I love my K-Tec grinder, and have been using it for five or six years.
Lately, it had slowly gotten slower and slower in the amount of grain
that goes through it. The motor seems to be going just as fast as
always, though. I pulled the foam plug on the "side vent", and found
that it was thoroughly clogged. I knocked out the clogs, and a couple
of other places that moist flour had accumulated and the grinder
started grinding incredibly fast. So, OK, I'll pay attention to
cleaning it out better now, but it makes me wonder, are there areas
inside the grinder that should be inspected/cleaned every once in a
while? There are some screws under the grinder head, and I wonder if I
should be messing with those, trying to access the innards. In regard
to this, I find myself wondering about the internal plumbing of this
thing. What's the vent for? What is that odd plastic cup for that
affixes to the underside of the grinding head? It doesn't seem to do
anything that I can see, yet takes up a good fraction of the flour bin
volume.

"Doug Lassiter" > wrote in message
...
>I love my K-Tec grinder, and have been using it for five or six years.
> Lately, it had slowly gotten slower and slower in the amount of grain
> that goes through it. The motor seems to be going just as fast as
> always, though. I pulled the foam plug on the "side vent", and found
> that it was thoroughly clogged. I knocked out the clogs, and a couple
> of other places that moist flour had accumulated and the grinder
> started grinding incredibly fast. So, OK, I'll pay attention to
> cleaning it out better now, but it makes me wonder, are there areas
> inside the grinder that should be inspected/cleaned every once in a
> while?

After every use I brush of the underneath with paint brush and then
use compress air to blow out any flour accumulated inside the grinding
head and the motor compartment.

>There are some screws under the grinder head, and I wonder if I
> should be messing with those, trying to access the innards.

I would not do this. Use compress air to clean all hard-to-get spots.

>In regard to this, I find myself wondering about the internal plumbing of
>this
> thing. What's the vent for?

The grinding head rotates with high velocity and "blows" flour inside the
collecting
plastic pan. The vent is there to let air transfered in to the pan with
flour escape outside.

>What is that odd plastic cup for that affixes to the underside of the
grinding head?
>It doesn't seem to do > anything that I can see, yet takes up a good
>fraction of the flour bin
> volume.

It is a separating cup. It separates flour from air using centrifugal forces
and lets air to pass to
the vent. That is why more flour dust is expelled from the vent when the cup
is getting filled up
with flour.

On Oct 15, 6:47 pm, "Arek Niski" > wrote:
> "Doug Lassiter" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
> >I love my K-Tec grinder, and have been using it for five or six years.
> > Lately, it had slowly gotten slower and slower in the amount of grain
> > that goes through it. The motor seems to be going just as fast as
> > always, though. I pulled the foam plug on the "side vent", and found
> > that it was thoroughly clogged. I knocked out the clogs, and a couple
> > of other places that moist flour had accumulated and the grinder
> > started grinding incredibly fast. So, OK, I'll pay attention to
> > cleaning it out better now, but it makes me wonder, are there areas
> > inside the grinder that should be inspected/cleaned every once in a
> > while?
>
> After every use I brush of the underneath with paint brush and then
> use compress air to blow out any flour accumulated inside the grinding
> head and the motor compartment.
>
> >There are some screws under the grinder head, and I wonder if I
> > should be messing with those, trying to access the innards.
>
> I would not do this. Use compress air to clean all hard-to-get spots.
>
> >In regard to this, I find myself wondering about the internal plumbing of
> >this
> > thing. What's the vent for?
>
> The grinding head rotates with high velocity and "blows" flour inside the
> collecting
> plastic pan. The vent is there to let air transfered in to the pan with
> flour escape outside.
>
> >What is that odd plastic cup for that affixes to the underside of the
> grinding head?
>
> >It doesn't seem to do > anything that I can see, yet takes up a good
> >fraction of the flour bin
> > volume.
>
> It is a separating cup. It separates flour from air using centrifugal forces
> and lets air to pass to
> the vent. That is why more flour dust is expelled from the vent when the cup
> is getting filled up
> with flour.


That all makes sense. I do indeed notice that when the cup is removed
a lot more flour blows out of the vent.
In fact, though, the cup hardly fills with flour at all.

Many thanks.