I found an ad on the web a week ago for a coffee grinder that looks solid. My guess is that it is from the 1930's. Or does anyone have a better guess? 

Anyway, I asked the seller about the weight, and he said 15-20kg. So quite a solid piece. The motor was to be 250W and working well. Maybe something for a café, coffee house or similar. Obviously in bad need of renovation. Anyway, I bought it and today it arrived.

The DHL guy who brought it was well built but looked a bit troubled at my doorstep. I signed, grabbed the package and huuuuh.... it felt like bolted to the ground. New grip and... I could  barely lift it. I stumbled in, put it on a balance and it weighed in at 40kg of solid Swedish cast iron and steel..... I must admit it was bigger than I had expected....

The new toy had some transport damage, there was a dent in the large metal funnel and two Bakelite knobs where cracked :angry: 

Right now I am taking the whole thing apart. I will be posting here about the renovation project so stay tuned.

First, some transport damage assessment. Damaged knobs and funnel.

A bit sad that these lasted 80+ years but damaged now.... Repairable? Probably not fully. Replaceable? No way.
The big knob is for adjusting the grinding, the small one opens / closes the coffee feed valve.

This will take some work to even out. I do not think it will be possible to fully restore this. I think it is some nickle plated metal, not as it would appear, stainless steel. I do not even know if stainless was commonly available in the 1930's. Still assuming the decade is right.

More pictures from disassebly:

The whole thing on my floor. Black beauty with hand painted silver linings. The previous owner says it was in a shed when he bought the house in 1983. Unused since.

The plate says 1/3Hp, 220V. No year.


This is where the ground coffee is supposed to come out. 


I really do not want to say what this looks like. I think they have been re-grinding coffee in several passes.


Grinding head disassembled. 


Grinding house. Can this be made operational again?!?


Main power switch removed. The motor was recently connected for a test run. 

Update 3:rd of february 2012

The grinder itself is now disassembled and actually not looking as bad as I had feared. Yes, there is some pitting rust but not beyond salvage. 

The big decision now is if I should keep the original finishing, paint, or sand blaze it all and redo the paint. If we consider this an antiquity, then one should just clean off the surface and leave it like that. However this is a machine, partly in bad need of cleaning, rust removal and dis-assembly and reassembly if it is going to be made functional. That may just prove too much for the old finishing. There is also another aspect; many old paints are metal pigment based and may contain lead, copper ans other metals that you do not want in the coffee. Yet another aspect is that if the machine is to be put back in service, it must withstand thorough cleaning in the future. So right now, all points to disassembling everything, sand blazing the housing and make a fresh start with the paint, using corrosive inhibiting but food safe finishing. That probably spells epoxy.