Rec'd my stuff from Kelly's today. Here is my pithy attempt to write a logical, informative and potentially harmless buy report
The shipping speed was incredible. I made my bid on the 8th (Monday)-- I am not sure when the item went out, it must have been mentioned on the packaging but I threw it out already. I think it was shipped on the 9th, and got here today, the 12th. Not bad at all!
I bought the 75mm CNC 4 piece grinder and an airtight stash box. Kelly has excellent customer service-- she answered all my questions very quickly and btw, also threw in a CNC pollen press for free- that was unexpected
I'd recommend Kelly just for the service and shipping speed alone
Quality of construction:
very high. the finish looks raw to me, but I could be wrong. there were a few metal scraps in the grinder, however they were loose, just shavings left over from the machining process. An iso wash and tooth brush scrub is very necessary prior to use. everything is machined very well though- no rough edges or kinks in otherwise smooth surfaces, very sharp and uniformly machined teeth, circular holes are punched through cleanly etc etc. nice knurled top and bottom, sits very comfortable in my hand.
one last comment here would be that the 75mm size is very good-- but only as a desktop grinder (something you're gonna use at home). For the road/knapsack, I'd probably pick up a 2.25".
Grinder itself:
first thing I noticed was the lack of threads in the grinding section-- very awesome. the magnet is strong enough to hold the grinder piece intact. teeth are very sharp and the holes are very clean and 5 mm in diameter.
grinder action is smooth, no noise, no unnecessary friction. i ground a 0.5-- the grind was okay, nothing to write home about-- i ground it upside down so the fineness of the grind was definitely not affected by the holes. i am definitely disappointed about the grind consistency-- however, i think i'd be disappointed with any grinder. i do not see any grinder being capable of grinding the herb as fine as i do otherwise. (and yes, the herb i ground to test the grinder with was very dry)
after grinding, there was quite a bit of herb (trichs and tiny herb particles) stuck to the metal between the teeth etc. i need to buy a tiny brush soon. by being a little careful, i expect to lose very little to zero herb with this thing. at the same time, i also expect this whole procedure of brushing and collecting etc to be a fricking drag
Kief catcher:
very nice. i am actually excited about this, didn't think i would be. the screen is very fine so i expect the kief to be fairly blond and w/o plant matter. the walls of the herb chamber are nicely tall and the kief chamber has a fair volume to it too.
there doesn't seem to be enough nooks or crannies where trichs can hide in, but i honestly cannot comment on that yet since one needs to use the grinder for long enough before testing this characteristic out. the only places i can see where herb can hide away is between the threads on the lower chambers (main grinding section has no threads).
Stash jar & Pollen press:
I bought a dual capped 1.25" dia aluminum stash jar too. All CNC. I am more excited about this than I am the grinder honestly (I love the grinder quality and do not regret my purchase-- just don't think I need a grinder, except for a small one on the road and for kief-- an exotic zombie box seems more sensible for kief collection to me though). Anyway, this is about the jar and press--
so, yeah: All CNC jar and press. Threads are prefect, the stash jar as an o ring that cannot be seen when closed completely. I am gonna use this stash jar to keep 2-3 grams of herb in it (the 'working' stash) and I expect the herb to be much fresher in here than my supposedly air tight glass jars. The jar was much lighter than I expected (the grinder is nice and hefty-- not heavy), so that was a small disappointment, but quality tolerances seem very tight.
the press looks cool but i obviously cannot comment until i collect enough kief.
I am pretty sure I left some important stuff out, so please do not hesitate to ask specific questions if you have any. I have a Space Case pillbox style stash box in the mail, so I will be able to compare the machining quality then but I see no problems whatsoever with this Kelly CNC stuff (but do expect the space case to be better quality). Keep in mind though that Kelly's stuff is not the cheapest (CNC stuff anyway), so it's not like this is a great deal or anything.. but the quality is definitely there imo. (will come back with a quick note re quality comparison once the space case shit arrives-- which btw gratefulbuys shipped a day before Kelly at least but has not yet arrived-- both packages are coming from the west coast).
all in all: Kelly has good stuff. her service is better than her stuff. I will be very surprised if this grinder starts flaking or loosen or whatever other quality related problems occur in most other grinder brands (not saying they won't occur-- saying I don't expect anything to happen, everything looks good quality wise). I learned I can grind better than the grinder itself. I also learned that this whole kief collection thing just might be a good trip. Those exotic zombies are looking mighty tempting now
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EDIT: Just wanted to provide a quick update:
a) I rec'd my space case stash case. The quality is very high. Is it higher than Kelly's CNC stuff? Yes it is. Does the quality difference equate to a functional improvement? In my opinion, not at all. Kelly's stuff is very well machined (albeit with higher tolerances, yes), is just as air-tight and is only aesthetically inferior to the space case. Would I pick up a space case item if Kelly has a comparable item (function and dimension wise) in her CNC line? Definitely not.
The only advantage I can think of for the space case, despite its obviously better craftsmanship, is that it came to be clean enough to not necessitate an ISO wash (though, you are better off doing one anyway). The Kelly stuff in comparison is quite dirty and I'd do a pretty exhaustive wash on those items before using them, period.
I cannot, obviously, compare grind quality since I do not have a space case grinder. This is a machining quality comparison only.
b) The Kelly grinder's consistency is OK for the WDZ/PD style vapes. My previous scissors and hands method did offer more surface area (I grind upside down with the grinder), but even with this coarser grind I find no real difference in my hits. Vapor amount is the same, vapor quality is the same and the color of the ABV is more or less the same as well. However, I am sure that there are advantages to finer grinds-- what with surface area exposed and all-- but in my experience, the differences are not really noticeable, not to me anyway. I find this rather odd because I did expect more obvious differences here.
I feel that the best way to grind AND collect kief is probably to first take your bud and just give it a couple of scissor bites and sift it on some kind of a big box with a sieve and collection plate in it (like the exotic zombie stuff-- i am not sure how expensive those are but making one of your own shldn't be a pain in the butt). This way some kief usually inside the bud can be collected too. Once kief collection is done in the zombie box, take some bud into a shot glass and cut away with scissors. then transfer all the grind from the glass into a sifter box or a bigger grinder (like the Kelly 6" one!) with a large but fine mesh sieve in it. Run the bud through this sieve before collecting whatever is left as 'vaporize-able bud'. And bingo, no wasting bud between teeth in a grinder or in nooks and crannies. A guaranteed fine grind and good kief collection. The only issue might be transferring the grind from the shot glass to the sieve, but a brush and a steady hand will minimize any possibility of losing precious herb here. Also, if one can afford the biggest grinder available out there (the Kelly 6"), the sheer size of the receiving sieve will also help the transfer process.
I need to save up some cash to build/buy a sifter box before I can try the above method though. But I do think it should work very well. If somebody has the cash and the inclination, please do let me know how this method works for you should you decide to try it.
If one does not want to collect kief, I'd really recommend not wasting any money on a grinder at all (except a small one that might be added to a portable kit). Just use a glass and scissors man. Instead of a shot glass, I'd recommend one of Kelly's borosilicate stash jars (or any other small glass jar like the smaller 420 jars for example), only because of convenience-- one could cut the herb to a fine consistency in the glass jar and then leave it there for storage-- no transferring, no nothing, trichs will stick to the glass sides but can be reclaimed with a brush or an ISO wash. The only thing here is that you might want to ensure the glass jar is wide enough to comfortably use scissors in (long, thin scissors should work with no discomfort at all).
