I went to Target and got the cheapest electric (corded, not battery-powered) drill. It works fine with my crankandstein. The only time it ever gets a little shady is if I drill a ton of hard unmalted winter wheat berries. On sale it was $24.99.
That’s the drill I have. It’s been working great.
My favorite feature, besides the locking trigger, is that it has handle mount points on three sides. I created a couple of extra handles using a dowel and some hanger bolts to give it ‘wings’. This lets me:
-
prop the drill up on top of a second empty bucket when milling, so I don’t have to hold it.
-
place it on top of my converted keg boil kettle to drive a short paint mixer during cooling. Much easier than stirring with a spoon, and combined with my immersion chiller I’ll go from 212 to 80 degrees in about 8 minutes.
I bought this drill for my basement remodeling project and I’ve been really happy with it. Nice thing about this brand is that Menards will swap the drill for a new one, no questions asked, if it dies in the first 3 years! That being said I’ve had it for 2 and it’s been bullet proof!
on a related note…can you mill the grain too fast? whats proper speed or does it not matter?
Apparently, you can - IIRC too fast also tears the husk. That’s why I (like hopshead) forked over more $$ for a higher torque drill - once I get it going, I then releaser the trigger to as slow as I can but still keep it moving.