[RossP]

If you own a Mignon you'll know that making small adjustments to the grind setting is hampered by the small knob. Ahem. You'll also know that the dial gauge is borderline useless, numbered 1-6 with no gauge or pointer. It is therefore impossible to meaningfully take note of your grind setting once dialled in, which would allow for running different beans on espresso concurrently, running through the odd filter grind or keeping note of settings as a start point should you get the same coffee in future.

My solution is a larger, 60mm rather than 24mm, knob which is fitted over the original and secured with 2 grub screws. Installed / removed in seconds with no damage or permanent alteration to the grinder. Sitting atop is a laser engraved aluminium dial numbered 1-100. Each 1 point adjustment of the 60mm knob is equivalent to a 0.75mm nudge of the standard one. A simple strip of mirror finish stainless fixed with double sided tape serves as a pointer.

My intention starting this project was not to make money, just to get more from my grinder. As it turned out making a one off would have been rather pricey so I've decided to make a small batch to reduce unit price and hopefully reward the time I've invested. More to follow..

I'm really pleased with how the 'prototype' has turned out.

 

[RossP]

 

[chip_kara]

Looks awesome, would defiantly be interested in one of these for my little mignon if you made anymore so please keep us/me informed. Would snap one up immediately!

So how did you fit it? tighten the burrs and fit with 00 at the top? I like the idea of having reference for grind setting, love the Mignon but the numbers on the dial have always wound me up

 

[LukeT]

I'd be interested too.

Would setting to a defined number at the point the burrs touch create a standard calibration?

 

[Robbo]

I like it! Would certainly help with dialing in. I'd be interested in getting one.

 

[RossP]

So how did you fit it? tighten the burrs and fit with 00 at the top?

That'd definitely be one way, perhaps the best way, of doing it and as LukeT mentioned could actually offer ballpark calibration from one machine to another.

I find that most beans are within a 1/4 turn on the dial so I just set the standard dial to the rough middle of that zone and zero'd north at that point.

Glad to see a bit of interest in them. I should have 10 ready to go in the next week or two. I'll probably ask around £30. Would've liked to be able to produce them for less but the materials aren't cheap and there's a reasonable bit of hand finishing to be done.

 

[chip_kara]

Yeah thats how I imagined it in my head, by fitting with 00 at '12 o'clock' as the burrs start to touch/chirp you could have a reference to discuss with others and might have a better idea when swinging from espresso to filter or similar.

Sounds like a reasonable price, I guess a similar sort of item to Norvins funnels. Count me in!

 

[AndyZap]

I would be interested as well - nice idea.

 

[Django57]

Same here great idea well done .

 

[kennyboy993]

Bravo! Very nice indeed.

Let me get in the queue for one if you ever get the time

 

[Jacko112]

How's the head room with the new dial, adjusting it and the hopper?

 

[RossP]

How's the head room with the new dial, adjusting it and the hopper?

The adjustment knob doesn't travel up and down as it turns, it's fixed. The new dial only sits 1.5mm higher than the standard one.

 

[RossP]

The expression of interest seems to have escalated to a queue! I'm working on 10 currently so to avoid disappointment it might be a good idea to create a first refusal list. I'll do that below, obviously with no obligation to buy once they're done, and I'll set the price at £35 delivered.

 

[RossP]

1 chip_kara

2 LukeT

3 Robbo

4 AndyZap

5 Django57

6 kennyboy993

7

8

9

10

 

[kennyboy993]

Drop me out please Ross - looks great though with hindsight my need isn't that great.

Updated list:

1 chip_kara

2 LukeT

3 Robbo

4 AndyZap

5 Django57

6

7

8

9

10

 

[Stanic]

This is a really great upgrade to the Mignon

 

[Django57]

Drop me out please Ross thank you .

 

[AndyZap]

Drop me out please Ross - I realised that I do not change the grind setting so often, so it does not look wise to spend money on the part which I rarely use.

Updated list (removed Django57 as well, as requested above):

1 chip_kara

2 LukeT

3 Robbo

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

 

[jimbocz]

Please count me in :

1 chip_kara

2 LukeT

3 Robbo

4 jimbocz

5

6

7

8

9

10

I'm a little concerned that it's slightly bigger than I would have liked, by about %20. Why did you decide to go that big?

 

[RossP]

Why did you decide to go that big?

Go big or go home! I went as big as I could because dialling in requires such tiny adjustments. The bigger the knob, the easier it is to make small adjustments and the more detailed the scale you can use. 20% isn't a great deal smaller so I think you'd still manage to fit and use a 1-100 scale but any smaller and you'd have to reduce the scale. I might make more in future if there's demand, and if there's demand for smaller ones I'd give that a go too.