Cereal Killer. It's on sale for $99.99 at Adventures in Homebrewing with free shipping. https://www.homebrewing.org/Cereal-Killer-Grain-Mill_p_2310.html
Victoria, very old style mill. I think I'm the last Brewer here to use one. Dirt cheap, mills grain good enough for me and is adjustable. But if you are a Brewer who really wants to fine tune all aspects of your brew day, don't buy it.
I use one of these too. I have had it for ~5 years. I haven't tried any other, so won't tell you it's the best one out there. It does seem to be among the more economical options, and I haven't had a complaint since I got it, probably about 60-75 batches with it under my belt.
Just found this info. I’m not familiar with the items or the seller (Vevor) and can’t vouch for the quality or dependability of either. Both have 11 lb. hoppers. Shipping is free and the prices are attractive. Might be one of those “too good to be true” situations $89 for a 3-roller mill $159 for a motorized 2-roller mill
I just bought a cereal killer from Austin Homebrew. Same deal and price as AIH. Cranked a few by hand and finally tried it with a drill and will now throw away the handle as the drill made it so much easier. But it made a freaking dustbowl mess. Put a cloth over the opening to avoid that. One reason I bought my own grain mill is so that I could do malt conditioning and I will tell you the extra minute it takes to wet the malt with a spray bottle before milling has led to the best crush possible. https://beerandbrewing.com/malt-conditioning-have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too/ https://onbrewing.com/malt-conditioning/
I used a tired old Black & Decker variable speed drill on mine for the first time last Sunday. It was a challenge to get the motor to turn without spinning it up too fast and creating excessive dust/flour. At low rpm it would grind and give off a whiff of ozone followed by a wisp of smoke. Lucky for me it finished the task. There’s a flat spot on the roller shaft for receiving the handle setscrew. There aren’t flats on the roller shaft for receiving a drill chuck. For that reason I’ll probably hang on to the handle in case the shaft wears to a point that the chuck won’t grab it properly. @Witherby thanks for the malt conditioning links.
There are plenty of other links out there, but some of them call for crazy steaming methods that just aren't necessary for 10-15 pounds of grain that can easily be misted by hand. And it doesn't seem like it should make that much of a difference, but it does. My friend described it as making the husk pliable so that when it hits the rollers it is squeezing/shooting the grain out of the intact husk and then crushing the grain and then the husk just slips through the gap intact and that is what it looks like when you are done. I made a witbier with 50% wheat malt and 50% barley and no rice hulls and no stuck mash.
I’ve used my cereal killer 2-4 times a month for the past 2-3 years and the fact that it’s a budget roller or only 2 rollers has never gotten in my way. I’ve milled close to 800pds of grain with no issue.
Same or only slightly better, I think. Of all the things on my list of worries, efficiency is at the bottom of my list, though, so I can't say I've tried to calculate it too precisely.
My CK has a plywood base as well, but I wouldn't call it thin. I think the base on the current model is metal.
You don't need to spend a lot to crush grain. I've been using $25 corona mill on a cordless screw gun mounted to plywood for 15 years. It works just fine.
