Herb Grinders
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max
Out to lunch
The really fine grind you can get from a coffee grinder can be too fine for some vapes. The LB, due to its design and extremely fine mesh screen, benefits from a very fine grind, but with most vapes having all your herb in such small particles just means losing some through the screen. Grinding fine to expose more surface area to the heat is a good thing, but you can take it too far, and depending on the vape model, end up restricting air flow too much and overcoming your screen's ability to screen.
charliedontsurf
Medical
max said:
I agree with the too-find-for-some-vapes idea. My vaporgenie classic (and shite bat) hate a grind that is too fine. It tends to make one glorious puff of vapor and leave the rest of the bowl 80% depleted. A rough, hand grind is all I use on the VG now and it seems to work better.
Since I own both an Extreme and a Launch Box, I grind for the Extreme. I take a portion of that and store it in an old pill bottle along with the dessicate that came with the original occupants. This dries it out well and when I load my LB it is just right for me to crumble it with my fingers into a nice LB-friendly grind.
I'll repeat what I've posted before: if you dry your stuff thoroughly then you really don't even have to grind, just finger-crumble it to the desired consistency as you load.
I'll repeat what I've posted before: if you dry your stuff thoroughly then you really don't even have to grind, just finger-crumble it to the desired consistency as you load.
NuclearAlchemist
Well-Known Member
This is one of the things I like about using a mortar/pestle after my space case. You can very easily control the fineness of the grind.max said:
-NA
Elluzion said:stuey said:
How is it compared to the space case? (Is it more effective with a finer grind for you?) Difference in taste / use?
I have a small space case but am considering getting a coffee grinder, but we'll see.
Let me know your findings please
<3
OK it is much finer than a SC can manage.
I have both a small and a medium SC. The small just dosent have enough teeth for a fine grind, I was never happy with the results from a small SC. The medium is better at grinding but still way off the fineness of the coffee grinder.
Yes it seems more effective with a finer grind (using a LB)
Taste.. dosent really change IMO
The finer grind just means that there is more plant matter in contact with the LB screen as it heats.
majorpayne66
Colorado MMJ Patient
pakalolo said:
I do this also, but are we losing something letting it dry out ?
I smoked weed for 30 years before saying FC and we never let our weed dry out like I do now.
majorpayne66 said:
When I first switched (after nearly 40 years) I wondered the same thing. Dried out weed is horrible stuff to smoke, so I'm like you, drying went against my grain.
After reading here and learning a bit about how vaporization works, I now understand why drying is good. I also don't think I'm losing anything by doing it. One reason is that when I started, I wasn't convinced about the wisdom of drying so I didn't. I didn't grind either. Then I started to understand why you dry and grind, and I tried it, and I could see that it made vaping more effective but as far as I could tell, neither drying nor grinding seemed to make any difference in potency. Others might report different outcomes.
rabblerouser
Combustion Fucker
stuey said:
i'll stay out of the coffee grinder part, but i have the medium and small SC and i think i DO get a finer grind more easily with small than with the medium... is yours the 4 pc, NOT 2? my take on it was that maybe the tolerances between the teeth were a little tighter on the small? but either way i prefer it for a finer grind.
(also i usually just grind small amounts at a time ~0.3g, so the small works good for me, that's part of why i dont think the coffee grinder is a good fit for me)
max
Out to lunch
The number of teeth in a grinder is absolutely not the determining factor in how fine a grind you get. I've used the whole range as far as 4 pc. grinders, and I much prefer the designs with fewer teeth-much easier to load (easier to clean the grinder as well), and they grind just as fine. The size and number of holes in a 4 pc. is a bigger factor by far. With a 2 pc., you might get a fine grind a little quicker with a lot of teeth, but it'll probably also take longer to load it, since you have a lot less space between the teeth for loading (unless you want to just pile the herb between the two sections and crush it until you can get the grinder closed). A little longer grinding time will get you just as fine a grind with a 2 pc. that has fewer teeth. You may have to shake it a bit during the process to move the herb around.
Again, how fine of a grind is best depends on the vape design. A coffee grinder that produces a powdery grind is great for the LB, but for most convection models powdered herb can get through a screen and/or restrict air flow. The log vapes, with their much smaller bowl, benefit more from using a 2 pc. grinder than standard size whip vapes, which have a larger bowl. And you can always easily turn a bowl load into a finer consistency once you've hit it a time or two and any remaining moisture content is pretty much gone. If I'm looking for a fine grind I always dry out my herb under my goose neck lamp, where I can get the heat directly over the herb.
I'm not clear whether you mean 4 pc. or 2 pc., but if 4 pc., they both have the same size holes. If you want small holes (and a finer grind) with SC, you have to go with the 4 pc. Scout, which has 3 mm holes. The other models have 5-6 mm holes.stuey said:
Again, how fine of a grind is best depends on the vape design. A coffee grinder that produces a powdery grind is great for the LB, but for most convection models powdered herb can get through a screen and/or restrict air flow. The log vapes, with their much smaller bowl, benefit more from using a 2 pc. grinder than standard size whip vapes, which have a larger bowl. And you can always easily turn a bowl load into a finer consistency once you've hit it a time or two and any remaining moisture content is pretty much gone. If I'm looking for a fine grind I always dry out my herb under my goose neck lamp, where I can get the heat directly over the herb.
aesthyrian
Blaaaaah
pakalolo said:
This is the best way IMO. I use a sifter/pollen box that collects my kief and also dried my buds out. No metal ever touches my herb, just my fingers and then I get to lick the goodness off them
Grinder just seem like a waste to me.
