MM3

[Tobor_8thMan]

Used my MM3 for the second time today and ran into a problem. Was turning the mill by hand and with about 6 pounds of pils malt to go the mill stops milling. Around and around the mill handle goes, but nothing is being milled.

Dump the unmilled pils malt into a clean container. Examine the rollers. Of course the roller driven by the hand crank is turning. I discover the roller next to the driven roller (the undriven roller on top) is not turning. I push with my fingers and finally manage to get it to move.

Put some pils malt back in the hopper and turn the mill. Mills for a very short time and, once again, no milling.

I used this new MM3 for the first time during my November 24, 2018 brew without issues.

Anyone have same problem with the MM3? If so, resolution and cause of the stuck roller?

Thanks.

 

[NeoBrew]

I've had mine for 3 years now. I've never had any such problem.

Have you checked to see that you have the adjustable roller set correctly? It's possible to get that roller non-parallel to the drive roller if you do not set the adjustment knobs correctly. Make sure you read the adjustment directions. They are not entirely clear, but you need to have the roller approaching the drive roller from the bottom in an upward direction until you attain the desired gap. This needs to be done on both ends of the roller in the same way.

If that is not the problem, then I would suppose you might have a defective unit.

 

[maisch]

Is the mill squarely mounted on the base?

 

[Rev2010]

Anyone have same problem with the MM3? If so, resolution and cause of the stuck roller?

I don't have the MM3, I have the MM2 Pro, but I think I have an idea of what might be going on. When you mounted the mill to the base there's always a small bit of play. You may have tightened it down with the plates slightly out of perfect alignment which will create pressure on one of the rollers and make it's turning ability more tight. You will want to loosen the 4 mounting bolts, readjust the metal walls of the mill so that *all* rollers turn easily by moving them with your finger. Once they all are rolling smoothly and easily then gently tighten each bolt one by one - do *not* tighten all the way yet. When they're tightened down a little check again and make sure all the rollers still turn easily with your finger then tighten some more. Do this until all the bolts are fully tightened and the rollers all turn smoothly and easily.

If after tightening down you observe a roller moving less freely then loosen and try again until they all turn easily.

*EDIT - and also what NeoBrew said above. The rollers need to be adjusted in a certain way. Here's the thread with some info on it: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/adjusting-monster-mill-2-0.375038/page-2


Rev.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

I don't have the MM3, I have the MM2 Pro, but I think I have an idea of what might be going on. When you mounted the mill to the base there's always a small bit of play. You may have tightened it down with the plates slightly out of perfect alignment which will create pressure on one of the rollers and make it's turning ability more tight. You will want to loosen the 4 mounting bolts, readjust the metal walls of the mill so that *all* rollers turn easily by moving them with your finger. once they all are rolling smoothly and easily then gently tighten each bolt one by one - do *not* tighten all the way yet. When they're tightened down a little check again and make sure all the rollers still turn easily with your finger then tighten some more. Do this until all the bolts are fully tightened and the rollers all turn smoothly and easily.

If after tightening down you observe a roller moving less freely then loosen and try again until they all turn easily.

*EDIT - and also what NeoBrew said above. The rollers need to be adjusted in a certain way. Here's the way I put it in an older post, "So in the simplest of words if you have the mill sideways so both hands on are each knob when you adjust the shaft side clockwise so that the roller moves closer to the driven roller you should also be moving the other end closer by turning the knob in the same direction (counterclockwise). So if you were facing each knob straight on the shaft side is turned clockwise and the non-shaft end turned counter clockwise."


Rev.

Misalignment is possible, but I left the roller gap set exactly the same as when I milled on November 24th.

Yes, thanks, I understand about the roller alignment. I found a helpful video on the web. I marked both adjustment knobs.

Between posting my initial "call for help" I found other posts dealing with the MM3. Seems grain gets stuck between the housing and the roller and this will cause the problem I encountered. Oh, joy.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

I've had mine for 3 years now. I've never had any such problem.

Have you checked to see that you have the adjustable roller set correctly? It's possible to get that roller non-parallel to the drive roller if you do not set the adjustment knobs correctly. Make sure you read the adjustment directions. They are not entirely clear, but you need to have the roller approaching the drive roller from the bottom in an upward direction until you attain the desired gap. This needs to be done on both ends of the roller in the same way.

