Thanks for the comment Shife.

Rgds,
T.

How is the ZR71 treating you?
Still no inclination for mass production?

I'm currently in the process of getting a Londinium L1 which should allow me to keep elements of the extraction steady whilst I play with grind related variables. I'm currently finishing a mod which allows to read the burr distance (0.01mm resolution, +/-0.03mm accuracy) and use that as your 'setting' rather than some made up number which might or might not relate to the actual position of the burrs (due to temperature changes for example).

I'd love to move this in production but I'd need a bigger wallet, quit my job, employ people to help, probably get it certified and redesign bits of it to incorporate all the recent changes a bit better. I'm sure there's probably a 100 other things which would first need to happen before the first model could hit the shelves...

T.

CROWD SOURCING! I'll become a backer!

As would I.

Crowd sourcing is all good for raising money, but still doesn't solve the practical issues of behind-the-scenes requirements, like staff, time, storage etc. Imho it is a full time job to manage a project like this and the money gathered in the crowd sourcing isn't supposed to be used on salaries, so you either have a stash of hard earned cash somewhere in the attic, or you are prepared to go salary-less until the sales pick up (which might never happen). The other thing which needs to be kept in mind is the final cost of the machine, which at this point would be rather sky-high due to the quality and cost of components used. I currently have a running prototype on my bench, which is built from various expensive parts either salvaged from other project or bought new / used from ebay at reduced prices. If I was to price up the entire machine using list prices, I'm sure I'd easy go over $3k. Finally you have to think about warranties, machines which might not work for some reason (faulty components, damage during shipping etc.), shipping itself (as the grinder is around 25kg and pretty hard to pack up easily)...the list goes on.

T.

Open-source it then?

I can certainly understad the hesitation you have for all the reasons listed. I would just like to say though, if this machine is everything it seems to be that easily over $3K would be a steal and I would still be interested, for what it's worth.

Don't think this has been done before anywhere:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tompjagiello/21784412302/

Live burr distance measurement for all the OCD people out there interesting to see around 0.02 - 0.03mm gap distance increase when grinding, although mind you, you move the machine around the counter a bit and it's enough to change the reading by 0.01mm

Shame the company which made the burrs for the new Lido can only do batch jobs, otherwise I'd hit them up to make a one-off 71mm conical burrset to see how much better this can get, compared to a standard 71mm Mazzer set.

T.