Hey everyone, welcome to my first post in the Cinnamon Cup Coffee community. I'm really excited to be here and for my first post I want to talk about a new find that I'm really excited for. Over the weekend I went to an estate sale and found a Tomlinson CM-400 Commercial grinder, in someone's house of all places! Maybe I shouldn't be that surprised since I'm going to be using this in my house too lol. Without further ado, lets check this baby out!
Just look at that gorgeous oxblood red 😍
Made by Tomlinson in the 90's this grinder is a bit of a rarity. Featuring conical burrs and a spring system to adjust grind sizes. When I opened it up I was lucky to find the burrs were still in excellent shape. The owner told me he bought it new and only used it in home so I doubt it saw the kind of use most of these did. Finding replacement burrs for this puppy would probably be damn near impossible so let's hope the ones in here last for a long time.
One of the only problems that grinder did have was that owner had broken the lid to the hopper and holy shit was the edge around it sharp. I needed to find a fix for this asap before I cut myself and getting dust in the hopper isn't exactly something I wanted either. Luckily, I found a pot lid that almost fit the bill and matched the rest of the hopper.
The only problem is that the lid was a little loose and with the hopper being glass I didn't want vibrations from the lid to crack the hopper glass. A quick MacGyver fix by wrapping some rubberbands around the rim did the trick. It even adds a nice seal and acts as a gasket. I weigh my beans out before grinding so I don't need to store my whole batch of coffee in the hopper but it's nice to know the rubberband gasket would keep things fresh if I decided to do that.
Performance
Holy cow, this thing shreds. The strong and fast motor grinds beans in seconds. It's still loud, but not as loud as my consumer grade Cuisinart. I've read that this grinder can have issues with getting fine enough grounds for espresso but I easily solved this by grinding down the metal washer that the grind adjustment wheel sits on. With that filed down a bit this grinder made beautiful espresso grounds. I'm mostly a pourover or drip coffee guy so the medium grind was most important to me. The CM-400 did an incredible job for both medium and large grind sizes. Everything was fairly even in size with very minimal fines.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, this was a huge step up from my consumer grinder and I'm so happy to add it to my home brewing collection for the steal of $60. I'm a huge coffee lover but I'm also a huge cheapass lol so finding premium coffee items like this second just doesn't get any better. Just another beautiful day to be alive and enjoying delicious coffee.
What's the best coffee related deal you ever found? I'd love to know what steals other people have come across!
Hello @badnewsbeards, Whoa! That's an impressive coffee grinder! Lucky you!
It's a great find!
I love the mechanism for adjusting the grind size, and I really hope the burrs will last. Maybe you could start sourcing for possible replacement ahead of time to keep in reserve.
I surely believe your amazement for how fast it works.
I'd like to see this grinder in action, maybe you could do a vlog one day?
An official welcome to the community, I hope you'll enjoy your time here, as it would be great to hear more from you.
Thanks for dropping by;-)
Hey @millycf1976, thanks so much for the warm welcome!
I love the grind size dial too. It's such a simple but effective mechanism. The machine has 20 different sizes to click through so you can really dial in the size you want.
I think being pro-active about finding a burr replacement is probably the best advice I've heard in awhile. eBay didn't have anything but I'll keep searching and hopefully find one. I'm sure the burrs will be even more expensive than the machine haha.
I'd love to work my way up to vlogs and show it in action one day! I'm a huge coffee nerd and can't wait to immerse myself more in the community. It's a lovely place you all have here! Thanks again for the welcome and kind words 😀
Haha! Cameras can be intimidating at first :) but I'm sure you'll get around to trying it someday.
People are not that critical on Hive:)
I quickly looked online and it said: Made in Japan (name doesn't sound Japanese).
If it is, and if you ever happen to visit Japan (when things change, of course), you could research for used parts shops, they have awesome places like that.
Other places like Etsy too.
20 different size grains is phenomenal!!
Haha you're right about everyone being nice here. I've always been a bit camera shy but I would love to do some brew recipe or home roasting vlogs once I work up the courage.
I think it's made by a company near where I grew up in the United States. I found their website here.
The logo seems to match the one on my grinder. I might shoot them an email and see if they have anything lying around, you never know.
Thanks for the tip on Etsy! I always forget that one. I'll have to set an alert on there too.
Oh, finding the company would be perfect!😁🤙
Yes, home roasting vlogs would be awesome too;-)
Hello @badnewsbeards
Great posts!🙌
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Thanks so much for the very warm welcome!
It's great to see such an active, friendly community about something I absolutely love.
I'm very excited to be a part of this lovely community you all have 😀
Thanks again! I hope you have a great day too!
Thanks for your kind feedback 😊
See you around!:-)
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