# CFUK - Custom Grinder



## forzajuve (Feb 2, 2011)

Frustrating.

There are no coffee grinders on the market for the home enthusiast at a realistic price. There is the Versalab M3 and the HG-One which both offer some level of single dosing, high grind quality action but at high prices. I get it, there is limited market appeal so to make any money you have to set extortionate prices, fine...but no thanks. Then there are grinders designed for home use, but these have lower quality grind capabilities so people upgrade to mahooosive commercial beasts (second hand as new are also too expensive) which need modding to make practical for home use. Back to square one.

So if you were to design a grinder from existing available parts from other machines what would be on your shortlist? Who knows this might lead somewhere.....

Key parameters for me are:


Zero grind retention (or as near as damn it)

Large conical burrs

Single dosing only (no hopper at all)

Some sort of static reduction

No unnecessary fancy electronics

Doserless (or maybe some mechanism to dose directly)

Sensible size, particularly height


Obviously there are other considerations such as motor size and heat generation but those are fundamentals of any grinder design for me.

Just for a laugh but if we could put something together that was not too expensive I would seriously consider having a go at building something.


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## mike 100 (Jul 15, 2010)

Think you have covered most things, but as quiet a possible would be a plus for me!


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## haz_pro (Apr 4, 2013)

Have you considered trying to build something like the OE pharos? And then have a motor mechanism attached. Will be quite big though.


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## Mike_Bike (Apr 22, 2013)

I thought the HG-One was pretty reasonably priced considering it's low production volumes and the quality of it (from photos ... I've not seen one in the metal).

If I were to have to source all the parts and have them machined and anodized etc. I think I'd struggle to get it much under the £586 the are charging (can't really factor in import taxes and shipping as that isn't going into their pockets) Plus they have to make a living out it, you don't have to pay yourself much before it adds a big chunk onto the price of a batch of 300 grinders (going by their website and the fact they have just recieved 300 mazzer burr sets).


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## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

I think if I was designing an espresso grinder I would probably come up with something like the Versalab. It ticks most of the boxes but it sounds like there have been a few issues with alignment and the belt.

I would be keen at some point to try and put one together. If you're only making one then it wouldn't be a problem to source a motor from something like a car windscreen wiper (no idea if enough torque just an example of something common which could work.

I think the main difficult things are burr alignment, reducing static and grind adjustment.


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## forzajuve (Feb 2, 2011)

I think the versalab concept is good but I don't do belts as there are inherent problems when the level of accuracy is required.

My thinking was that parts are available for most grinders so putting a mix together that could work should be doable, but I agree that it may not be a cheap option, more an option to have something that works.


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