Metal / plastic interface cracking

It's a trick of perspective. I shot the picture along the long axis of the oval.

Yup. Our old one lasted many years. It's become sluggish, prompting the replacement.

For now, we are back using the old one and the new one is in the garbage can. :)

--Winston

Maybe it *is* worth fixing the old one, if the new ones are built pre-busted.

I bet the sluggishness is due to dirty bearings or the like. Or congealed coffee oils. A disassembly, cleaning, and oiling may be the charm.

But I would return the busted new one, just to be a pill.

Joe Gwinn.

For now we have a replacement from one of Krups' competitors so that we can make Java until I decide which conical burr grinder is the one for us.

I looked into that. The enclosure snaps together semi-permanently and requires a complicated jig to apply just the right pressure to many key points to spring all the necessary latches for disassembly.

I suggested that. SWMBO reminded me that Amazon was not interested in our petty concerns, though. Oh Well.

--Winston

(...)

Thanks again Steve. You supply valuable info and I appreciate it.

You are turning me into a Coffee Snob. Even though I will be using a $100 grinder with a $29.95 coffee pot.

:)

--Winston

I bet not. I open such things all the time, by a method akin to picking a lock. With manufacturing tolerance, one of the latches will tighten first. Open it with a probe, and the cover will move open slightly, enough so the latch won't re-latch. Another latch will now be first, etc. Use a taper or two to hold things apart between steps, driving the tapers deeper whenever they become loose.

SWMBO is likely correct about Amazon. I would return it to the manufacturer, who is supposed to care.

Joe Gwinn

Well then, whatever you do... do NOT cultivate a taste for espresso!

(...)

I open latching electronic enclosures using that method as well. The remote control to my TV is a prime example. It works great because the plastic is pliable and rather thin.

On The Other Hand.... :)

The Krups grinder is made from thickish, brittle plastic that does not allow the incremental approach that we both find useful for electronic housings.

I did some exploratory work but gave it up as a bad job.

The folks at Krups made all the right noises. Today they sent a nice eMail asking me to send them the defective unit with the purchase receipt.

I have no doubt that they would replace it under warranty but I'm not going to spend $10 and an afternoon to get it properly boxed and returned just so I can get another of the same kind of unit.

We now have *two* backup coffee grinders so I think I will focus my time on more profitable stuff.

Joe, I'd be happy to send the new one to you for your entertainment. It strikes me that one could very easily stab ones self with a screwdriver trying to hack into it. So Beware! :)

Just email me offline using the address on the bottom of my website and it is yours.

--Winston

Thanks, Steve. Your warning is 38 years too late but I appreciate the thought anyway.

Make mine a doppio. :)

--Winston

If it's really that brittle, how did they get it together without making too much scrap?

The point is to cost Krups something, "just to be a pill." It's their error signal. Maybe they will even do a post mortem on the returned unit.

Thanks for the offer, but doesn't this cost the same as sending it back to Krups?

I just looked at the perfectly functional Krups Model 203 that my wife bought a very long time ago. It is held together with screws. Maybe the better solution is to haunt Goodwill stores.

Joe Gwinn

That is why I think you would like to have a look at it in person. Any number of RCM denizens, present company included, could easily design plastic latch features which would engage but would not disengage without special tooling or part breakage.

The Krups blade bean basher appears to be just such a design. One example is worth ten thousand words.

(...)

If error signals really worked, GM wouldn't have been a government subsidiary for the last five months and they wouldn't have handed over their marketplace nearly as readily as they did.

Krups has the photo and the screaming and knashing of teeth from hundreds of other customers. One more unit is not going to change any minds.

It would. I figure you would enjoy telling me how you disassembled it in 40 seconds using only a nail file, recast the housing using the 'lost wax' process and reassembled it with machine screws before lunchtime. :)

That would be *worth* the price of admission.

As soon as my two 'backup' grinders konk out, I will look in earnest for a cone burr grinder as Mssr. Ackman has suggested. Give it another year or so. :)

--Winston

Why not? Mr. Coffee makes an espresso machine for $30.

-- Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. -- Epictetus

O ye of little faith...

The boasting privilege is tempting, especially if fiction is allowed...

I have a modest suggestion. There is a dead simple fully mechanical approach with only one slow-moving part, the mortar and pestle. I bet a granite model would work well, and last forever.

Joe Gwinn

A most precise and accurate description. :)

(...)

USENET: Where the truth is tolerated.

(Psst. Larry! Teeshirt!)

(...)

That is a most elegant and quiet approach.

But it could be improved upon with a 5 axis controller and a couple hundred man-hours of design time...

:)

--Winston

I like it!

Buy the rest of my "Clinton Never Exhaled" and/or "The Hindenberg, The Titanic, The Clintons" tees and I'll get right on it. I need capital for that process, son.

"Gee, your coffee has the most subtle, Earthy, stony taste to it, Joe."

-- Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. -- Epictetus

I'm unclear on one thing. Will this help or hurt our reputation?

Wouldn't a one-axis approach suffice? Up and down goes the pestle. Use a traditional drop-hammer mechanism, powered by steam. There - we got some iron into the story. And steampunk.

Joe Gwinn

Larry Jaques fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

You could use it to grind peppers, too, and call the coffee, "Los Molcajetes Cafe Cayenne".

LLoyd

I guess I should have said _GOOD_ espresso... as in the all too rarely attainable "God Shot." ;-)

You better be ducking, because that $30 "expresso" machine is aimed right at your head! ;-)

With whom? >> I have a modest suggestion. There is a dead simple fully mechanical

Joe, you are a genius!

--Winston