Mountain Essentials Grain Mill

Excellent Mill

I received a kindly email saying that an unexpected delay in shipping occurred, but that the order would be fulfilled at the earliest possible time. It would've been helpful to have been given tracking information so that I could have some idea when it might arrive and so leave my gate open. As it happened, the package was delivered unexpectedly and left outside of the gate. The mill was packaged reasonably well, although the temporary, transport-security base was broken. All of the iron parts were undamaged. The assembly instructions do not exactly correspond to the model I received, but it was not too difficult to figure out. As with most metallic items that come into contact with food, I believed that those surfaces should be cleaned with mild soap and warm water before use. However it is not easy to remove the center shaft. I used a rubber mallet to drive out the shaft, the spring augur, and bearings. After washing, drying, and re-assembly, a test grind produced nice flour, although not as fine a grind as I have gotten with hand-operated stone mills. The advantage of this mill is easy cleaning of the grind plates and no stone particles in the flour. Also, the mill is nicely heavy and easy to operate, and can be belt driven with a slow-enough electric motor. Step-down gearing could also be used, if necessary. A suggestion would be to include an exploded-view diagram, showing all of the clearly named parts. The Owner's Manual makes no mention of it, but replacement parts *might* be available if they are asked for through the chat feature on the SafeCastle website.

Beautiful mill

Beautiful and well made. Definitely a counter center piece however, my wife found that it did not grind fine enough for flour even after 3 grinds. Not a show stopper but something to consider if buying for sourdough or other fine flour recipes.

Very impressed

We love this mill, much heavier than I expected. We'll be back. randy BTW we heard about you on TB2K!