Hi -- newbie here... I used to have a Cuisinart bean to cup machine which I was never 100% happy with so when it broke irretrievably I took the opportunity to try something new... As an emergency fix, I dug out the old Bialetti moka pot in the back of the cupboard -- but how to grind my beans? So I looked at various things on the internet and decided that a nice option that I could afford would be a vintage hand grinder... So I bought this Kungenthal off eBay, followed the instructions on Orphan Espresso how to take it apart and clean it and reassemble it and set it properly -- and it doesn't work! After about 300 rotations of the handle, I have about less than half a teaspoon of ground coffee... Loosening the grind adjustment doesn't seem to make any difference (other than that the grind gets coarser) but it's not grinding any more rapidly. I know it's a hand grinder, but surely it shouldn't be taking me 15 minutes to grind enough coffee for the Bialetti! Any thoughts as to what I'm doing wrong? Many thanks...

Some handgrinders are fast and some are really slow - but 300 rotations sounds too much for half a teaspoon coarse grind!
It sounds like the beans are not fed properly into the burrs...can you take some pictures of the grind-path (the hopper, upper burrs, lower burrs and adjust mechanism)?

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you -- my camera inadvertently got left at work...

Here is the view of the burrs from the bottom:




And here is the view looking into the hopper, first with the lid on and then with the lid off:




Do you want me to take it apart further so you can see the "teeth" of the burrs?

Many thanks for all your help...

I think the problem lies in the teeth arrangement at the top of the inner burr. They do not look properly designed to grab beans at a fine grind setting. They may work faster at very coarse settings. I had a similar grinder and it was also way too slow for espresso. You may to try another brand. See the handjive hand grinder thread for some good photos of grinders that work for espresso.

PC

The speed doesn't seem to vary as you increase the coarseness of the grind -- even at the point where the adjustment screw is about to fall off and just held on by the last thread it still isn't grinding at any sort of reasonable rate... I don't need it properly espresso-fine as am only using a moka pot.

If I'm looking at stuff on eBay, any tips how to know if it will work before I buy? Don't want to spend the rest of my free time buying and reselling grinders!

Have just looked through the last 20 or so pages of the handjive thread (oy vey!) and one thing that jumps out from all those lovely photos is that they all seem to have metal hoppers -- not the lid itself but the actual "cup" that the beans sit in before grinding -- and mine is wood. Could that be an issue?

The woodhopper is not an issue, but something is wrong. Its like the teeth are not catching the beans like they should. Sadly I think you might have a bad mill...
Your inner-burr has four teeth, when buying a new mill, you might want to go for five or six teeth.
I have good experiences with KyM, Dienes, Zassenhaus and Lehnartz. Other good brands are out there too, check the handjive-thread. Good hunt!

Looks like the burr assembly is correct. Some of these old hand grinders are just absurdly slow at espresso fineness, likely as they were never meant to grind that fine. Sounds like this one is poor at any degree of coarseness or fineness. I've had a couple like that (Trossers and Alexanderwerks). The holy trinity (in my opinion anyway) is Kym, Zassenhaus, and Dienes. Of those three, I've never had a KyM (of 8 or 9 KyMs I own) that wouldn't grind for espresso. I've had the worst luck with Dienes, despite their being some of the most visually appealing grinders of all. That being said, there are no guarantees with vintage European hand grinders, but with those three (I would throw in the French maker Peugeot), your chances are pretty good for getting one that grinds for a range of coffee prep methods. My advice is to get one from one of those three German manufacturers on eBay, such as this one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/KYM-COFFEE-GRIN ... 6016.l4276

I have the same model, which grinds the range from drip to espresso no problem (well, at least mine does - hard to say what shape the burr set is on any given vintage grinder - hence the caveat).

I would agree with the style - it works - but I would not bid on that listing since the top has a crack in front that has been repaired from what I can see in the photos.

I've had the worst luck with Dienes,

FWIW, I've had the best luck with Dienes, so that shows that it can be a little variable. I can usually guess which Dienes mills will work for espresso now, based on experience - they are the "newer" ones, with italic writing in the label, and the work "mokka", and the have a 6-star burr configuration.

These second-hand mills are now longer very cheap, however, and if you need to buy 2-3 to get one that works you may be better off with a new Made by Knock mill, or an OE mill. These will work for a lifetime or two.

PC

@ Eric, I agree - that grinder definitely looks like it's been refurbed. Dome looks like it has been re painted too.

@ Jack, yep, I know for most, Dienes have been the most reliable. I think I have mostly older models (pre-50s) so that May account for my higher degree of variability. My old reliable is a Dienes 550, and if I could only keep one hand grinder, that would be my easy choice. So there you go.