A new badass weed grinder has entered the chat. This 304 Stainless Steel grinder has a functional ball bearing and a free-spinning top. Gimmicky? Maybe. The fidget-spinner aspect is incredibly satisfying. The top of the grinder is heavy, but it spins freely on the bearing with absolute ease. There’s no metal-to-metal contact while grinding or spinning.
Update October 2024 – I’ve been using the Old Mate grinder for 22 months now, and it is hands down my best weed grinder and a mainstay on my desk. It’s easily the most fun and fastest weed grinder on the market. The teeth are incredibly sharp, and they cut through cannabis nugs like butter. For ~$140 shipped from Australia, the Old Mate grinder wins my reach test.
Weed Grinder with Ball Bearings!?
The ball bearing isn’t just a gimmick! The top spinning section has no metal-on-metal contact, which means no metal dust in your weed, and no plastic spacers
Grinding weed has never been easier, faster, or more fun
The top piece spins with ease.
And it spins.
And spins.
The top half of the grinder sits on the bearing instead of using a plastic ring, like most other weed grinders. The bearing supports the weight of the top half and prevents the teeth from contacting each other.
I initially had concerns about the longevity of the ball bearing. Weed grinders are known for getting gunked up and many grinders fail miserably after a few months of use without maintenance.
But the Old Mate grinder bearings still spin free and fast after 11 months of daily usage.
I’ve traveled with the grinder, I’ve used it upside down. I’ve dropped it a few times. The bearing still spins fast!
Some discord members have had to remove their bearings and clean them. I haven’t had any issues yet, but will update this page with new information if it ever happens to me.
Sharpest Weed Grinder Teeth
The Old Mate Grinder cuts through sticky nugs like butter. The stainless steel teeth on the Old Mate are sharper than any other weed grinder and the ball bearing design allows them to spin freely without touching other teeth – so they stay sharp!
With just a few partial twists and rotations, the teeth of the Old Mate completely shred and grind the loaded nugs.
Old Mate Grinder can grind several grams at a time.
The Stainless Steel Old Mate Grinder is $125 USD and it ships from Australia. Mine arrived in about 6 days via DHL and the shipping was $26.
Why it’s THE BEST GRINDER EVER
The Old Mate has an excellent grind consistency and works quickly. The grind consistency isn’t quite as nice as some other grinders, but I don’t find the difference in grind to matter.
What does matter is the grinding experience, and the Old Mate grinder provides the nicest grinding experience I’ve ever encountered. I smile everytime I use it because it’s such a pleasure to use.
I’ve pushed well over a pound of California’s finest through this grinder and it has never failed me.
Old Mate Grinder Top
Mine has an orange bearing.
Old Mate 3 Piece Grinder
3-piece Stainless Steel Grinder with a bearing!
3 Piece Grinder
It’s a 3-piece grinder made out of 304 stainless steel.
Deep Weed Storage
Nice deep and wide weed storage area.
Functional Bearing
No teeth touch. The top spins on a bearing.
Grinder Teeth
The top teeth are extremely sharp, and exposed.
Top Grinder Teeth
More zoomed out view of the top teeth.
THE HOLE
Close-up of the teeth AND the hole.
Medium Grind
The Old Mate grind is medium.
I don’t think the life of the bearing is an issue. I have done some research on bearing failure and the use case of a grinder doesn’t even come close to those causes. The bearing isn’t spinning at 5000rpm which would cause heat and degradation of the grease and it’s not in contact with great amounts of water/dirt/… it should basically last forever.
That’s a great point! I used to put my skate bearings through the worst and they survived and spun on, for the most part
Hey Troy, been using the Old Mate Aroma-3 since its’ preorder back in January. Absolutely in love with this grinder, all my others are just collecting dust unless I have to clean/maintain the Aroma-3.
I have put this grinder through hell and only recently decided to clean it because at first I thought maybe it was getting gunked up, but I thought this was strange because it still looked like it only had a couple weeks use even though its been almost a year!
At first I inspected some gunked spots with a brush and toothpick that I thought would be causing the top plate to disrupt in RPM, but it wasn’t till I popped out the bearing and realized that at some point enough moisture from just the air or maybe even from the flower left in my grinder was able to get in and slowly rust the bearing over time over time.
Its never been exposed to rain or water even by accident and I live in San Diego which is not even remotely humid like other places in the world.
Anyways I’ve been recently looking into full ceramic bearings as they are known to be resistant to rust, and the extra pros that they provide make them seem like the perfect solution. Being able to just pop out the bearing, soak it in ISO, and being able to re-use them is awesome!
Some sources say that ceramic bearings are built for high speeds, longer life, extreme temperatures, are resistant to acid, alkali, and salt, and more. Ceramic balls are rounder, lighter, harder, and smoother than steel balls due to their lack of porousness and don’t really need grease. They also create less friction/heat than steel balls as well.
The only cons I could find were that they are generally more expensive, although I’m sure you can find them cheap on a site like AliExpress instead of buying a known skate brand.
Some people will argue that full ceramic bearings are brittle, and it would be a good point if you were worried about busting your bearings off a flight of stairs , but for use as a grinder I’m pretty sure it will be okay since there is no actual weight load on the bearing. And as far as foreign material getting in the bearing, it’ll mostly be weed instead of rocks, dirt, etc.
But yeah that’s pretty much it, just wanted to share my personal experience with ya. And I appreciate what you do and how you go about your work my man, Keep doing your thing! You’re truly a pioneer for a lot of vaporists movement, like the Leif Erikson of discovering vapes!
Nico sounds like a promoter lol
It has nothing to do with promotion, the grinder uses SKF low friction bearings, those things are made for heavy machines in dirty enviroments, it is basically impossible for those to get destroyed while grinding and besides that the bearing can be easily changed and since it has the dimension of skateboard bearings you basically have a million diffrent bearings to chose from, if you ever need or want to replace it.
What is quite a concern i have in regard of this grinder is it’s sheer mass, it weighs about half a kilogramm which is a lot and makes this one vey immobile, the second concern i have is also regarding the weight, since you have only one magnet holding top and bottom together, i think it would be quite easy to accidentaly open the grinder and spill it’s contents.
All in all i still think the grinder is great, since it has a gimmick, which is actually making sense, no metal on metal contact means no sticking, no gunking and not metal in your herbs.
lol
I’m the one from GTA