Sunbeam EM0480 coarse grind

[nraf]

I've had a EM0480 for a couple years that's received light usage. It doesn't seem to manage a fine grind (for espresso) no matter what grind setting I set it to (grind setting doesn't seem to make any difference). At the moment I occasionally use it to grind coffee for moka pot or french press coffee but the grinds aren't usable for espresso.

I was wondering if anyone has experience using this grinder and if it manages to produce a decent espresso grind? It might be an issue with the grinder, so if anyone knows any repairers around the Melbourne area, I might be willing to take it there. If it's a dud for espresso, however, I won't bother.

[mmmcoffee]

What coffee machine are you using? Have you done the finger nail test on your birrs to test how sharp they are?
Some one will correct me if I'm wrong but I think there are thin shims you can get to help grind finer (or maybe that was for the group heads on the 6910 machines ( I haven't had enough coffee today).

Good luck nraf!!

[nraf]

I have a massive Boema that I bought 2nd hand. Looks like this: Boema A-1V10A Reviews - ProductReview.com.au

I'm very unhappy with that machine, it was sort of an impulse buy before we moved into our place. It's been sitting in the guys garage for sometime. The coffee comes out quite watery and extracts really quickly (tested using pre-ground espresso, not the coarse coffee my grinder produces) and it takes way too long to start so only use it gets is my wife occasionally making a morning coffee for herself. I find the cheap Caffitaly machine at my in-laws does a better job (not to mention the single-head Expobar we have at work). I have a feeling the machine needs a proper service from someone who knows what they're doing but I'm at the point where I want to get rid of that and get something a little more manageable.

Good news is my wife surprised me with a new Aeropress a couple hours ago so I have that to play with now.

Anyway, back to the grinder, no, I have done any tests. When we were staying with my in-laws, they attempted to grind green coffee beans in the machine (which didn't work so well...) so I'm thinking that would've caused some damage...

I might have a go with the grinder tomorrow and see if the coarseness plays well with the Aeropress (I'm suspecting that it still might be a little coarse though unsure).

[nraf]

I had written up a reply yesterday but it looks like it didn't go through...

To summarize what I wrote, I'm using a large Boema single-head machine I got secondhand which doesn't seem to work very well (I think it needs a proper service and tune-up) plus it takes too long to start up for me to justify using it very much. I got an aeropress as a gift yesterday so that might become my primary brewing method. I also occasionally make moka pot, french press and Lebanese coffee. Although with the Lebanese coffee we tend to use the Najjar pre-ground mix which has cardamon.

If it's relevant somebody tried to grind green coffee in it which didn't go down very well... I'm guessing that might have caused some damage to the machine.

[Thundergod]

An 0480 not grinding fine enough can usually be corre ted with shims.

Grinding green beans in one is not a wise thing to do.

[mmmcoffee]

Mmm green beans isn't a good thing to grind! How much green did they grind?

[nraf]

Not sure, wasn't around at the time. It was after they'd returned from the Middle East and had tried Arabic coffee. Not the Turkish-style Arabic coffee (sometimes called Saudi coffee) but the one more common in the Gulf countries where they tend to use very lightly roasted coffee beans. Given the light colour of the coffee, they thought it was made from raw beans and had tried to reproduce it but grinding them.

[mmmcoffee]

Maybe they had some other strong drinks before hand too
Hopefully the grinder is ok