Most Effective Grain Mill for the Price
Nazko is perhaps the only amercian manufacturer of hand operated grain mills that aren't stupidly expensive, i.e. GrainMaker and Country Living. The housing is made entirely of cast iron with a set of stone burs to match. While this might sound promising, there are some considerations.
For one, if you want to grind really fine flour, you got to put your lats, tris, bis and deltoids to it; for it's hard to turn the crank. Fortunately you can motorize the mill if you want, but other than the rpms needing be under 120, I'm not sure what other specs are needed as Nazko doesn't provide them.
Secondly, the chamber will eat at least 60-90g of the grains you put into the hopper and won't come out by cranking alone. Good thing I have sieves to make use of the stuck flour, but not everyone does. Lastly, the knob that affixes the stones burrs together that's also used to adjust the fineness of the flour is cheap; for the adhesive used to hold the stud and the knob together was so weak that if you tighten it hard enough, the knob will eventually rotate independently of the stud.
An easy fix for this while preventing wear and tear on the stones would be to get the following from McMaster-Carr:
1. Part 6463K211 ( The Knob itself)
2. Part 90322A670 (Thread for the knob)
3. Part 7122A16 (The Hex Key to set the torque of the knob so you're not adjusting all the time)
Also if you want to grind fine rice flour while using the stone burrs(they have metal burrs you can purchase separately), you're gonna have to pass the flour through the mill a second time.
If you can manage with the aforementioned setbacks, this mill be fine addition to your baking arsenal and might even outlast you.
Update: Upon testing out my new set of stone burrs that I ordered, I noticed a defect in that there was a noticeable gap between the two castings of my rotating burr. This resulted in jamming and an uneven alignment. When I brought this to Nazko's attention, Cherriese, without any hesitation, honoured the warranty and sent me a new set free of charge. This is the customer service anyone should expect from smaller firms.