Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

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To go with my single dose workflow, got this to keep the beans fresh.

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:D
 
heeeed said:
It’s great. It looks and feels great. Really quiet to use and really easy to change the grind settings. I like the little pot to tip in portafiller. It’s not completely zero residual as sometimes there is a little bit falls through later or with a brush out which I notice as I tend to leave the pot on my scale, but It’s so small that I really don’t think it matters. It’s just fantastic for single dosing really.
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The little stainless steel cup is surprisingly well made for something so simple. It is thicker than i expect and it is laser etched at the bottom! It comes with a brush and also a screwdriver for maintenance too which is neat. It's a really heavy machine, I think it weights twice as much as my MC2.

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When I see them with some scale I'm always a bit surprised how big they are, the shape makes them look tiny. Would like to try one out someday.

I'm tempted to have a little DIY project to make a grinder. My mate has a full workshop...I figure buying a pair of big flat burrs and a motor and some kind of mechanism, how hard can it be? :}
 
mid_gen said:
When I see them with some scale I'm always a bit surprised how big they are, the shape makes them look tiny. Would like to try one out someday.

I'm tempted to have a little DIY project to make a grinder. My mate has a full workshop...I figure buying a pair of big flat burrs and a motor and some kind of mechanism, how hard can it be? :}
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Based on the price people charge for the machined ones it must be very very hard to do properly, but really how hard could it be...
 
I am no engineer but I guess you will need to


1 - source a good motor with the right torque and gearing
2 - Figure out how to do the entry, grind and exit route with the least amount of retention
3 - mount it all in an enclosure so that it doesn’t fly out in all direction. So you need to design a chamber.
4 - mount everything securely so that it doesn’t vibrate itself off the table
5 - Design it so there is access to adjustments of grind
6 - Design it so you can take it apart with hand tools
7 - Safety in terms of what happens if it slips and blows up inside? Torque cut off? Overheating safety cut off?
 
Siliconslave said:
Based on the price people charge for the machined ones it must be very very hard to do properly, but really how hard could it be...
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well, with the fine adjustment needed, the cost probably comes from the mass production of precise machining.
They probably have a high failure rate on the production line, whereas you can have a lot more hands on when making one.

Not to say it's easy! but there's also a reason high accuracy calipers/micrometers are costly when they're fairly simple mechanisms
 
Raymond Lin said:
I am no engineer but I guess you will need to


1 - source a good motor with the right torque and gearing
2 - Figure out how to do the entry, grind and exit route with the least amount of retention
3 - mount it all in an enclosure so that it doesn’t fly out in all direction. So you need to design a chamber.
4 - mount everything securely so that it doesn’t vibrate itself off the table
5 - Design it so there is access to adjustments of grind
6 - Design it so you can take it apart with hand tools
7 - Safety in terms of what happens if it slips and blows up inside? Torque cut off? Overheating safety cut off?
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Well, I don't imagine I'm going to be putting Niche or Eureka out of business anytime soon :P but I think it's an interesting, and achievable project.

The difficult part will be getting the alignment right and the adjustment mechanism.
 
Pretty tempted by a Niche Zero myself. I think I've pimped my Gaggia (OPV mod, PID, IMS shower screen, stainless steel shower plate holder, bottomless portafilter) as far as I can now so it seems like the logical upgrade.
 
I have a Sage Duo Temp partnered with a Eureka Mignon. When I first got the kit, i bought some measuring glasses and electronic scales to get the right extraction but as time has gone by, I can't be bothered to dial in new beans every time. I am sure my enjoyment of the coffee has declined because of it :eek:
 
We've been drinking our way through coffee I bought from Outpost coffee and I'm not overly impressed.

The roast is very inconsistent, some beans are pretty much black and others are very light in colour. That's lead to some coffee having almost an acrid and burnt flavour. It's less of a problem when doing a larger brew but when doing a V60 the results are not good.

I'll have to get in touch with them but chances are I won't buy any more of their coffee.
 
