This mill is perfect for its intended purpose -- small amounts of flour or the ability to mill flour without electricity. After being without electricity for 11 days after a major storm a while back, my husband is big on emergency preparedness and a big part of that is being able to eat without electricity to prepare meals. This little mill fits the bill. I can crank out a couple of cups of flour real quick. It isn't difficult, just a little tedious, but for the times I just need a little flour, it's perfect. We like our semolina ground a little finer than what comes in the sacks, so when we make pasta, I pull this out and grind enough for dinner. For larger amounts, the electric mill is the way to go, but this is handy to have on the side.

Manual says not to adjust to a finer grain after you begin, but since the adjustment knob is also holding the crank, it slowly comes loose to a more coarse grind sometimes. Not good at all with light grains like oatmeal since it's gravity fed. Other than that, it's a good product. Also a good warm-up for arm day.

I got this to turn a mixture of dried habenero peppers, turmeric and a couple other items into powder with the emphasis on the pepper seeds (which are somewhat oily). I needed the mixture ground fine enough to permit me to easily fill a #3 size gelatine capsule and my blender couldn't do.

It was magic. It turned about a third/half cup of the stuff into powder before jamming. I thought it would fail me at the 2 tablespoon quantity. Not so:.. I rinsed and cleaned the whole thing and set it to dry while I filled capsules. Timing was perfect: by the time 100 capsules were filled, the machine was dry and good to go again.

I'd especially like to thank the reviewers (both the pats and pans) who gave details of their experiences. The money/value ratio is excellent, and there were no surprises when I ginned it up for my little project. I intend to give sprouted wheat a try this week or next..

You cannot beat it for the price. I use this almost daily to grind brown rice flour for my GF sourdough bread. It works very well for rice and softer grains (millet, steel cut oats, quinoa), but is rather hard to turn on harder grains, such as popcorn; you can do it, but it is a workout.

It takes about 150 turns of the handle to make 1/2 cup of flour (assuming you are not cranking it down and trying to get pastry flour...which it isn't particularly good for). As long as it is a softer grain, it is pretty simple just to change hands every 50 turns or so and get a nice mild workout. Cornmeal yields about the same, but I end up using both hands because it wear you out a lot more quickly. I am gluten intolerant, so I cannot say how it does on wheat/rye/spelt.

It stores in a very compact space. I'm glad to have it. I would prefer a more heirloom quality mill, but for 1/10th the price this one was definitely a good buy.

This item is not for everyday use unless of course you live somewhere without electricity. It should only be for the prepper who is just covering all his bases. I bought a pound of wheat to experiment with making bread. As advertised, you can grind about one quarter cup of wheat per minute. It is not fun! To adjust the consistency of the product your grinding, you have to turn the nut that holds the handle on. There is no calibration markings, ie, fine, medium, coarse, etc., so you basically have to come up with your own method to duplicate what worked best for you. You are cautioned not to over tighten the nut or you might damage the stainless steel cone. My recommendation would be to get the next step up which is the VKP1024. It is also a hand crank mill but you can purchase an electric motor to do the hard work.