WONDERMILL Junior Deluxe Grain Mill for Flour, Hand Crank Wheat Mill for Grains, Nuts, Seeds, Oily Foods & Spices, Grain Grinder with Stone and Stainless Steel Burrs (Red)

After a few months use of the hand crank, your upper body will resemble that of a bodybuilder. All yolks aside, I love this machine. Despite the fact I paid $50usd above cost available from other suppliers, I have no intention of parting with my new grainy friend. My Wondermill Junior Deluxe Herr Engineer Doctor von Superduper arrived from India, well, it arrived nearly a week late despite USPS falsely indicating it was received on-time, and after unboxing I realized there was not a single arguable blemish on any aspect of the machine. It’s gorgeous and bright red. I scrubbed every component of the thing with weak Palmolive/H2O solution, lots of water, citric acid solution, and lots more running water. It literally sparkled and shone. Assembly was easy, despite I am a patient liar, er patent lawyer and engineer, and there is practically a separate instruction manual for each major component. I broke in my Wondermill by grinding three cups of rye berries on the stainless steel burrs. This was somewhat excruciating given the friction but it further cleaned and polished the burr faces fine. I brushed the machine flourless enough and ground another three cups rye using the stone burrs at the tightest setting I could manage (I’m a large former rugby player with giant hands). They call hard red wheat “hard” for a reason but the sub-00 granularity "vapor" result is worth the effort in service to my scratch ravioli. I guesstimate on the tightest setting you may spend up to 1.5 hours to mill 6 cups, which is ridiculous. However, the fine grind is easier to turn as compared with the bumpy cracking of einkorn berries on a coarse setting. I have no intention to motorize my Wondermill. It operates flawlessly now and looks to grind gourmet grains and nuts by my heirs if they’re up to it. Power will only screw up the system just as with politics. I would buy this agrain. Fire your tennis coach because you are going to be so pumped up the serves will break Mach. My Wondermill is a keeper and does not look to fail me. Sweat equity, babies, plan ahead and divide your milling sessions into manageable intervals, and you will be very very pleased at the capabilities this machine delivers. My 120lb trim wife is still getting the hang of milling, I note. But the results exceed our expectations.

Absolutely the best grain mill for the money. It's got superb craftsmanship, is super easy to assemble, and comes with both ceramic and steel plates. The mount has dual clamps and there are extra holes so you can mount this in several ways. The hopper isn't very big, so if you're going to do large batches of flour, you might consider enhancing the hopper, e.g. my giant funnel fashioned from a pair of 2L plastic soda bottles. I love that you can not only grind anything from very-coarse to very-fine (e.g. 00 flour). I haven't yet tried the steel plates yet with softer grains, but I expect to enjoy making my own nut butters soon. :D NOTE: This certainly will give you a shoulder+arm workout when using it; or you can do like I'm doing and attach a motor. (My motor dual-serves this mill and also my grain crusher for home-brewing.) Motorized, this will grind 4x the flour per minute and save you from RSI issues as well. ;) TIP: If you refrigerate your grains a little before grinding them into flour, the heat generated from grinding only gets to a little over room temp. I poured my grain into a glass bowl, placed it in my fridge for 15 minutes, and my flour came out at 90°F, way below 115°F which is where nutrient degradation begins. Just beware to not chill the grain too much or it'll produce condensation which can gum-up your grinder.

We love this mill, grinds wheat, soghum fine enough in first pass, just the screws need to be ajusted nicely. It was a perfect workout and milling the flour at the same time.