Super-Spy said:
I have a Sage Duo Temp partnered with a Eureka Mignon. When I first got the kit, i bought some measuring glasses and electronic scales to get the right extraction but as time has gone by, I can't be bothered to dial in new beans every time. I am sure my enjoyment of the coffee has declined because of it :eek:
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do a reset, have a play and see how you get on, might at least improve matter a little :)

in-fact its been a while since I weighed by beans and shot (tend to use volume if i'm feeling lazy) - so machine is warming, lets see how its sitting!

19g in 43g out do dialed it back a little, some blonding at the end of the shot but not getting too bitter taste wise. It is the end of a bag so not surprising its slipped a little :)
 
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Super-Spy said:
I have a Sage Duo Temp partnered with a Eureka Mignon. When I first got the kit, i bought some measuring glasses and electronic scales to get the right extraction but as time has gone by, I can't be bothered to dial in new beans every time. I am sure my enjoyment of the coffee has declined because of it :eek:
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That is the thing, with the MC2 the grind button is where you push the portafiter under and rather than weigh my beans, I do it solely by eye ball and it is done on a timer, not a digital one but a small dial with no markings. The grind setting is vague, everything is vague with no point of reference. If I am constantly chasing the perfect shot from it, I would spend the entire bag of beans doing it before getting there.


Whilst I won’t be going totally the opposite way with the Niche, the method of a single dose, the workflow forces me to measure out 18g from the jar, the markings on the grinder is clear and precise so that is 2 elements that was lacking taken care of. I don’t mind the effort to opening the jar and measure and weight the beans. I am just against the shot to be so far off I had to throw it away, which has happened quite a lot with the MC2 due to the timer aspect so it can very easily be like 22g and I try to put that through anyway as I am just eyeballing it.
 
You can single dose with the mc2, but its not ideal. I weigh the beans, add to the hopper, grind through everything and re-weigh in the portafilter.

Do want a Niche though!
 
Siliconslave said:
You can single dose with the mc2, but its not ideal. I weigh the beans, add to the hopper, grind through everything and re-weigh in the portafilter.

Do want a Niche though!
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Yes you can but it also has higher retention, and that hopper seems like a waste of space and obviously lots of pop corning going on too.
 
I have been away from Coffee forums and threads for a couple of years so had not heard of the Niche grinder mentioned here.

Just looked it up and it seems fairly expensive for what seems to be a single dose grinder. Wow
 
Super-Spy said:
I have been away from Coffee
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google says grind retention on a mignon is 0.18g, pretty small, so if you just weigh the beans in, repeatability shouldn't be an issue ?


As you move to more expensive grinders, I wonder if quality of burrs increases, since at least for rocky, when you do a full clean,
engineering of the burr holders and brass body to carry the top adjustable burrs, looks pretty good ...
I had wondered if I skimped on buying 3rd party replacement burrs ~£40 ... its a bit like turntables and needles.
 
Super-Spy said:
I have been away from Coffee forums and threads for a couple of years so had not heard of the Niche grinder mentioned here.

Just looked it up and it seems fairly expensive for what seems to be a single dose grinder. Wow
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At first thought, yes it is. But if you look into it more, it is unique in that


1 - it has near zero retention.

2 - it’s designed for home look (the cable is retractible into the base like a Henry vacuum)

3 - it has the same burr as the Mazzer Kony (this is the clincher for me). The Kony is like £1200.


Essentially it is like a commercial grinder in a home appliance size. The workflow from it is simple, there are no fancy LCD and screens. The dials are clear and easy to adjust. I can’t say it is the best grinder under £500 as I have not tried them all, or many of them in fact but from reading online, the people who have had them now for 2 years (so I made sure I am not a Beta tester), they all still use them and some of these people are much bigger coffee geeks than I. That is the bar I am going with actually. They have a higher bar than me, if it’s good enough for them, I will take that.


Originally it started at £350….I should have bought one then! If you break it down, the spare parts for the Kony Burrs is £110, so parts alone that is 20% of the unit. If you take normal rule of thumb that 30% of the unit is profit, that only leave £200 for all the other parts for material, and you still have to pay labour on top of that too for manufacturing and assembly.
 
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