Cheap burr mill > cheap whirl blade? based on the two models I've had, they don't do much beyond basic cracking of spices; I want the ability to grind them into a powder form that I can dispense with a shaker cup to my understanding electric burr mill grinders operate in a similar fashion to a pepper grinder with a motor, which is perfect for my needs Cool, I grind some cumin and dried chili peppers, every so often, but I'm not sure how well the burr mill would handle dried chili peppers though... Cut the peppers into chunks and it would probably work just fine Right now I'm using the Vita-Mix for spice grinding, which is roughly the equivalent of using a framing nailer to install crown molding