When You Own a Corona...

Enlarge Image Image Gallery 1. Use vinegar, warm water, soap-impregnated steel wool and elbow grease for the first cleaning of your mill. 2. The business end of the assembled Corona. Note scrap of wood under base to protect counter. 3. For a finer grind, tighten adjustment screw. Note removeable cover which keeps ground grain from flipping upward. Old ""throw-away"" processed cereal can be used for Corona's trial run. 4. Grinding wheat. It seems natural (even for lefties) to grip adjustment screw with left hand while cranking with right.

Our Corona grain mill was quite greasy and dirty when we unpacked it and this momentarily gave us second thoughts about the sanity of our decision to mill our own flour. These doubts grew as we tried — without success — to remove the protective coating with several different cleaning compounds. Then we chanced upon the magic combination:

We filled a sink with hot water and added a cup of vinegar. The vinegar cut the grease and, after a fifteen minute soak, the surface of the water was covered with numerous dirty globules. A little scrubbing of every unassembled part of the machine with a steel-wool soap pad was next and a dry towel finished the job. Our Corona mill was sparkling clean.

The design of the Corona is very simple and straightforward and a quick glance at the enclosed parts diagram was all we needed to assemble the little grinder. After a few minutes we stepped back to admire our handiwork: There it was! Our own Corona grain mill in all its shining glory. Imagine that! We were excited . . . and we hadn't even begun to realize the many ways that littlc machine was going to enrich our lives.

The mill was somewhat heavier than we had anticipated and that presented some problems when we began looking for a suitable place to mount it. Our old kitchen table wouldn't do because it wasn't sturdy enough. We finally decided to clamp the Corona to the counter top of our sink and we remov ed a drawer so that we could securely tighten the clamping wing nut on the base of the mill. It was at this point that we realized the counter top was being dented by the clamp! A scrap of wood under the base of the mill soon remedied the situation.

If you use a Corona as much as we use ours, the machine should be permanently secured to a solid surface with screws, or bolts and the base of the mill is designed for mounting in this manner. If lack of space forces you (as it does us) to store your mill when it's not in use, however, you can satisfactorily use the quick-clamp arrangement also built into the mill's base. To keep the Corona from slipping during heavy grinding, in this case, you may find that you have to tighten the clamping wing nut with a wrench . . . so don't forget to insert that piece of wood to protect your table or counter top.