Louis wrote: A few questions/comments:
- What about left-handed? Will the holding handle (fixed) be switchable/orderable on either sides?
- What about a 53mm portafilter cradle? (La Spaziale S1 installation base is quite large)

Hi Louis,

Thanks for your questions.

In order to build a machine for left-handed users, it's not a simple matter of relocating the grab handle on the other side of the machine. The inner burr needs to rotate in a clockwise direction, meaning we would have to redesign the gearbox. We are considering other design solutions, however initially we'll be focusing on the current model at launch.

Thanks for the heads up on the large La Spaziale S1 user base. We have set up a survey at http://hg-one.com/pre-order-survey/ to gauge interest in burr size and portafilter cradle size. We encourage anyone who is interested in our products to vote, as this will help us determine numbers and sizes when placing initial orders with our manufacturers. We have two portafilter cradle sizes for launch (49mm and E61), and will be adding new sizes based on interest as soon as possible. Craig has since added the 53mm size to the survey.

Paul

I couldn't find price quotes, is $1000 just a guestimate?

tekomino wrote: - How is the grind fineness adjusted?

- It seems that portafilter holder is really required otherwise I do not see how you grind into the basket without it. How did you foresee this working?
.

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for your email. We're glad you like the way the HG one grinder looks! We've put a lot of care and consideration into the functionality as well as the design of our grinder.

If you have a look here: http://hg-one.com/the-hg-one-grinder/us ... /grinding/ this page illustrates how to adjust the grind. The HG one uses a stepless approach. By turning the burr mount, you can adjust the height of the outer burr relative to the inner one. Adjusting the grind takes literally a couple of seconds.

The Portafilter Cradle is not the only answer to using our machine. In fact Paul doesn't like to use one at all, he likes to take the basket out of the portafilter and use a tall Orphan Espresso dosing funnel by itself. I use the Portafilter Cradle with the short OE dosing funnel. It's been pretty busy for us and as soon as we have a chance we'll post some videos of the grinder in action.

We have a few more ideas on the drawing board that we're still working on that we'll be showcasing soon.

As for the motor issue, it isn't something that we're actively pursuing right now. It takes less than 30 seconds to grind 17g of beans. Yes it's not as fast as an electric grinder, yet on the other hand it's a far greener option. Our grinder doesn't use any electricity, there's no motor to burn out, and it's extremely simple to maintain. Even on the most busy of days, I don't think anyone would miss the extra 15 seconds spend grinding coffee. Paul and I both have two young kids and we still manage to find the time to hand grind.

Also the HG one grinder is built to last. It's strange designing a product that will most likely outlive you. Kind of nice thinking this is something I can hand down to my kids rather than end up in a landfill.

all the best,

Craig

I'd send money right now if it were motorized. $1000 for a hand grinder will be a hard sell even on HB.

Good stuff guys, well done.

Completely re-editing this post. After thinking about my usability qualms of other hand grinders (including the Pharos) and considering this machine *looks* like it could go head-to-head with the Versalab M3, I'm very intrigued. More so if it'll fit well under my cabinets.

Very cool. I personally see the motorless design as a plus.

Any thought on changing the gear "ratio" so less cranks mean more turns?

Hi Christian,

Great question! It's one that we've mulled over on our end as well.

Right now we feel pretty good about the 1:1 gear ratio in the HG one grinder. It offers the right amount of resistance vs grinding time. For a 17g shot, we've been averaging around 30 seconds and it takes about 38 to 40 spins of the wheel. Not too bad considering you're using an 83mm burr set.

We did notice that using the 71mm burr set it takes about 30 spins to grind the equivalent amount of beans with slightly less resistance, so in effect it's slightly faster.

kind regards,

Craig

After thinking about it some more, I'm finding it difficult to express the scale of my sheer frustration at someone finally bringing a product like this to the market, but hobbling it with a hand-cranked design.

Scouring online forums, we discovered that everyone asked for the same set of features, but no single grinder delivered. There were some that were almost there but in the end it was one compromise after another. Too big, loud, expensive, impractical, or impossible to clean was what we heard. So we decided to build our own.