Before I decided to purchase this grain mill, I had been looking at a few different hand mills and some electric models. The Country Living hand mill was out because it was too expensive. I considered the Victorio for a long time because of its economical cost, but after reading many reviews, I concluded that it wouldn't necessarily grind flour as fine as I would like and that it was not as sturdy as others. I considered various electric models, as well, but was concerned about two things with those: the noise they make was a big concern, and the way they heat the flour when they grind it was also a concern (but not an especially significant one). I ultimately decided on this mill because I have long preferred human-powered to electrical devices when there is a good option available; I also liked the versatility this offered in having both the stone and the steel grinders. After about two months of almost weekly use, I would say that this mill is excellent at what it does, but the effort required to turn it when grinding grains means that it is not one everyone will appreciate. Before I bought this mill, I was a little perplexed by the widely divergent information here about how long it takes to grind a cup of flour. I didn't know whose review to believe, but I found a video review on the Breadtopia website which compared this mill to several electronic models. That video review said it took about 8 or 9 minutes to grind two cups of flour. In my experience, that is exactly right. After several weeks, I noticed that I usually grind about five cups of flour in between 20 and 25 minutes. I can grind a little faster with the steel grinders than the stone ones, but they don't grind as fine, so I prefer to use the stone for flour. The thing to remember, though, is that it can be serious exercise to grind that much flour at one time. It takes a certain amount of strength and aerobic fitness to get the right rhythm going. I'm sure that people in better shape can grind flour faster, but I have taken to grinding once a week while watching a half hour show on TV. The quality of the flour is good, it is fine and soft. Although I mostly grind spelt into flour, I have also experimented with hard winter wheat, rice, and even lentils and beans. I have also tried using the steel grinders to make peanut butter, and was quite pleasantly surprised by the quality of the peanut butter it produced, though it took much longer to make just a little peanut butter than it did to grind flour. Grinding the peanuts didn't require as much physical exertion as grinding grains, but it is a much slower process for the butter to feed through the machine. (I ended up grinding the rest of the peanuts in my food processor and then adding the little bit of peanut butter produced this way which provided enough oil to help process those into a nice butter.) A few final notes might be helpful. The first two times I used this, I had trouble getting the grinding plates properly attached and positioned to the mill: the trick is to lie the mill on a counter or table and then attach the plates before placing the mill upright. Second, the clamps work well for attaching the mill to a table or counter, but they must both be tightened very securely by hand. If either side is insufficiently tight, the force required to work the mill will gradually loosen that side. I also like to put an old towel between the clamps and the table for reduced friction (and to prevent any scratches should one side be slightly loose). Finally, when grinding nut butters, it works best to put something such as an empty glass jar on the nuts to help push them into the mill.

Literally just got the unit today, and assembled it without too much fuss. I highly recommend checking out a Youtube video on this, as it helps to see someone else put it together, rather than to only have written instructions with no pictures. So, I am giving 5 stars right away, because it is putting out some really nice flour. Yes, as other reviewers said, it takes some work. It is designed for right-handed people btw- the auger only moves toward the grinding stones turning the handle one way. I was able to switch hands, but it's a little more awkward. So, not impossible for lefties, but not designed for them. The instructions tell you to run a pound of wheat through first, to "condition" the stones and let any loose pieces work their way through. You should throw away this wheat because there will be some black specks of rock in it initially. I had an idea that worked out nicely- I put white rice through first. That way, I could easily see when the meal was clean. It took about one full hopper until it ran clean. Ran some wheat through after that, and it looked beautiful :-) My arms will be sore tmrw, but I'm smiling. Except for one thing... I noticed a different listing where Wondermill includes the drill bit adapter at no extra cost. Sigh. I already ordered mine ( and it was on the way) before I spotted this other listing. I wish Wondermill had surprised me with this freebee, instead of making me feel a little dumb for not catching the offer. I really don't want to pay the extra $30 (?) for a separate add-on. Anyway, if you are reading this review...look for that listing. Maybe you'll use the adapter, maybe you won't, but at least YOU will have the option. I will update if I fall out of love with this grinder, or have any problems, but otherwise, I am initially impressed with it, and hope to get many years of use out of it. UPDATE: 11/8/13 I have been using the grinder about every other day now. I don't like how hard it is to make cornmeal, the machine really struggles with the hard kernels, but for wheat, I am quite happy. Another tip: Do clean your auger after every use. Nothing fancy, just disassemble and brush it out. There will be 1/8 - 1/4 cup of berries and partially-ground meal left if you don't. If you use the machine infrequently, or want to change your grain, you don't want old kernels starting off a new batch of flour. Lastly, when the auger looks empty, and the machine is cranking easier, keep going anyway until flour is not coming out anymore. This will keep the residue down closer to 1/8 cup. My arms are looking more toned already :-)

Works great. Ordered a MockMill a few months after as it is a lot of time and muscle to grind fine flour by hand for my whole family. Will be a good backup if the power goes out.

