Professional Hand Grinder

Recommendations for buyers and upgraders from the site's members.
Guigui La Malice
Posts: 2
Joined: 4 years ago

#1: Post by Guigui La Malice »

Hello fellow coffee lovers,

a friend and I are currently are developing the crazy business idea of making professional class espressos on a coffee cart without electricty.

We have already selected the Bezzera B2013 AL that is actually designed for working properly with gaz only (how smart from Bezzera) and that is quiet cheap for a commercial use. But we are still struggling on picking up the grinder. My choices went from ROK grinder to Kinu M68 and after reading an amzing post from DJR about the Spong mills, I thought why not using a proper vintage grinder. As you understand, we want something heavy duty, stationary, that grinds fast, in large quantity and fine enough for espresso.

What do you guys think? Any suggestions on the grinder? Espresso machine? Business?

Thank you so much for reading :D :D .

From Brussels with love!

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GregoryJ
Posts: 1064
Joined: 6 years ago

#2: Post by GregoryJ »

Hi Guigui, a gas powered espresso machine, that sounds cool! Have you ever ground for espresso by hand? As much as I love hand grinders, I cannot recommend doing more than a couple at a time. I'm sure the upright ones are a little bit easier, but I've seen people sell their HG-1 grinders due to strain or fatigue.

TenLayers
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Posts: 447
Joined: 5 years ago

#3: Post by TenLayers »

I seem to remember a similar thread awhile back and one suggestion was to fabricate a grinder around a stationary bike. I thought that was a brilliant idea. Either have the customers grind their own or one of you could be the "grinderman" and pedal and tamp alongside the cart.

IMAWriter
Posts: 3472
Joined: 19 years ago

#4: Post by IMAWriter »

There is a long time member here who motorized his HG1. Of course, it ran on electricity, but I wonder if it could be battery powered?
His HB user name is fotondrv. Search him here, and PM him...perhaps he could design something for you.

IMAWriter
Posts: 3472
Joined: 19 years ago

#5: Post by IMAWriter »

GregoryJ wrote:Hi Guigui, a gas powered espresso machine, that sounds cool!
Gregory, actually there are a LOT of machines built in the 50's and 60's that run on gas.

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Stephanus
Posts: 43
Joined: 9 years ago

#6: Post by Stephanus »

I am not sure what your budget is but the Velopresso (Velopresso dot cc) coffee trikes are awesome. They incorporate a pedal driven grinder in the system along with a gas fired spring lever espresso machine. The pedal driven grinder is much faster than grinding by hand.

The vintage Spong grinders can grind for espresso but in my opinion the taste does not get close to modern espresso grinders. Those grinders generate a lot of boulders and a lot of fines at the same time and can choke a machine with one shot and it can flow too fast with the next shot. This is based on my experience wit a No1 and No3 Spong.
Only a surfer knows the feeling

Nunas
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Posts: 3661
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#7: Post by Nunas »

We used to use a hand grinder and a cordless electric drill, but the volume was low. But even for more volume, a few charged batteries can last all day. As for the grinder, we just used a handmade Turkish grinder held in one hand with the drill in the other. For volume, the issue would be hand fatigue; I'd look for a grinder that would chuck easily into the drill, be easy to mount on some surface and be easy to fill/empty. Perhaps you could mount both the drill and the grinder on a piece of plywood. An Orphan Espresso Pharos might work like this. And, being a quality grinder, would produce excellent shots. If you only mount the grinder, then I think I'd use one of those springy extensions to minimize the wear on the upper grinder bearing.

rbkool
Posts: 24
Joined: 10 years ago

#8: Post by rbkool replying to Nunas »

I have been using my OE Pharos in this manner for over 4 years with no issues... see photos below:




ira
Team HB
Posts: 5497
Joined: 16 years ago

#9: Post by ira »

If you wanted a pedal driven grinder, a HG-1 would be easy to mod as the handle is in the correct orientation.

Ira

jtrops
Posts: 499
Joined: 9 years ago

#10: Post by jtrops »

If you don't want to sit down on a bike every time you need to grind you could use a treadle from a standing position. A treadle with a big fly wheel would be very easy to adapt to an HG1.

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