Accomplished
Jun. 8th, 2012 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chrishansenhomeThat's how I feel this afternoon: accomplished.
I bought this at the Good-as-New stall at St. Matthew's Community Centre this afternoon.
Yes, it's a manual coffee grinder. I got it for 50p (around 75¢ US) because Jenny (the stall person and a great soul) said that it didn't work. The handle wouldn't turn. Well, this piqued my interest and, although we have an electric coffee grinder, I wanted to be able to grind more coarsely (for percolators) than the electric grinder does.
So I got it home and quickly disassembled it. There are two screws in the bowl which hold everything together. They go through into the wooden box below and are secured by a nut.
The difficulty was simple: there is a wheel below the handle which holds the grinding mechanism at a certain depth. When this wheel is turned completely to the bottom, the handle is secured and will not turn. Loosen the wheel, and it controls how coarse or fine the grinding is. After I had disassembled the grinder, this became clear to me. Unfortunately, I then had to put it together again.
One of the nuts was close to the drawer opening in the side of the box, and that one was relatively easy to secure on the screw and tighten. The other one, unfortunately, was at the back of the drawer and behind the grinding mechanism, which juts out into the box. I could not hold the nut in such a way that I could tighten it. Every time I tried, either the nut fell out of my fingers or I could not get my fingers into the small drawer opening far enough to get the nut to turn on the screw. Curses! Foiled by my own stupidity—for if I had just loosened the wheel, I would not have had to take the entire thing apart.
How to get the nut close enough to get it to turn onto the screw so I could tighten it? I had a brainstorm.
What I did was get a long-handled flatblade screwdriver and wind sticky packing tape onto the end. I then stuck the nut to the blade and poked the screwdriver into the drawer and got it near enough to the screw (after three tries) to tighten the screw and put the grinder back together. Success!
I now have a fully operational adjustable manual coffee grinder. Success! I can now grind to percolator grind, so that I can enjoy boiled coffee like my parents and their parents used to enjoy. And for 50p, that's a real bargain. Plus, I learned something: I'm still crafty enough to put together something I took apart. At my age, that's quite an accomplishment.
I bought this at the Good-as-New stall at St. Matthew's Community Centre this afternoon.
Yes, it's a manual coffee grinder. I got it for 50p (around 75¢ US) because Jenny (the stall person and a great soul) said that it didn't work. The handle wouldn't turn. Well, this piqued my interest and, although we have an electric coffee grinder, I wanted to be able to grind more coarsely (for percolators) than the electric grinder does.
So I got it home and quickly disassembled it. There are two screws in the bowl which hold everything together. They go through into the wooden box below and are secured by a nut.
The difficulty was simple: there is a wheel below the handle which holds the grinding mechanism at a certain depth. When this wheel is turned completely to the bottom, the handle is secured and will not turn. Loosen the wheel, and it controls how coarse or fine the grinding is. After I had disassembled the grinder, this became clear to me. Unfortunately, I then had to put it together again.
One of the nuts was close to the drawer opening in the side of the box, and that one was relatively easy to secure on the screw and tighten. The other one, unfortunately, was at the back of the drawer and behind the grinding mechanism, which juts out into the box. I could not hold the nut in such a way that I could tighten it. Every time I tried, either the nut fell out of my fingers or I could not get my fingers into the small drawer opening far enough to get the nut to turn on the screw. Curses! Foiled by my own stupidity—for if I had just loosened the wheel, I would not have had to take the entire thing apart.
How to get the nut close enough to get it to turn onto the screw so I could tighten it? I had a brainstorm.
What I did was get a long-handled flatblade screwdriver and wind sticky packing tape onto the end. I then stuck the nut to the blade and poked the screwdriver into the drawer and got it near enough to the screw (after three tries) to tighten the screw and put the grinder back together. Success!
I now have a fully operational adjustable manual coffee grinder. Success! I can now grind to percolator grind, so that I can enjoy boiled coffee like my parents and their parents used to enjoy. And for 50p, that's a real bargain. Plus, I learned something: I'm still crafty enough to put together something I took apart. At my age, that's quite an accomplishment.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-08 01:52 pm (UTC)I have to admit .. all this nut touching, turning and screwing... got me thinkin' a tad off base! :p
Happy Friday to You, Sire! ♥
no subject
Date: 2012-06-08 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 02:01 pm (UTC)