One of the big challenges to communication is grind sizing.
| Grind | Range |
| Turkish | 100 micron |
| Espresso | 200 - 250 micron |
| Vending | 300 micron |
| Fine | 425 micron |
| Drip | 600 micron |
| Auto-Drip | 850 micron |
| Regular | 1180 micron |
| Press Pot | 1200 - 1300 micron |
I've heard people talk about comparing your grind to sugar, salt, and different kinds of sand, but I've been wondering if there's something easier to use.
I was intrigued to learn that you can buy ball bearings in size ranges from 250 microns up, so I picked up a few 500 micron and more 1000 micron chrome balls to play with.
Here's the first fuzzy cameraphone photos of the Peru espresso I ground up on my Kyocera CM-45 CF ceramic burr grinder (dialed in for the Twist) with a piece of tape encapsulating two 1000 micron and one 500 micron (the one in the middle) steel balls for comparison. The photos are pretty bad, but you'll get the idea.
Those tiny balls were very hard to handle and get onto the tape. I didn't want to lose the 500 micron ball as I only have a few of those. I couldn't find a way to order the 250 micron balls affordably from this experiment, but maybe we could get a group buy together or something if this pans out. One source for volume (beside eBay which I used for this experiment) is
www.precisionballs.com. I had thought that you could drop the balls into your grind for sizing and lift them out with a magnet (back into your container).
I want to try this with my Vario dialed in for the G2 Kone next and a better camera. Too bad I can't get a better photographer on the job.
