I just recently started to enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning. I had a "helicopter blade" coffee grinder for years and decided to upgrade to a cheap hand-crank burr grinder (Kyocera CM50 - $39 on Amazon). This grinder has conical ceramic burrs that produce a MUCH more consistent grind for drip coffee than my previous grinder. I was astounded that I could actually taste the difference - much smoother once I found the right grind setting!
I then started looking into motorized burr grinders. Most high quality grinders were $500+. The cheapest conical burr grinder I could find was the Bodum which was $80. Not bad, but I thought, why don't I make a burr grinder attachment for the KitchenAid mixer that's taking up a ton of my counterspace?
When coming up with the design, I held myself to these rules:
1. Priced below the $80 Bodum
2. Meet or exceed the grind quality of the Kyocera CM-50
3. Able to be made with tools a "tinkerer" might have - no fancy CNC milling machine parts
4. Easy setup/removal (less than 15 seconds each)
NOTE: I designed this for my Kitchen Aid 600 mixer I have a design in mind that would work for all other square-drive Kitchen Aid mixers and will post shortly.
Remove these ads by
Signing UpStep 1: Parts and Tools
Essential Parts:
1. Kyocera CM-50 ceramic burr coffee grinder ($39)
2. Milescraft 90 degree drill adapter ($15)
3. 3/8" x 1.25" long coupling nut ($0.99)
Parts/Materials that Can be Substituted:
4. 3/4" x 1/8" thick aluminum bar
5. 3/4" pine board
6. #12 x 3" long wood screw
7. #10 x 1" long wood screws
8. 1/2" x 1/4" long copper tube
Tools:
- Hand drill
- Jig saw
- 3/8-16 die (cutting screw threads)
- Bench grinder
1. Kyocera CM-50 ceramic burr coffee grinder ($39)
2. Milescraft 90 degree drill adapter ($15)
3. 3/8" x 1.25" long coupling nut ($0.99)
Parts/Materials that Can be Substituted:
4. 3/4" x 1/8" thick aluminum bar
5. 3/4" pine board
6. #12 x 3" long wood screw
7. #10 x 1" long wood screws
8. 1/2" x 1/4" long copper tube
Tools:
- Hand drill
- Jig saw
- 3/8-16 die (cutting screw threads)
- Bench grinder
Visit Our Store »
Go Pro Today »
Be careful with using the K-A for a power source. My dad had the great idea to use it to run an ice-cream freezer. About the 3rd batch of ice-cream the kitchen aid's armature burned up. So after dad rewound the armature, the adapter got pitched in the trash to make sure it didn't get used again. Running at high torque for over a half hour at a stretch is just too much work for too long for a motor that has no cooling air going through it (so it doesn't suck in flour!)
I have been into coffee for years, upgraded my equipment part-by-part over decades and have a good Rancilio grinder and espresso machine at home (Silvia and Rocky). However, Its frustrated me for years that my KitchenAid mixer has been sitting idol while I use a grinder to do something for which KitchenAid surprisingly does not have a solution. Years ago I purchased KitchenAid's Grain Mill attachment expressly for the purpose of grinding coffee. Its a burr grinder with a hopper and its worked well once it was calibrated. This led to lots of wasted coffee since each time you took the attachment on and off, you had to repeat the calibration.
I like where you're going with this project. Please update soon.
Anyone who's reading this - please let me know if you have a KitchenAid attachment idea you'd like me to work on. Please keep in mind that the KitchenAid output drive is relatively low-speed(RPM), but high-torque
Thus:
- Attachments like a high-speed blender would require an expensive gear box to multiply the RPM's to an acceptable level. At that point, it may be more cost effective to just buy a quality blender for ~$100
- An example of an ideal attachment would be an ice-shaver/shave-ice/italian ice attachment . . . which spins a large block of ice at low speed. Hmm, now that I think about it, that's actually a great idea (I grew up in Hawaii and love shave-ice). Stay tuned for a shave-ice attachment!
As you've identified, the KitchenAid is best suited for low-speed high torque output. But I think it could be useful to extend applications beyond the kitchen; there's no reason you couldn't use this powerful, expensive motor in other applications.
I'm also interested in trying to make this simpler for people without a lot of tools at home. I wonder if there's a custom CNC or even 3D printing resource that would make coupling the drill attachment to the KitchenAid simpler.
MMMMMMMmmmm
gunna have a cup in a few minutes
Nice instructable though,
ciao
Thats why they don't make an attachment too probably, they have a Coffee Grinder on the market already.
Kudos for the ingenuity though.
That being said, I do think there is a huge cross-section of people out there that have an under-utilized mixer, love coffee, and value their counterspace (who doesn't?).
That being said, my next KitchenAid Burr project will use "professional" ø68mm Mazzer conical burrs. Will definitely be an "open source" design where the CAD is freely distributed. Send me a private message if you're interested in helping - be sure to include which CAD systems you prefer!
After re-reading the instructable, it's definitely not clear just how quick this action is. There are only three points of contact with the mixer, one thumbscrew and two 3/8" pins. Once you remove the thumbscrew (came with mixer), you just have to pull on the drillhead and lift the entire assembly up to remove it. Attaching a photo . . . will hopefully upload a video shortly. Thanks for your comment!