I took apart another low-end coffee maker and it was much like the first one I took apart. This theme continues with the next teardown: Bodum's coffee grinder model 11160-3.

At its core, it is a blade spun by an electric motor to chop coffee beans into smaller pieces. From that perspective it isn't terribly different from the Hamilton Beach 80344 I took apart earlier. But there are small differences in execution and the Hamilton Beach seems to be the better thought-out device.

The first of many examples is their power cord management. The bottom of the Hamilton Beach grinder is a knob that we can turn to reel in the power cord into a clever and compact mechanism. This Bodum grinder just has a wind-it-yourself slot for power cable.

The silver product information tag displayed the following information:

designed by bodum in switzerland
Assembled in China
Model no. 11160-3
Voltage 120V~60Hz
Power 150W
CONFORMS TO UL STD. 982
CERTIFIED TO CSA STD. C22.2
No. 1335.1 & 1335.2.14

In addition to power cable management, the controls are different. The Hamilton Beach grinder had a small circuit board for adjusting coarseness of the ground by controlling motor power. This Bodum grinder is an on/off operation.

The Hamilton Beach grinder also had a discreetly hidden safety switch that requires the lid to be installed before the motor could spin up. This Bodum grinder has a single switch pulling double duty. To activate that switch to turn the motor, the lid must be placed on the device (safety measure) and the red button mounted on the lid must be pressed (user intention.) It's a clever way to reduce parts count without compromising safety, but they got too smart for their own good. Being the lowest recessed point, it is easy for coffee grounds to get stuck in that space. And because the button is mounted on the lid, its position varies somewhat due to manufacturing tolerances. Meaning it is possible to place the lid securely on the device yet have a misaligned switch pin that would not work when pressed. Both scenarios frustrate someone who just got out of bed and is trying to get their morning coffee. This grinder's previous owner had one such morning too many and banished this grinder to my teardown pile.

Unspooling the power cable unveiled three easily accessible screws.

Removing that trio loosened the base, but that was only a partial disassembly. The blade is still installed on the shaft. With the grinding bowl still between them, a lot of parts are still stuck. I need to remove the blade, but I don't see a way to hold the motor shaft still. The Hamilton Beach grinder motor had a simple slot cut in one end so a flat-blade screwdriver could keep the shaft from rotating. But the bottom end of this motor shaft is not yet accessible.

The answer is a pair of screws hidden under the power cable spooling mechanism. Once I removed the bottom panel (one of three clips did not survive the process) I could free the motor.

A-ha, there's the motor shaft and the slot I needed to release the blade.

It is possible to disassemble the motor further, but I thought I'd keep it intact for now. Here's a mostly disassembled chopping-type coffee grinder for contrast against a burr-type coffee grinder.