Some of the members here will remember that back in March 2008 the fellows at ESW in the Netherlands offered about 50 used Mazzer Major grinders at €50 plus postage. I bought two of them very late in the action and they were so ratty looking that I put them in a closet and forgot about them. Cleaning out the closet this last winter I pulled one of them out and took it all apart, cleaned it up, ordered new burrs for it and got a new doser from a kind member of TMC and a used bean hopper from e-bay. After rewiring and rebuilding it my wife was satisfied that it looked handsome enough to go into the kitchen.
I have a lot of grinders: Rossi, San Marco, La Cimbali, Faema, etc., all of them bought used and in good condition. I was surprised at the build quality of the Mazzer. It is roughly equivalent to a ship's anchor, heavy and crude. There is nothing refined about it, but it is built to grind coffee beans and obviously to last a lifetime. I am very pleased with the results and it was very easy to dial in. I am going to put a page on my website about rebuilding it.