Hand grinders grind coffee thanks to your own arm muscles. Most hand grinders come with a burr in them, which is a cheap way to get a good-quality grind for your espresso coffee maker.

Lag shields are hollow soft metal sleeves that are driven into a hole. When a screw or bolt is driven into the cavity in the center of the sleeve, the fastener’s threads cut into its wall, which is softer than the steel screw or bolt.

Other key features Detachable bean hopper, detachable bowl, lid safety lock, cleaning brush, two portafilter supports, non-slip base

Hammer set anchors are simple fasteners that fit through a hole in whatever you are fatsening, such as a shelf cleat, bracket or other piece of hardware. Their dome-shaped head bears down on the surface of the workpiece. Slip the fasteners through the wokrpiece, into the hole in the concrete and then drive the nail in them until it is fully seated against the dome-shaped head. These fasteners work best when used in applications where one is enough to attach the load. Using more than one on at a time requires careful drilling to ensure that the fasteners line up both with the holes in the mounted object and in the concrete.

Turn the selector ring on the cordless drill, aligning the hammer icon with the white selector triangle. Move the drill’s speed selector switch to its top speed, 2 or 3, depending on the drill. Tighten the drill’s chuck on the masonry bit.

Which one is best for you depends on what type of coffee you like to make, how much you make, and whether you want the flexibility of being able to achieve different grounds tailored to different coffee types.

Wear your safety glasses during every step of the process. Concrete chips can fly, a masonry screw may inadvertently break, you might even snap the drill bit itself if it gets bound up against a piece of reinforcing steel. All of this can cause debris to go flying.

Both of these materials will handle grinding the coffee beans equally well, the main difference being in the durability of the grinding burr.

Many cordless drills today are equipped with a hammer function. I’ve talked to people who didn’t even know this was included on their drill. Compared to a cordless drill without this feature, it’s a slight upcharge–about $20, on average. A hammer function provides a percussive action to chip away and pulverize masonry as a masonry bit spins. To help these specialized drill bits withstand such harsh use, they have a piece of carbide brazed to their tip. Carbide is not a single material, but a mixture of them. It starts out as carbide powder intermixed with a metal powder, such as tungsten. The powders are mixed with a binder additive, formed into a shape, machined, and then fused together at high temperature forming a composite. The carbide tip is brazed onto the body of the drill bit producing a device that is both flexible and wear resistant, yet has an extremely hard tip. Drill a hole with that bit, then drive a hardened masonry screw into it.

With the carbide drill bit chucked in the drill, hold what you need to fasten to the wall and make your hole. For brackets and the similar pieces of hardware, use their mounting holes to place the drill bit. For wood, simply bore right through the wood and into the concrete.

We've tested the most popular coffee grinders from DeLonghi, Sage, Krups, Melitta and more, sold at leading retailers including Lakeland, John Lewis and Amazon.

The fastest way to drive a masonry screw is with the same drill driver that made the hole. Turn the drill’s selector to the drive setting, turn the clutch to the maximum number, and use a nut driver or drive bit to sock down the screw.

Coffee bean grinders often have several grind settings to choose from, as different coffee makers require differently sized grounds. A cafetiere, for example, needs a coarser grind, whereas an espresso requires very finely ground coffee.

Amateurs and professionals alike often forget that safety and drilling a high-quality hole go hand-in-hand when fastening to concrete.

A simple dust mask works well enough to protect you from airborne cement dust created when you drill into concrete and when you remove it.

The job’s bad reputation was well earned but is out of date. Years ago, fastening to concrete was difficult and hit or miss. If you’ve ever tried driving hardened-steel nails into concrete or tried to make anchor sleeve holes with a wobbly rental masonry drill and a dull rental drill bit than you know about frustration.

A precise, even grind is essential for making tasty coffee at home. Choose a poor coffee grinder, and you may end up with uneven grounds and a badly extracted, watery brew.

When the hole is established, you can move the hardware or lumber out of the way and continue boring to the hole’s full depth. When drilling mounting holes in long pieces of wood or metal, drill one mounting hole, then drive a screw at that point. Level the workpiece, drill a second hole, and drive a second mounting screw. With the workpiece fastened at two points, and level, drill remaining mounting holes and drive the remaining screws.

A masonry drill bit has a tip made out of tungsten carbide, brazed onto the body of the drill. The bit is capable of withstanding the high impact and wear created by drilling into concrete and masonry. A high-strength masonry screw can be driven directly into this hole. Another fastening option (shown below) is to insert a plastic or metal sleeve into the hole and drive a screw into the sleeve.

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The best coffee grinder turn your beans into perfectly even grounds, whether you're using an espresso machine, cafetiere or any other coffee maker.

Other key features Detachable bean hopper, detachable bowl, lid safety lock, cleaning brush, two portafilter supports, LCD control panel, non-slip base

Our tough tests revealed three Best Buy grinders that are easy to use and leave you with consistent coffee grounds ready for brewing.

