Just ran a pound of Rahr two row base malt through the Barley Crusher. Used the hand crank. Went in and out like a dream. The crank was an easy peasy turn. Not much more force required compared to cranking it with no grain. It did not take more than 30 seconds to get one pound crushed.
The crush looked as I understand a good basic crush should be. Hulls intact and torn into about 3 or 4 hull pieces per kernel of barley, The insides are broken and there is just a slight hint of powder/flour.
For now, that is how I will use it, hand crank. I try to set up for my brew session the day before. I have a spare 7-10 minutes to crush by hand. Perhaps someday I will revisit the drill, but I got something that seems to work, so I will keep it that way.