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I have a hario hand grinder, but grinding each shot by hand is too impractical for me. I could just bang a drill on it, but I’m not sure how wise this is.
I did the same with my Porlex for years. The steps between grind settings is quite large on those hand-grinders so you'll end up changing both dose and coarseness to get a good shot. As far as I'm aware the Hario grinder has a pentagonal bit on top so you'd need an adapter if you wanted to pop a drill bit on it (I can dig out the link for the steel adapter I have if you're interested).
I'd definitely prioritise the quality of the grinder over the machine (a sentiment I imagine will be shared here). I'm not too knowledgeable about the current flock of home grinders for espresso use, but I got a Baratza Sette 270 a year ago and it's wonderful. Stepless adjustment and very, very low grind retention (very important if you're going to be going almost a day between uses, you don't want yesterdays ground coffee being chucked in your portafilter!).
I also went for a manual lever machine (Europiccola) for much the same reasons you state (plus in my case, it's a very popular decades old design so spares are cheap and easy to come by). Just serviced it for the first time with nothing more than an adjustable spanner and some pliers to take of come circlips.
There's also a recent trend for manual lever machines where you boil the water separately and pop it directly into the portafilter just prior to extraction (Robot, Flair and Rok are all popular examples). I have no experience with these but there's a couple of folks in this thread who do. Even less to go wrong obviously, but you do miss out on a couple of nice-to-haves like steaming milk and I'd argue a bit more consistent in terms of water temperature (though the Europiccola does tend to overheat after a couple of shots back to back so some cooling of the grouphead is needed, either a wet cloth or just left alone for a few minutes).
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mmccarthy
Nef
Dear LFGSS coffee overlords. I have a little Gaggia Cubika espresso machine and I think it’s great. However, I feel like I could probably be making better coffee.
To make better espresso, how much would I need to spend on a grinder to have decent control as part of my espresso making? I have a hario hand grinder, but grinding each shot by hand is too impractical for me. I could just bang a drill on it, but I’m not sure how wise this is.
In the hierarchy of home coffee making needs, what’s most important - grinder or machine. I understand that you need both really. But if I’m going to lay down some cash, would you say buy a proper grinder, or buy a better machine? I like the look of the manual pull machines - makes sense to remove the complicated mechanical parts and replace them with manpower.
Help me!