If that is not the problem, then I would suppose you might have a defective unit.

Unfortunately, my MM3 arrived without any instructions. At Williams Brewing I found assembly instructions. I found videos on the web for adjusting, etc. What you describe/wrote matches the video I watched.

Possible to post the adjustment directions?

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Believe I've discovered the cause of the problem. A piece of debris in the malt. Looks like a small piece of wood. Perhaps, a dried grain stem? At any rate this foreign object was impeding the roller. I know to look for debris in the malt. Thought I was being careful. Must have missed this piece. Will pay even more attention during my next milling session.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Did you try reversing the mill to clear the jam?

Sometimes reversing briefly the trying to resume milling will clear a jam.

Sticks even small rocks have been found in grain...use caution...

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Yes. I tried cranking in the reverse direction. No luck.

 

[AF1HomeBrew]

Used my MM3 for the second time today and ran into a problem. Was turning the mill by hand and with about 6 pounds of pils malt to go the mill stops milling. Around and around the mill handle goes, but nothing is being milled.

Dump the unmilled pils malt into a clean container. Examine the rollers. Of course the roller driven by the hand crank is turning. I discover the roller next to the driven roller (the undriven roller on top) is not turning. I push with my fingers and finally manage to get it to move.

Put some pils malt back in the hopper and turn the mill. Mills for a very short time and, once again, no milling.

I used this new MM3 for the first time during my November 24, 2018 brew without issues.

Anyone have same problem with the MM3? If so, resolution and cause of the stuck roller?

Thanks.

I've been using the MM3 for several years, and I wished I'd known how flakey it can be. Prior to that I was using a Barley Crusher. I had a brewsession this last weekend, and a few days before I took it apart, cleaned it and even took it off the base and reinstalled (after seeing that misalignment can be an issue), then ran some grain thru after measuring a gap setting at .043. The grain went thru effortlessly. Saturday comes along and I put 3 lbs of grain in the hopper and start milling before the other brewers show up. The mill effortlessly mills the grain. Happy with it, I dump 10 lbs of grain in the hopper (& jinx it), and start my drill. The MM3 will not mill anything, so I have to dump the grain in a bucket, take off the top of the mill and clean and observe what could be causing the problem. Also checked that my gap setting is still set where I originally set it. Unable to find anything, put the hopper/cover back on, install the bolts. Try again nothing. Brother-in-law shows up and I put him in charge of milling the grain. Again the mill isn't milling anything. He takes a look and is unable to find anything visually wrong. This time we backed out the thumbscrews a little bit, and it starts working again and we proceed to mill 30 lbs with no problem. Note to self: From now on I am going to start milling the grain the day before. Nothing like dinking around with the mill on frigid brewday.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Probably something was stuck between the roller and the side. Wasn't seen, but preventing the roller from turning.

I milled > 12 lbs of pale malt on Friday. No problems. I guess I have a flaky MM3 too.

 

[augiedoggy]

I have the mm3 clone which is basically the same only with ball bearings, we are using it in my small brewpub and have milled around 35 sacks or so of grain in the last couple weeks with no issues. One thing I did notice with the 3 roller mills is the grind is finer so we adjusted it to be open just about all the way and still get a good crush having to put some mesh hopbag material over our false bottom or grain goes through the 3/32" holes.
On mine I noticed the marking for the adjustment know are slightly out of sinc with each other and had to make new markings with feelers guages.. if your is the same way the roller could slightly be cocked and not completely parallel with the other rollers which can cause easy binding as well.

EDIT I have found small rocks and even a small bolt (from some equipment used in either malting or handling the grain I assume) in the grain which did end up in the mil and thankfully I put a reverse switch on the motor.

 

[AF1HomeBrew]

The next time I have an issue maybe before taking the hopper off, maybe try come compressed air and retry to see if that fixes my issues.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Did you try reversing the mill to clear the jam?

Sometimes reversing briefly the trying to resume milling will clear a jam.

Sticks even small rocks have been found in grain...use caution...

Unfortunately, reversing the mill did no good.
Yes, I understand there are sometimes foreign matter in the malt. My Schmidling Malt Mill would crush right thru these things.