At this time of the year, with the winter crops planted, there are any number of maintenance tasks that need attention. After replacing an axle hub on one of the tractors, David and Fred got together and decided to tackle dressing the stones on our large mill. Dressing the stones is a process of sharpening the grinding surfaces that have become dull during use. If the stones aren’t sharp, the milling process is inefficient and the quality of the flour suffers.
For most of our milling, we use a 40” New American Stone Mill. It has two horizontal stones that weigh upwards of 2,000 lbs each. Although the stones are large and heavy, the quality engineering made the task a lot easier than some of the other mills we have used.
Once the dressing was done, reassembly of the runner stone, cover, bands and hopper went smoothly . It was all going according to plan until they re-started the mill for a test run. Poof!! Suddenly it erupted like Mt Vesuvius. Flour was spraying everywhere! Clouds of dust filled the mill room. It was a mess, but with a few turns of a screwdriver, and broom and exhaust fan.. all was put right and the mill was back in action again.
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