It's a good idea to have a second coffee grinder around to use exclusively for grinding spices. Don't use the same grinder you use for your coffee beans or your coffee will taste like spices and your spices will taste like coffee.
Why grind your own spices? For a couple reasons. First, it saves you the room in your spice rack only having to have one jar of a particular spice. You can use it whole when you need it and also grind it when necessary. Second, freshly ground spices are more pungent and aromatic. Third, spices are expensive! Save yourself some money and buy only one jar of the whole spice.
To use the grinder, just put the spices in and process just like coffee beans. To clean the grinder get a small brush (a pastry brush or cheap paint brush, clean please!) to brush out the loose bits. Make sure you're using the brush only for this purpose. The next time you brush butter on something, you probably don't want it to taste like curry. The last step of cleanup is to process a teaspoon or so of uncooked white rice. This takes care of much of the oils released when grinding spices. Use the brush again to wipe away all particles.
It's also handy to have a tea strainer for sieving spices once you've ground them. Little chunks of spices can be very off-putting to bite on.
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