Dienes 658 inside

Wow, that grinder appears to be in mint condition. How are the bearings and burrs etc? Also great info from peacecup. Thanks to both of you. BTW what type of fasteners are in the top? They appear to be either square or philips drive which I think is rather unusual. If so maybe a search on when they were in common use in the country of origin may yield clues to the age of the grinder.

Cheers
Geoffrey

My guess is early 50s. PC, Like your Dienes papers. What is the info on the grinder that is on the second page from the last, right side, bottom grinder? Looks similar. Here is a picture of the guts after cleaning.
Ed

I think the Cherry wood Dienes is a pre war model (WWII that is) due to 3 different factors. first is the heavy chrome strap across the top, which seems common to pre war Zass and Dienes, as well as other less known makes. The West German models went with the formed top in most cases and stopped the heavy top strap. The strap makes a good solid top bearing and is not prone to flexing as the formed metal tops are. Second is the bottom adjustment bearing mechanism. The cup that fits into the hole in the bottom of the burr is another common pre war approach to burr tightening. After the war, it seems that a ball bearing inside the burr bearing hole is the common design, and an improvement. You can put a small dab of basically any kind of thick grease in the hole on assembly (all of our restorations have old caked grease in there to begin with), the grease is pretty much sealed off from any coffee grinds when it is all assembled and tightened. this makes it easy to tighten it for the Finest grinding. Third is the overall build quality, in that, the wood is heavier and thicker, likely 3/4 or even an inch thick, making the grinder feel pretty heavy. Many post war grinders are made of much thinner wood, and also use plywood in many areas instead of solid wood. These observations are from restoring about 50 grinders, so far, with a lot of Dienes, KYM, Zass, Trosser, Castle, Leinbroek's, and more under my belt.

There are exceptions to the above first two reasons, as the companies made a wide range of quality throughout the years with, from my observation, overlapping designs.

Your Dienes is a high end mill due to the wood, chrome strap and general fit and finish. Very nice. Top of the line.

How does it grind?

Peacecup, good to know you are still among the living, and still watching HB. It is because of you that we have sold out electric espresso grinders and have gotten bitten by the hand grinder bug. Also we got a SAMA export, but it has not replaced the Conti Comocafe and Caravel from the espresso service bay.
doug and Barb

Very interesting and informative response from Doug and Barb - thanks. In my earlier post I mentioned that maybe the uncommon type top screws were a possible indication of the history of this grinder (assuming they have not been replaced at some later date). I am not certain of this but I thought that in the U.S. philips head screws were first used in the Auto industry in 1939 and came into common use in Europe much later? Maybe D & B can comment from their experience with so many grinders.

Congratulations to D&B on their purchase of the SAMA, I look forward to hearing of their experiences with it. And BTW I still intend to purchase one of your grinders but unfortunately cannot at present.

Geoffrey

johhnyguitar wrote:How does it grind?

I plan on comparing the grinds to my 2007 Mazzer Major in the next couple days. Thanks for all your info.! It is an aggressive grinder but still quite smooth. I very impressed with how well these hand mills grind. You can actually feel the shaving occurring. I did spend a bit of time adjusting the centering of the lower burr collar and appears it does make a difference with a fine grind. Used some Dow Corning 111 lube on the fixed bearing. Has anyone seen the book "Antique Coffee Grinders" by Michael White and Judith Sivonda? Does it give info on function and identification/dating or more for the Knick Knack shelf collectors.
Ed