Too Much Coffee

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.

Cool, an old one with the best on switch and the shelf. I got Bombcup's Major and finally put my timer unit on it a month or so ago.
This is the best Mazzer IMO, I prefer it to the Robur and it grinds at the same speed.. SJ taste at Robur speed

lsjms wrote:Cool, an old one with the best on switch and the shelf. I got Bombcup's Major and finally put my timer unit on it a month or so ago.
This is the best Mazzer IMO, I prefer it to the Robur and it grinds at the same speed.. SJ taste at Robur speed

Oh yes, I forgot to mention the speed! It is really fast, by far the fastest of all of my grinders. The grind consistency is also excellent.

Very impressive, Bruce.

bruceb wrote:.... After rewiring and rebuilding it my wife was satisfied that it looked handsome enough to go into the kitchen...

I hope that you are included in the same category.

Oh yes, I'm allowed in the kitchen. I cook and wash up, but I'm not allowed in the living room.

GreenBean wrote:Very impressive, Bruce.

bruceb wrote:.... After rewiring and rebuilding it my wife was satisfied that it looked handsome enough to go into the kitchen...

I hope that you are included in the same category.

Oh yes, I'm allowed in the kitchen. I cook and wash up, but I'm not allowed in the living room.

You are both allowed in the house? I consider myself lucky to be permitted shed room! How the other half live

CakeBoy wrote:....You are both allowed in the house? I consider myself lucky to be permitted shed room! How the other half live

Shed? You were lucky to have a shed! There were sixteen of us living in a small shoebox in the middle of the road ….

- With apologies to Monty Python.

Shoe box! Shoe box! Never mind us having a shed now! We would have lived like kings in a shoe box if we could have afforded one in my youth!

Seventy-two of us lived side by side with an ants' nest all caught up in an old piece of chewing gum stuck to the sole of a local Bobby's shoe! It was an exciting life though, living on the open road. Trouble was, the blue lights and sirens often kept us awake at night, so we eventually did an exchange with a local stray dog who had grown tired of the lolly stick stuck on his tail. Oh, that was the life, our own log cabin by the sewerage sump

No apologies to the Pythons. They are all very naughty boys

Shoe Box? LUXURY! You were living the life of teh rich and fortunate. WHy, we lived in the middle of a dirt road and were fortunate to have a good day when we had some gravel to rub into our hair.

I was at the "Monty Python at the Hollywwod Bowl" show with wife, mom, and dad! Still have the program from the show.

"You have a WIFE?! Why, we felt fortunate to have someone with a wife drive over us while we were living inthe middle of the road!"

Hmmmm, I must have posted news of my new grinder on the wrong forum.

bruceb wrote:Hmmmm, I must have posted news of my new grinder on the wrong forum.

Sorry Bruce, that is entirely my fault.

Cakey, Randy, I know what you mean. But if you try to tell the young people today that... will they believe you? ... No.

bruceb wrote:Hmmmm, I must have posted news of my new grinder on the wrong forum.

Grinder! Grinder! We considered ourselves lucky if my grandad allowed us to use his dentures in order to crush kidney stones into coffee substitute! Cappuccino Captain Backadder?

Off topic, that is a lovely looking job on the Major, Bruce

Quite a beast! Once you get used to these grinding speeds, the "normal" 64mm-disc grinders suddenly seem so darned slow. The mazzer build is ... different compared to the cimbali junior grinders: while the juniors rattle and scream, the mazzer just sits there and hums along nicely. like Laptop speakrs vs. a solid sound system

Well, I must say I am not only happy with the grinder, but together with the new LM baskets my espresso making has become downright boring. It's difficult not to pull a really good shot. I roasted a pound of Guatemalan tres Marias and we are going through it so quickly I'm going to have to roast some more coffee this afternoon. The Mazzer is quiet and fast and as Lukas says, just sits there and hums. I'm really chuffed.

lukas wrote:Quite a beast! Once you get used to these grinding speeds, the "normal" 64mm-disc grinders suddenly seem so darned slow. The mazzer build is ... different compared to the cimbali junior grinders: while the juniors rattle and scream, the mazzer just sits there and hums along nicely. like Laptop speakrs vs. a solid sound system

For those not familiar with these commercial grinders here is a picture of the burrs, the Mazzer Major on the left, the Rossi R45 on the right. I think it's apparent that there will be a difference in speed, however I am also convinced that the Mazzer heats the beans less during grinding.