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Burr alignment - wow!

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  • steve7
    commented on 's reply
    Thanks to amberale for the feeler gauge tip. One of the burr carriers had a 1.6mm gap underneath the bolt hole and the other had 0.3mm. The feeler gauge leaf did the trick nicely. I lucked into having a 1.6mm brass bar that suited the other. The burrs now look to be perfectly aligned - whiteboard marker rubbed off all round on both.

  • BeyondMyMeans
    commented on 's reply
    Yes and yes. Before the shimming I was unable to get the fine, soft, consistent grinds necessary for a decent shot on my Pasquini. I'm loving the form factor and anti static chute. So grateful for you sharing this.

  • steve7
    commented on 's reply
    But does the coffee taste better?
    And do you get more consistent shots?

  • BeyondMyMeans
    replied
    A big thank you!!! After 2 hours of tinkering it works great! I currently have a Compak k7 Silenzio with a dosser standing next to the Qamar Q5E They are husband and wife lol.

    Leave a comment:


  • steve7
    commented on 's reply
    That's the video that got me thinking about this issue - then I saw Scott's blog on other issues.

  • SanderP
    replied
    Have a look at this

    https://youtu.be/5-cf0Iack5Q

    I wouldn't do any destructive changes unless you are really confident that you have diagnosed the problem correctly.

    Cheers

    Leave a comment:


  • BeyondMyMeans
    replied
    Hi everybody! I'm having the same problem with my recently acquired quamar q50e. I cleaned up the threads and am sure things aren't cross threaded. No matter now close I get the grind is not fine or consistent. Can someone please walk me through the process of shimming the burrs and or shaving down the carriers. Also I am having trouble getting the bottom burr out of the carrier. Some advice on removing the bottom burr/carrier would be greatly appreciated.

    On a side note I will say the grinder looks beautiful but I'm disappointed with the build quality of the grinder. It seems all the components are made of aluminum when often a stronger metal would have been more appropriate.

    Leave a comment:


  • Dipendente
    commented on 's reply
    Yes, there is a taste difference. I had and espresso and latte - both were better, especially the espresso.

    My beans are stale and will get some fresh ones on Wednesday, so that will be the real test.

  • steve7
    commented on 's reply
    👍 Glad to hear.

    But importantly - is there a taste difference? (and good or bad?)

  • Dipendente
    replied
    I can report that my grind setting has changed immensely after taking into account the difference in the scale.

    Normally I would have the burrs so close they were chirping before the beans were added. Given the play in the thread the burrs shouldn’t have been touching (or perhaps just a little) when grinding. My original recipe was 22.7g (less with fresher beans) in with about 35-40g out for my morning latte.

    After the tinkering my first shot was set up with the burrs one step back from chirping and 20g and the machine was completely choked.

    I have now had to back off two steps with 22.5g to get it where I want it. I may need a smaller basket..

    I ended up using foil to shim the top burr and then measured the total thickness to estimate the misalignment. It was quite time consuming creating the stepped layers to properly support it.

    On closer inspection it would be too difficult to machine the tolerance to an acceptable level, but using emery paper should work.

    Thank you steve7 for providing the impetus to improve the grinder.



    Leave a comment:


  • steve7
    commented on 's reply
    0.25mm is massive in coffee language. Good luck. Once done you will then spend the next 30+ minutes dialling in new settings.... although with the consistency after I did mine, dialling in was very fast.

    Have a search for EK43 burr alignment - it's a pro grinder but there are a couple of results on shimming the burr and on making sure the burr carriers are parallel (I think coplanarity is the term) - and the techniques are relevant to most grinders. The link I put in above relates to a Baratza, but again relevant to most.

    I have a dial gauge but the whiteboard marker was probably as good or better. Cleaning it off was a pain and despite running a few doses through for cleaning, I think I still had the taste for a few coffees.

  • Dipendente
    replied
    I spent the afternoon fiddling with the grinder.

    I shimmed the bottom burrs with some very thin hard plastic that I could layer until it was the correct thickness. This has resulted in a runout of about 0.013mm (0.0005” on my ancient dial gauge).

    The top burrs are a different story altogether. The casting for the carrier has been poorly machined resulting the top burrs being out of parallel with the bottom burrs by about 0.25mm.

    With a lot of fiddling I have them close, but there is still more to go. I might look at machining it for a better fit.

    Its too late in the day for a coffee, so the test will have to wait.

    Leave a comment:


  • Dipendente
    replied
    You have me thinking....I know the burrs are not perfectly aligned, but given the cost of the grinder I wouldn’t expect high precision.

    Time to dust off the dial gauge and check how flat the burrs are then do some tinkering.

    Leave a comment:


  • amberale
    commented on 's reply
    A cheap set of feeler gauges can be cut up for shims.
    Gives a lot of options from one set.

  • steve7
    commented on 's reply
    And should adjustments be needed, brass would have the advantage of being able to be sanded down a little more easily than the stainless steel washers I was thinking of.

    Thanks for the tip.
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