Cleaning a coffee mill

[veg-o-matic]

I've been using a lovely vintage Kitchenaid coffee mill to grind my morning beans. I don't know the model number, but it looks like this picture that I borrowed from ebay.

Anyone know how to clean the beast? I'm guessing that one would want to get inside occasionally and clean out all the oils and stuff. I don't have the owner's manual so I'm at a loss. Don't want to start taking it apart unless I'm sure I'll know how to get it back together again.

veg

 

[panthera]

Bob,

My BRAUN says to grind frozen beans at the coarsest setting every few weeks, then use a stiff brush to remove any residue from the grinding surfaces and chute.
But, really, the nature of these machine is such that they are pretty self-cleaning.

 

[maytagbear]

One DON'T....

DO NOT grind preflavoured beans with a burr mill like this!

Grind preflavoured beans with a "windmill"/blade chopper, not a mill like this. Or a blender.

The preflavoured beans will heat, the coating will melt, and you will gum up the mill irretreivably.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[bellalaundry]

I have a Braun mill,

and I grind uncooked rice through it. Seems to do the job nicely.

Guy

 

[sudsmaster]

I have several burr grinders. A Braun, and Krups, and a Melitta. Currently I use the Melitta because it tends to spew fewer grounds around. But they all will clog up their discharge chutes after a few grinding sessions. And they all come with little chute cleaning tools to remedy that problem.

The coolest burr grinder I saw recently was at Costco. It's one of the heavy cast metal Kitchenaid line. Something like $100 or more, but perhaps worth it. The achille's heel is that it has a thin walled glass container to catch the grind - looks very breakable, and not something that could easily be replaces with something more durable (it's an odd inverted cone shaped thing that has to fit just so into a spring loaded seal at the top). But along with the new cast metal KA toaster, it's otherwise built to last a long time. Or so it would seem. Certainly it would make an effective door stop!

 

[rolls_rapide]

Speaking of coffee grinders/mills...

Don't do as my brother's girlfriend did... she ground some spices (cloves, or something similar), in a manually operated wooden grinder. It seemed like a good idea at the time!

Coffee didn't taste the same, for weeks afterwards...

 

[perc-o-prince]

I know Rich, like Guy, also runs uncooked rice through it until they come out clean! He swears by it.

Chuck

 

[jetcone]

I always grind white rice through my

Waring 1940 two ton burr grinder. It gets rid of all the stale coffee fats in the burrs.