La San Marco SM 90

#1: Post by **oofnik** » November 10th, 2007, 1:27 am

Hi everyone,
I just got done cleaning/rebuilding a La San Marco SM 90 grinder I got off of eBay for a great price. UPS decided incorrectly that I didn't want a doser, so they conveniently shattered it to pieces during shipping. Instead of tracking down a replacement, I went ahead and glued all the bits back together while the grinder was disassembled. The result is a bit ugly, but I think it's going to work fine.
It's so nice to finally have a commercial grinder! This thing is just so solid - it feels like it's going to outlast me!

Anyway, it seems to be working fine. A search turned up very little info on this machine, so I was wondering if anyone else out there is using one of these as their main grinder. I'd like to hear of some experiences anyone might have to share. I haven't had a chance to test it out yet, but hopefully that will change in the near future. Thanks to all of you at HB for being awesome.

#2: Post by **MarkD** » November 10th, 2007, 1:38 am

My brother uses one as his main grinder to accompany his Vibiemme Domobar. It's a rock solid, very capable and surprisingly quiet grinder (much quieter than a Rossi RR45 for example), but it's not what I would call a beauty

And yes, it will outlast you.

Congrats and good luck finding a hopper replacement!

#3: Post by **blu** » November 10th, 2007, 3:10 am

hello oofnik,
I used 2 of the LSM's earlier and

1) did a doserless mod:
http://www.popovic.info/html/lsm_90_umbau.html

2) restored an older model:
http://fotoalbum.web.de/gast/grazie_marco/lsm_90_beige

today I prefer to use a darkroom timer and the doser instead (and other grinders). the LSM SM90 has IMO 2 little handicaps:

1) grinding adjustment steps are too large
2) too much coffee ground remains in the channel between doser and burrs (matters only if you often change your coffee as I do).

cari saluti blu

November 10th, 2007, 2:02 pm

Hi blu,
Nice mods! I will have to take them into consideration for the future. Thanks for sharing that!

#5: Post by **mideastmoto** » April 20th, 2008, 2:14 pm

Hi-

I have the same LSM...you can actually very easily remove the detent/tab which you use to select your grind step...if you twist the top burr/carrier off, the detent will then simply lift out. If you put some teflon tape around the threads, it will stay rather tight, and, voila, stepless LSM SM90. Be sparing on the tape, though, as it takes a decent amount of strength to twist it back on like that!

Ken