zix wrote:Here is a video of me cranking it, without any beans inside. The planetary gears are vibrating a little and we have the sound of what I think is gears moving. Is that correct?
It is not ghost burrs touching?
(It sounds louder in the video than in real life)
video

Your handle might be loose - I'm not seeing that much clearance between the handle and Aluminium collar in mine.

Can you tighten the handle down? (The hex screw in the middle of the handle. Hold the handle while turning the screw.)

zix wrote:It is not ghost burrs touching?
(It sounds louder in the video than in real

I don't think the Burr touching but the gap between the handle and the aluminum planetary gear(silver) not tight enough.



Try to grind some beans at the center setting and -4C(4 clicks left from the center) let's see the grind size.

Can you tighten the handle down? (The hex screw in the middle of the handle. Hold the handle while turning the screw.)

"The hex screw?" He said sheepishly.
OK, time to look around in the kitchen...

Found it in the box. Phew.
Pushed the handle in all the way. Screwed the hex screw in place. It sounds the same, or maybe slightly more. It does feel like and sound like it is the sound of the gears. Are they supposed to be quite silent? Will grind tomorrow and take a pic.
Thanks for your help!

Looked at Doug grinding without beans in his instruction videos. It seems like it sounds exactly the same - their mic is farther away than mine was, and their grinder is screwed onto a big chunk of wood with a silicone/rubber mat under it, both of which should muffle the sound. So if you take that into account, I think my grinder is just fine.

I did make a nice tasting Chemex brew earlier, which tasted clearly less muddy than usual, even though I used a Fellow steel cone filter (same as usual). It also had noticeably fewer fines - even though I did all kinds of stupid things, like changing grind sizes wildly mid grind, grinding half of it in the other direction, going too fast and then going slow... I think this is going to be a good one

zix wrote:I think my grinder is just fine. I think this is going to be a good one

Yes...

Finally OE have the Apex modified lid... https://www.oehandgrinders.com/Apex-Air ... p_198.html

Oh... wow. Didn't see that one when I ordered. Talk about bad timing. Maybe I should have looked harder... But then, how hard can it be to find a blower and to drill a hole?

The blower easy to find but drilling the lid will be more risky broken/crack the lid, imho buy/order from OE have less risk

Drilling brittle plastic just requires the proper bit. It usually breaks when you break through so you need one that either cuts the edges or does not self feed. They make special bits for plastic. Something like this will likely work:

https://www.travers.com/category/straig ... ade-drills
https://www.rockler.com/power-tools/dri ... l$2520Bits

It would also help a lot if you had it securely held in a drill press so you can control the rate of feed.

Ira