The image below shows the difference between grounds from an electric blade grinder (left) and a burr coffee grinder (right).

A stepped coffee grinder will have pre-set grind options for you to choose from, from a fine to a coarser grind. Most electronic burr coffee grinders in retail shops such as John Lewis or Argos will be stepped.

A ceramic burr is likely to last longer than a steel burr, provided that it doesn’t encounter any rogue materials, such as a small fragment of stone, that could cause it to chip.

Other key features Detachable bean hopper, non-slip base, detachable bowl, cleaning brush, integrated digital scale, LCD display panel

Many people struggle with fastening to concrete–and other masonry surfaces, such as brick and concrete block. Turns out, there’s nothing to it. The best way to fasten to it, especially for DIYers, is to just dill a hole and drive a screw.

Roy Berendsohn has worked for more than 25 years at Popular Mechanics, where he has written on carpentry, masonry, painting, plumbing, electrical, woodworking, blacksmithing, welding, lawn care, chainsaw use, and outdoor power equipment. When he’s not working on his own house, he volunteers with Sovereign Grace Church doing home repair for families in rural, suburban and urban locations throughout central and southern New Jersey.

Sleeve anchors are hybrid fasteners consisting of a threaded stud, a nut, and a specialized sleeve. You hammer this fastener into the hole then turn the nut no more turns than specified by the manufacturer (typically two to four). This causes the threaded stud to pull up in the sleeve. As it does so, the the sleeve expands against the wall of the hole, forming a tight wedging action. It’s important to read the manufacturer’s instructions before installing these. They are to be located specified distances from each other and from the edge of the slab.

Burr coffee grinders have a small gear-like mechanism inside that crushes coffee beans to produce ground coffee. Because they crush rather than chop the beans, they don’t exert the same kind of force and heat that a blade grinder might.

You can make your own concrete fastener for horizontal applications by using a small bolt or piece of threaded rod embedded in mortar, epoxy repair mortar, or the specialized epoxies used for embedding rebar. Drill a hole twice the diameter of the threaded rod or bolt. You can either place the fastener in the hole and then push the filling material in around it or with thinner materials, fill the hole to the halfway point and then push in the fastener. Be sure to turn the fastener back and forth to ensure that it is locked into the embedding material. Also, use a square from two directions to check that the fastener is square or plumb to the surface.

Other key features Detachable bean hopper, detachable bowl, lid safety lock, cleaning brush, portafilter support, non-slip base

If you really like to be adventurous with your coffee, you might consider a stepless grinder. To get your hands on one you'll have to venture off the high street and you’ll be spending quite a bit more money too. A stepless grinder has no pre-set grind levels. Instead, you can tinker with it to produce the exact grind you want. While a stepless grinder can offer you even more options for customisation, it does require an experienced hand to get good results.

Also, flat burr coffee grinders will usually be much pricier than their conical burr counterparts. For most people, a coffee grinder with a conical burr is going to be good enough for the job of grinding beans for your coffee machine.

You may see coffee aficionados extolling the virtues of either a flat burr (pictured below left) or a conical burr (pictured below right).

The thing that changed all that is the ordinary cordless drill. More specifically, the cordless drill with a hammer function.

This tool makes short work of punching a reliable hole in concrete, mortar, brick, Portland cement plaster (stucco), and even many types of stone. Once you have that hole–properly known as a pilot hole– you can drive a masonry screw or bolt into it, or you can install a soft sleeve into which you can drive a wood screw or sheet metal screw. It’s that easy.

It may be simple and generally safe to fasten to concrete, but it’s always a good idea to wear safety glasses, if nothing else to shield yourself from the dust that’s produced in the process.

Some heavy-duty plastic anchors, such as the Red Head Polyset, can be driven into a hole in concrete. From there, you use the included pan head sheet metal screw to fasten whatever you need.

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We assess the coffee bean grinders on the quality of their coffee grounds, how easy they are to use and how noisy there are.

We purchase bestselling coffee grinders from leading UK retailers and put them through tough tests to find the best. We regularly revisit the coffee grinders on sale to see if there are any more popular models that need testing - and when we find them we do.

Next, wear a dust mask. Pulverizing conctete with a drill bit creates dust, and some of that dust becomes airborne while drilling and, later, when you clean out the hole.

Date tested: February 2024. Page last checked: September 2024. We are not able to show every retailer and cheaper prices may be available.

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Blade grinders (like the one in the picture below) have a spinning blade inside that cuts the beans into smaller pieces, similar to a blender.

If you're only grinding small quantities at a time, they can be a good option, as you have total control over how much you want to grind. Most electric coffee grinders grind a minimum of two cups of coffee at a time.

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It should never be complicated, uncomfortable or difficult to use your coffee grinder. It should be simple to load up your coffee beans and get the perfect grounds you're looking for.