I love this little grain mill. I have the Wonder Mill electric, which I use several times a week. But I wanted to be able to mill grain in a power outage (although I haven't gotten so far as to figure out how I would actually use the grain with no power!), and to make nut butter. It is a LOT.OF.WORK. To make grits, I have to grind the corn, sift out the flour from the larger bits, tighten the plates, regrind the bits, sift out the flour from that, tighten the plates once more, regrind the bits, and sift again. What I usually end up with is half flour in one bowl, and half grits-sized corn in another bowl. Probably if I did it in the VitaMix dry blender I'd get a consistent size the first time through, but I haven't tried it. The taste of these cooked fresh grits is aMAzing!!! For the nut butter, it seems to take flippin' forever for anything to begin squishing out of the plates, but eventually you will get plenty of nut butter out. Again, it takes forever and is a lot of elbow grease. We have to take turns turning the crank. It takes some trial and error to figure out how close the plates need to be to each other (they shouldn't grind each other). Also, it seems that they are constantly loosening because of the way they are screwed in opposite the way you are cranking. Sometimes you have to help the grain or nuts down into the hopper (I think that is what it is called) so they go down far enough to be milled. Small stuff isn't a problem, but corn, peanuts and almonds seem to just sit there unless you help them along. Storage is awkward, and you have to keep track of the little washer that goes with the plates, and it is virtually impossible to re-fit everything back into the original box. We have a small cupboard above the stove into which I can lay the mill and store the plates. Otherwise, I don't know where I'd put it! But if you have a place you can leave it set up, that would be ideal. The Deluxe version has the clamp; the regular version does not. You need the clamp! The mill is easy to clean (all metal), but heavy and long, so it is awkward in the sink. It comes with a little brush to help you clean it out. I use soap and hot water and have great results. If you are going to be milling frequently, go for the electric Wonder Mill (I highly recommend it!). But if you want something for emergencies or nut butters, add this to your collection. Just make sure you have somewhere you can clamp it onto, with enough clearance to fully turn the crank, and at a comfortable height. Otherwise you will be cursing the day you bought it. [I have seen videos where people hook up a drill to it and that makes quick work of the cranking]

My search for a great manual grinder came to a close when I unboxed the Wondermill Jr. In my opinion, this is definitely one of the best grinders on the market. Something like the Country Living mill would no doubt be of higher quality and perform a bit better, but it also runs at over double the price. There are a number of cheaper alternatives on the market, but nearly all of them use plastic parts or don't seem very well made. The Wondermill Jr. is built extremely well, and I was highly impressed with the overall quality of the unit. The entire thing is metal, and is solid in construction with a durable finish. The dual clamp securely fastened the grinder to one of my kitchen countertops and the unit remained rock solid while I worked. The different burrs attach easily and can be interchanged within seconds. The unit includes a set of stone burrs intended for grinding grains, and a set of steel burrs that will grind everything the stone burrs do as well as nuts, sprouts, beans, ect, though at a 10-20% coarser grind. Adjusting the stones is easy, and allows you to grind at a variety of consistencies. The stone burrs look to last quite a long time, though I do plan on buying a spare set. One of the reviews and a couple of comments talked of some excessively long mill times for something like a single cup of flour. After using the mill myself last night, I have to assume that the reviewer was either exaggerating, or using the product incorrectly. Grinding a cup of hard red wheat into fine flour took me under 5 minutes on my first attempt, and that included time spent learning how to adjust the tension for a coarser or finer grind. I got some flecks of stone in the first cup or so through (which the manual clearly warns you of in advance), and nothing after that. All in all, this mill is very well made by a respectable company, performs quite well, and is a great deal for the price. I'm very pleased with the purchase, and will be using it for a long time to come.