yakster wrote:I'm waiting to see people's home-made slow been feeding systems into their grinder's hopper.

I just got my prototype done and have been testing it out for couple days. It works well in terms of pacing the beans but not very aesthetically pleasing. Not at all...

Being a novice I'm still trying to dial in on my beans with the new setup (requires substantially finer grind setting) but so far what looked to be sure sink shots turned out quite drinkable. Very interesting... I think I saw others making similar comments earlier here or another site.

Kran wrote:I hope to be done later tonight:

image

Pretty cool! Can you describe how this works? I can see an auger sitting on top of your custom hopper. Is that supposed to be manually operated to slowly feed beans into the grinder?

Sure. if you look below you can see the auger assembly that sits inside the body of the feeder. Funnel would be left side and feed into grinder is right. The auger spins on the bearings that press fit into the body. The wheel on the right of the auger lets you spin the auger and feed beans. Quick test shows it slow feeds as intended. If I can actually taste a difference then I have a second model that includes a stepper motor to turn the auger. Probably won't go down that cost route until I know if it's worth it for me.

That auger kit looks very interesting!

Kran wrote:Sure. if you look below you can see the auger assembly that sits inside the body of the feeder. Funnel would be left side and feed into grinder is right. The auger spins on the bearings that press fit into the body. The wheel on the right of the auger lets you spin the auger and feed beans. Quick test shows it slow feeds as intended. If I can actually taste a difference then I have a second model that includes a stepper motor to turn the auger. Probably won't go down that cost route until I know if it's worth it for me.

image

Very interesting! Would love to see a post dedicated to your work on the Xeoleo. I'm surprised to see an auger on a ghost burr grinder. It's my understanding that conical burrs benefit from slow feeding because they draw beans in faster than they expel them. If the input is faster than the output that means there is some regrinding going on (hence finer grinds with normal feeding). I don't imagine flats and ghosts would have the same problem since it's not gravity but centrifugal force moving the beans.

What has been your experience? Have others tasted/seen/measured a difference from slow feeding flat or ghost burrs?

Love the auger idea here. I'm interested in hearing from you if it pays off for you. Have you done any other mods to your xeoleo?

I tried slow feeding my Lagom (unimodal burrs) after seeing this video, and perhaps the suggestion went to my head, but It did seem to make a sweeter brew so I have continued doing it over the last few weeks.

Ooh interesting. Can you share links to the materials you used to make that?

Slow feeding the ghost burr grinder was simply because that's what I had on hand at the moment and I was bored/wanted to make something with the printer.

I've made a few V60 batches slow feeding and did 1 side by side comparison slow feed vs regular. I've noticed that with the slow feed I get a lot more dust flying out of the catch cup which is a little annoying. Grinds don't look as "nice" dry either. After pour though I probably couldn't tell a difference.

Taste wise I preferred using the grinder normally. Caveat being that in the direct comparison I kept grind setting the same which resulted in the slow fed batch pouring ~10s faster than the normal grind.

I likely won't continue to slow feed the ghost burr grinder. It pretty much works fine the way it is. A couple hours of work and a little fun though, so it was worth a try.

Hey Kran, do you have a CAD file for your design? I'm attempting to design my own for a Niche, but am struggling with the auger design.