I have a La Pavoni Pro on order, though it will take it's sweet time getting to me here in China.

I am now looking at a grinder, and am tempted by manual grinders. I am wondering if the Porlex will grind fine enough for espresso?

h

Pavoni is a fun machine to use, I used to use a porlex with my Pavoni.
My experiences with the porlex were that it grinds fine enough for the Pavoni with relatively consistent grind for the size of burrs. The grind collector was a perfect fit for my 49mm basket. It's a good portable grinder, however the negatives after a couple of months led me to upgrade out of frustration. These negatives included the size of burrs and the handle design.
The small burrs mean lots to turns of the handle.
The handle isn't fixed, it just slides onto the shaft. This is great for storage but over time I found that it was prone to slipping off whilst grinding.
Overall a good grinder at a very affordable price for the quality of grind, however it has some shortcomings which may mean daily use gets frustrating.

My experience with the Porlex is that the grind adjustment is stepped so the output is either too fine or too coarse, the Porlex makes a decent pepper grinder.

I have only used hand grinders. Ever. For over 40 years. Last year I upgraded my Enterprise #2 grinder to an HG-1. The improvement in taste was marked. So much so, that it ruined my coffee-drinking experience every time I traveled and used my Porlex. The taste just wasn't there for me. So I upgraded my travel grinder to a Feldgrind...and now I am a happy boy.

I used my Porlex with my La Pavoni Pro for about two years. My experience is very similar to Locopavoni's above except the handle falling off while grinding didn't really bother me. You just have to be careful. It only happened a couple times a year at most.

However, I do recommend replacing the stock adjustment nut with a washer and two lock nuts tightened against each other. This will make the grinder stepless and easier to get the correct setting. Unfortunately, the downside is it's a bit of a hassle to adjust on a daily basis.

I picked up a Pe De Dienes Mokka brass (mine is chrome-plated) hand mill from Feebay a week ago that works great! It's nice and small, well made, has a folding handle, and it cost me $25 shipped. I can easily fit 16g of beans into the hopper, and at the tightest setting it makes a grind that chokes my La Pavoni Pro and my other semi-automatic machine. I started with the Hario Slim Mill which for $25 is pretty nice, but since I've started buying some of the vintage handmills with their steel burrs I can see and taste a real difference in the quality of the grind. Also, the grind is MUCH faster on the steel burr mills: 16g in my Hario Slim takes 600 turns, 16g in my Dienes box grinder takes 90 turns, and 16g in my Dienes brass cylinder portable mill takes 120 turns.

at the beginning the porlex was fine, after a couple of months the bearing was worn out. pharos is the best one, lido 2 didnt convince me.

The grinder I upgraded to was a Pharos, had the porlex, but for the money you will not find a grinder that can deliver even close to the level of the Pharos. If you are serious about your coffee and want a manual grinder I would suggest to skip the porlex and get a Pharos. It has its quirks but for a hand grinder the only grinder better is the HG One and that is at another price point altogether.

I, too, upgraded to the Pharos after my Porlex. However, I had a friend buy mine in Japan on his trip home, so it only cost me about 1,000TWD (~30USD). The Porlex did well as a brew grinder until I upgraded to a LIDO 2 this winter. It's been a great value, and I recommend it to anyone on a budget or as a stopgap until something better can be purchased. But, yes, you will upgrade one day. It's inevitable, and I'm glad I did it.