Converted coffee grinder

OK I may still be considered a "newb" since I've only got 3 batches under my belt after 10+ years off from brewing. But after getting back into it full bore now I thought I might just share something.

I'll be doing PM for a while and wanted a cheap and easy way to grind my grains.

I bought a Black and Decker "burr" coffee grinder from Target for $25+. It has an adjustable grind. When I looked inside the discharge hole I could see the two stones and it was obvious that the gap would be too small even when set to the coarsest grind and make too fine of a crush. So I opened up the unit and found a factory preset adustment screw. I took it out completely and the stone that spins dropped down considerably. Now the gap is just a bit smaller than a barley grain at the coarsest setting.

It makes a really good crush. (maybe a tad fine still) Some small powder with mostly intact flakey husks and larger internal seed chunks. The hopper holds about 0.5 lb of grain and whips through it in about 10sec. Kindof a pain to fill and dump but for a 5lb PM it works great.

Sometime I may defeat the safeties on the lids and build a bin for it to sit in so I can just keep pouring in the grains while it spits the stuff out.

my black and decker coffee grinder lasted all of 8 months....YMMV

These things aren't built for continous operation and tend to overheat if operated continously which will shorten their life.

If it works for you, then have at it!!! Good job on the Conversion.

I agree that the motor in there isn't the most robust. But I'm not pushing 14lbs of grain through it in one shot either.

Its only been used for one PM so far, about 5lbs. We'll see how many batches it'll do.

Perhaps leaving it as is with the fill - grind - dump and repeat method may be better. As It would keep the duty cycle of the motor lower.

Plus with the modified larger gap, the motor doesn' have as much of a load on it.

Colorado - Did you do anything to yours or just run it as is?

the_wickster said:

Colorado - Did you do anything to yours or just run it as is?

Click to expand...

coffee in, coffee out

I'm waiting for the paper shredder mod.

olllllo said:

I'm waiting for the paper shredder mod.

Click to expand...

Your wait is over...2 years later: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/crushing-grain-paper-shredder-120348/

pizzaman said:

Your wait is over...2 years later: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/crushing-grain-paper-shredder-120348/

Click to expand...

Yes. I am usually 2 -5 years in the future.