RAS wrote:Aw, I appreciate the tips and recommendations you pass along Marshall. I know, this can be quite the "grateful" group here!

+1.5

Thank you Marshall and Dan!

Dan: French is a very different beast .

Marshall: I was definitely missing the background here! Sorry, Mary! I only knew the conveyed background here in Germany and this has something to do with WWII and so on...
I appreciate the timer tip and would be happy to find a similar one here as the point you're making concerning the surface is true.

So everybody can be friends again ?

I hope so. I was extremely interested in the Waring timer when I first saw it. The build quality and food-prep suitability are extremely impressive. I would be all over it if it had better granularity as it's unacceptable for the Robur.

I have been using the Gralab timer (via a SSR, because it's not rated to handle the Robur's motor), and I really like it. My hands are always clean when I start grinding, so I haven't had any concerns to the effect of grinds damaging the timer. That said, it's right next to the grinder, and I do sweep a lot, so I am sure it will accumulate grinds in its nooks and crannies over time. I think the main point about timers is that they are extremely convenient. Only the most sophisticated ones are repeatable enough for really consistent dosing, so you generally still have to use some other method of making sure your dose is right. I know it's about +/- 0.5 g on the Robur with the Gralab timer, and I chock it up to entropy in the motor rotation. That's really not good enough to keep pour time consistent, although it's certainly good enough to get "in range" shots if you're lazy. The Robur is impressively tolerant of such changes.

Anyway, I think the Waring ought to come highly recommended to anyone with a grinder that does less than 1.5 gram per second--Mini's, Macap M4s, etc. I think one unsung advantage with those slower grinders is that they probably dose more consistently on a timer than the big grinders. I'd be interested to see some numbers laid down there.

From my very unscientific "at home grinding experience" there's no difference between the Mazzer Mini and the Super Jolly in terms of consistency - but I will pay attention to deliver some numbers.

Ernie wrote:From my very unscientific "at home grinding experience" there's no difference between the Mazzer Mini and the Super Jolly in terms of consistency - but I will pay attention to deliver some numbers.

Ernie, what are your grind times for each? I believe my Super Jolly does a 15-16 gram double in about 5-6 seconds, but I have the "aggressive" duranium burrs. I understand that the stock burrs are somewhat slower to grind, but I haven't used one with stock burrs in a couple of years.

I can say that with PT's Gizmo espresso, I am doing about 14.5 grams in 3.7 seconds on the Robur. It's getting long in the tooth, I think. It was a little bit less (3.5-3.6) earlier in the week. The weather's been bouncing around the humidity as well, though--really hot (80+F is hot for February, right?), muggy afternoons, etc. Variables like that (which I know Ian has mentioned before) just bring home the point that if you want to be a very accurate doser you need to be very, very good at eyeballing or cave and get your scale out. Ultimately, most of these timers are just for the convenience of not having to turn the grinder off at the end of dosing. That said, that convenience (and the waste reduction from when you're too slow to turn the thing off) is difficult to overstate.

HB wrote:I studied French for many years and would be thrilled if my second language skills were even close to yours. During my years in France, I made some verbal faux pas that had my colleages howling with laughter. Learning a second language and being required to use it in everyday life is an experience everyone should try, if only to better understand what it feels like to be a "foreigner". It's humbling.

I taught at an elementary school where English was the second language of 80%+ of the student's homes. I knew enough Spanish to get by, but it was a struggle. Later I taught at a school where all the students spoke English as their primary language and a Spanish speaking student enrolled. The kids were obviously having a bit of fun in that regard, so I gave the directions for the next lesson in Spanish to the class. He smiled, and the rest of the class looked on in confusion. I let them ruminate on that for a few seconds, then said to them, "Feel a bit confused? Remember that, because that's how he feels almost all of the time here."

When we motorcycled Europe, I knew just enough foreign language to 1- find the BMW museum in Munich, 2- order mushroom omelets wherever we went, and 3 - to embarrass myself in France. I got along fairly well in London, though.

Nicholas,
I pulled out my special accuracy weighing machine (wow, what a word ) and this is what came out:
Mini: 6,3gr/10s
SJ: 20,1gr/10s

In comparison with your grinders:
SJ: 26gr/10s (I took 16gr/6s)
Robur: 39gr/10s

This is of course not ultimate, for the reasons Marshall already mentioned and because there might always remain some grains in the doser, every bean is different (the SJ is currently fueled by a very fresh dark roasted brasil capim branco cerrado minas gerais bsca (3rd place in the COE challenge I think) which goes pretty slow).

I will continue weighing to be able to say more about the consistency.

Using my Mahlkönig Vario, I get 14.2 grams in 2.9 seconds . . . doesn't that work out to something like 48.3g/10s?

I got 48,9/10 for the MK, without rounding.

What makes a great difference concerning the celerity of the grinder is the freeness of course. That's one thing I first realized when using a timer.

Bumping another thread from the grave...

http://www.control3.com/5057p.htm

Is there any reason why the second model couldn't be used as a grinder timer? I'm not sure of the technical considerations, but it seems ideal. It can be set in 0.01 second intervals up to 99.99 seconds, and it costs under $100. I am assuming the repeat feature can be disabled, which isn't necessarily correct...