Hello All,
I've been lurking here for quite some time and have finally gotten the bug to participate. Short story of why this post. Camping with 30+ family and friends, I found myself cooking and serving coffee for all. Being a coffee snob (only because there are good beans and brews, and Folgers), I had to bring the "good stuff" in the forest. In the end, I found myself hard pressed to hand grind 2oz of beans in short order - even if I have others do it. Ultimately, in the chaos, I ground 1 oz and put it into the Espro 32oz double wall (because it was 40 degrees camping) with many waiting on me. Yes, 32:1 coffee ratio... I blew it! Unhappy campers with no coffee... Never again.

Necessity is the mother of invention, so I'm now desperate to find an electric portable grinder. With very little luck to find an off-the-shelf grinder, I designed this based on many constraints. The parts had to be easy for me to get, and it had to be something that fit the campground workflow. I'll let the pictures start the conversation. Is there something already out there that I can buy or am I going to have to build this?

Specs: 36v 180W brushless DC motor with current and speed control, Mazzer Mini 58mm flat burrs, two sealed bearings for no wobble. Will run on two RC car lithium packs for easy recharging.

how are you recharging?

Lithium ion drill hooked up to a reasonable hand grinder? Battery packs can be swapped out. There are some very powerful portable tools these days.

Also, I hope you weren't stuck with cooking and coffee while other people sat around. My mother ended up in that situation in big cottage get togethers a few decades ago and it certainly was sexist and unfair. She deserved to enjoy herself during her "holiday", not be free labour.

I've made coffee for other people. I've come to the conclusion I can only be bothered to do it for my wife because she shares the obsession from roast to grind to brew to flavour analysis. And she buys me coffee toys for my birthday. It's a fun shared experience, not a job.

Other people can drink and eat whatever makes them satisfied. I don't want a situation where people expect to be wowed or convinced of anything. I'm not a business. If I was on a camping trip and people were pissed about the coffee service, I would certainly be asking them what they did to help. And that would just be the start of it.

walt_in_hawaii wrote:how are you recharging?

Aloha, If this ever got off the ground, it wouldn't need to be charged for the duration of the trip. However, if really needed, a lithium RC pack 12v car charger would work in our situation.

happycat wrote:... I don't want a situation where people expect to be wowed or convinced of anything. I'm not a business.

I think I was more unhappy about failing than them not getting coffee. I'm not letting go.
C'mon, grind coffee, add hot water, wait four minutes... how hard can that be at high altitude? (yeah, I still managed to screw that up)

spressomon wrote:https://mahlgut-manufaktur.de/en/coffee-grinder-molae/

Sexy, and a tiny bit above my pay grade. ~$2k delivered to Cali with coated burrs, one click away from buy-it-now, so I closed the browser. I'm hoping my project stays 1/10 that not including batteries. Good thing it wasn't rechargeable or my fingers may have hit buy-me-now, it looked so tasty. I would think the big dogs could build a high quality rechargeable grinder in their sleep for a reasonable price, but for some reason it doesn't exist, or if it does exist, I haven't looked hard enough.

As for the hand drill, it's not out of the possible choices, but I was hoping to not buy a fancy Helor, Hario Pro, or Lido-like hand grinder and Makita drill to replace my $12 china wobbly burr grinder. But it is the Easy button right now.

To light a fire under my rear, I ordered the burrs yesterday which only forces me to wrap the necessary aluminum around it. Already have the motor. Kinda like buying a steering wheel, then foolishly buying the rest of the sports car part by part.

I was only asking about the power supply/recharging because if you had generator power available, just bring a small regular a/c grinder.
I don't think you can beat a pharos farmed out to helpers willing to do the grunt work. Failing that, electric drill/pharos would be unbeatable at any price point under a thousand or two, if quality of grind is a consideration. But that's an expensive grinder for just pour over, I'd consider that if espresso was a priority only.

Don't worry about buying the rest of the car. You've got the steering wheel and the correct attitude (NOTHING is foolish about great coffee).

why is your china burr grinder wobbly? perhaps a better set of bearings?

walt_in_hawaii wrote:why is your china burr grinder wobbly? perhaps a better set of bearings?

Hehe... "pake price" got me a cheap ceramic burr, steel shaft thru a hole attached to steel handle, no bearings. It has done its time also thinking my fancy LCD lit Breville was more than enough. I was wrong. Now my super steep and shocking learning curve recently being exposed to phenomenal pours and espressos, involved seeing real grinders like the industry EK43, Mazzers, Versalab, KafaTek, etc. The other shocking point is the price for all those fancy names.