bostonbuzz wrote:One thing maybe we could work on together is the funnel. A symmetrical cone at the bottom results in poor distribution that will channel. I know, I built one. Every HG-one owner knows as well. The Monolith grinder guy figured something out, but they're keeping secrets and aren't not open-source types. What we need is either a cone of a really small diameter opening to hit the grinds into each other and disturb them, or a pharos bottom funnel type thing that is a cone sort of tiled 45 degrees. Otherwise there is some funky particle distribution stuff going on that makes for awful channeling. I'm not sure how to make the second part without a 4-axis CNC machine. Maybe hand mold it?

I think the Monolith simply has a bottom made like a doser on a Mazzer, so round with a hole on one side. There's probably a sweeper inside which gathers coffee from the inside lip and pushes it towards to hole.

Regards,
dsc.

I was able to get some burrs that haven't already ground a ton of beans. (Thanks Terranova) The new burrs are far better in the grinder. I can even hand crank this thing to grind for espresso. Testing for some turkish grind was crankable, but difficult to hold onto.

Amazing what can be done with ABS plumbing parts and some good burrs! I still need to do these burrs justice with a more solid design.

After moving to Japan I've had to rely on my Kludge Grinder for most of my coffee grinding needs, unfortunately the body is round and I really needed a good way to hold the grinder when turning those 68mm conical burrs. I came up with a nice base with bench dogs to hold it steady. Keeping in line with the frugal grinder design I've picked up the parts for this at the local hardware store.

I call it Kludge Grinder V2. Still would like to have a metal plate on the top for better grind adjustment, but until I find something at the hardware store that fits the bill this will have to do.

Additional costs: About US$1 worth of wood, $3 in screws/bolts/nuts for legs and bench dogs, $2 for angle brackets, $4 for the cork handle bolt with friction nut & washer, $5 for the cutting board, $1 for the anti-slip mat = under US$16 for the new base system.

Here's the system assembled:


A view of the angle brackets that fit under the 2 larger bench dogs. Note the groove in that bench dog carved to accept the angle bracket bolt head.:


This one you can see the cup that fits under the grinder body to accept the ground coffee. It's a little deeper than the base allows so I carved out a divot in the cutting board to fit that exactly with a spoon carver's knife.


Here's a view of the anti-slip mat for the full setup:


Now I just lay out the mat on a counter, put the cutting board base down, twist mount in the grinder, dump in the beans and grind away. Untwist it at the end of grinding, give it a shake and then finish grinding the last of the beans. A quick tap on the counter gets 99% of the beans off of the burrs and you're ready to dump from the stainless container to the PF with nice fluffy grinds.

(I have some Malabar beans that DON'T drop off of the burrs that easily, but nearly everything else does.)

This really makes hand grinding possible with this setup, and it works quite well. I use a 14mm wrench to make small adjustments to the grind adjustment friction-nut. Load it up, crank, and out comes great, fluffy coffee grinds.

Fantastic! I love it. This is about as minimalist as it gets.
Don't know if you saw this - it's what I've been using for pourovers at home since I built it about a year ago. No Titan burrs, but it performs nicely.
I use the same 38mm conical set in my other grinder which I use exclusively for espresso. The bottom catch cup fits perfectly into a 49mm La Pavoni filter basket.

I'm really surprised you're able to achieve a high quality grind without any second shaft support. I guess the beans do a decent enough job by themselves.

A secondary shaft support would make things much better and more stable, but with espresso level grind it seems the burr floats quite nicely giving a good enough grind. When starting the grind it's a bit difficult, but once I've turned 1/2 way around the burrs seem to float better and grinding is pretty easy.

Before moving to Japan this had been relegated to grinding spices for curry, and it did a good job of that too. If I were grinding for french press I'm sure there would be quite a bit more wobble, and that might be enough to make more of a problem.

I like your project. Reminds me of a good Turkish style grinder. The secondary axis support would be a great addition to my grinder, but it's a temporary grinder anyway...

A few weeks ago I added a cap to the grinder with marked graduations for adjustments. Keeping in line with the off-shelf parts for this project I picked up a thin cutting-board sheet at the 100yen store (dollar store) along with a paint marker.

Matching the sheet to the grinder and the bushing in the center of the top I cut it out with a razor, made cutout for the bean fill hole, added marks to the sheet with the paint marker that followed the edge of the wrench I use to change adjustments. Let it dry and flip it over so the paint doesn't get rubbed off. The paint marker lines could have been more even, but the marker has a wide tip and it was difficult to keep them this thin. Still, it works well for me.

When adjusting the grind I hold the grind lever firm and move only the wrench, sometimes the width of a line, sometimes it's a couple of lines. Marked with + & - it's easy to make adjustments to the grind, and I'm far quicker at dialing in shots this way than doing it blind.

Loading the beans, then swiveling the sheet makes sure there are no beans popping out. Since the center bushing doesn't spin this stays put nicely.

Many thanks to DanoM for his inspiration! Below is my ugly, but surprisingly effective
version in hardwood and steel. This must be about as simple as it can get. So far
after a week of use I love it enough that my trusty old super jolly will go up for sale on craigslist.
Most stuff I already had, but the 71mm burrs are new, and a few items were bought at Lowes.
Despite the crude looks, care was taken to mount and align the burrs.

regards, Rich

Crude, but effective! It's the effective part that counts.
I've put about 1000 shots through my kludge grinder so far this year, and it's working great. Doesn't handle really hard beans that well - beans that I've under roasted during my roasting experiments. Properly roasted beans are working fine though.

I like your socket wrench lever arm, and the design is surely more solid than my plastic based grinder body in respect to grind settings.
Congratulations on a quality, minimalist's grinder.

AZRich wrote:Many thanks to DanoM for his inspiration! Below is my ugly, but surprisingly effective
version in hardwood and steel. This must be about as simple as it can get. So far
after a week of use I love it enough that my trusty old super jolly will go up for sale on craigslist.
Most stuff I already had, but the 71mm burrs are new, and a few items were bought at Lowes.
Despite the crude looks, care was taken to mount and align the burrs.

regards, Rich

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What is it again and how does it work??

Hey Ryan - it's a coffee grinder, and it works very well, thanks! (grin)