A burr grinderA coffee grinder that grinds by passing a flow of beans between a pair of rotating metal discs.: A coffee grinder that grinds by passing a flow of... powered by hand-turning a crank. Manual grinders can be cheaper than their electric counterparts, and they produce comparable quality grinds, but since they require a fair amount of effort to operate, they are not for everyone. Finer grinds will require more revolutions of the crank, and so take more time and effort.