I was talking about small and medium 2pc grinders..
My reasoning is that as the diameter is increased, and the number of teeth in accordance with that diameter, the number of times teeth pass eachother during 1 complete rotation is vastly increased.
Herb is grinded at the point teeth pass eachother.
So the larger SC should perform better than the smaller SC as the diameter and teeth are increased (although the teeth density, if you like.. the number of teeth per sq inch are the same in either)
The holes in the 4pc will ultimately mean that there is a limit to the fineness of the grind as the herb drops through and therefore can nolonger be ground.
hemp;)goofy8cheerio
New Member
in the pollen box what the screen made of silk?aesthyrian said:This is the best way IMO. I use a sifter/pollen box that collects my kief and also dried my buds out. No metal ever touches my herb, just my fingers and then I get to lick the goodness off them
Grinder just seem like a waste to me.
stuey u can grind upside down so wont go thru holes in grinder
pakalolo said:stuey said:
Pretty sure Max is talking about experience rather than theory. Pretty sure Max knows what he's talking about too.
All I can say is I have both a small 2pc and a medium 2pc and the medium works better.
The theory was an attempt to reason as to why that was, the experience is the bigger one works better than the small one.
max
Out to lunch
Well, I can't say I have experience with SC 2 pc. grinders, but I do have 3 different sized MixnBall 2 pc. models, from the Nano to the MegaLeaf. They can all do a fine grind, but I don't get a fine grind quicker with the large one, by any means. Any decent 2 pc. should do a good job. I've found that it can be helpful to grind, dump, and then load the larger bits back in for a 2nd grind. This should do fine for most vapes, including the small bowled log models. The Launch Box, being more of a conduction design, is ideally going to prefer a finer grind than you can get with any hand grinder. It's pretty easy to reprocess a trench load though, once you've hit it a time or two and it's really dry.
The various 4 pc. designs I've used have all performed very similarly, as far as grind consistency, whether they have many teeth or not so many. There is an exception or two I'm sure. One for sure is a Cosmic Case model (the small one-about 1.5" diameter) where the holes are huge-more hole space than metal. I found that both surprising and disappointing, since I was expecting smaller holes on a mini grinder, not bigger. In general though, the brands with a lot of teeth, like Mendo and SC, also have many holes, and end up pretty equal to the designs with fewer teeth and not so many holes.
The various 4 pc. designs I've used have all performed very similarly, as far as grind consistency, whether they have many teeth or not so many. There is an exception or two I'm sure. One for sure is a Cosmic Case model (the small one-about 1.5" diameter) where the holes are huge-more hole space than metal. I found that both surprising and disappointing, since I was expecting smaller holes on a mini grinder, not bigger. In general though, the brands with a lot of teeth, like Mendo and SC, also have many holes, and end up pretty equal to the designs with fewer teeth and not so many holes.
aesthyrian
Blaaaaah
hemp;)goofy8cheerio said:in the pollen box what the screen made of silk?aesthyrian said:This is the best way IMO. I use a sifter/pollen box that collects my kief and also dried my buds out. No metal ever touches my herb, just my fingers and then I get to lick the goodness off them
Grinders just seem like a waste to me.
I have a Wikka box that says it has a "100 mesh monofilament screen"
max
Out to lunch
I used my fingers for many years, but found that I lost a lot more kief on my fingers than I do with a grinder. I've also found it inconvenient at times to always dry the herb. I can pop a few little pieces in a 2 pc. and I'm ready to vape in a flash. It might take an extra hit or two to take care of water vapor, but I don't mind. There's often some good flavor there.pakalolo said:
What's your point? No plastic touches my herb during the grinding process, but what would it matter if it did?aesthyrian said:
I find them very useful, and enjoy using them for the most part. To each his own.
majorpayne66
Colorado MMJ Patient
pakalolo said:
I agree with you on this, I dont notice a difference either.
Actually you can argue that if you grind and collect kief, you might notice a difference. OTOH I grind in a 4-piece and collect kief because I don't notice much difference. My difference happens when I take some of that kief and mix it say 50-50 with bud, or maybe all by itself. 
momofthegoons
vapor accessory addict
Now that is what I'm talking about!
Carbon
Well-Known Member
I have a small space case titanium 4 piece that I use and am happy with. I'll turn it upside down while I grind for a while to keep it in the top chamber and get a finer grind before I use the stuff. I will say that the plastic grinder that comes with the Volcano gives me a finer powder than any metal grinder I've used before, but I'm not a big fan of plastic grinders in general.
reloader
Well-Known Member
DeepFried said:
I have had a 3" mendo mulcher for about 8 years, and am still using it. I have never seen any shavings, and all the teeth are still fully intact. The only way you would get any shavings is if the teeth weren't meshing or metal is rubbing. I would have certainly noticed anything like this especially in the keif chamber.
I have also heard about shavings in the Space Case, but who knows. I have found the mendo Mulcher to be very high quality.