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Intorduction followed by, "Can my burrs be resharpened?"

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  • level3ninja
    commented on 's reply
    Personally they're about the only people other than the manufacturer that I'd trust to do it.

  • Yelta
    replied
    The question of sharpening burrs was touched on recently in this thread https://coffeesnobs.com.au/forum/cof...ds?view=stream
    There is no reason they shouldn't be sharpened, as I mentioned I used to get rasps sharpened by a company in Adelaide, I think it was the Lightfoot file and rasp company.
    There is also quite a bit of info online re sharpening using chemicals, this guy used vinegar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOP9vW7OZGY
    I st
    ill haven't replaced the burrs on my Mazzer Mini, will certainly try sharpening the old set when I do get around to it.?

    Lightfoot File and Rasp Service, Lonsdale
    Updated on 19/06/2021
    40B O'Sullivan Beach Rd,
    Lonsdale, SA, 5160

    0883847275


    Leave a comment:


  • ctagz
    replied
    Yeah I know ssp offer that service I was just curious if anyone knew how much depth or “tread” was needed. I read it was about $150 usd for the service as well for all the people following along into the future. Not sure if that covered freight (I’d assume not)

    Leave a comment:


  • level3ninja
    replied
    I'm pretty sure you can ship some burrs to the SSP factory in Korea for resharpening. After a quick google, yes they do those and there's even a thread on HB with photos of the exact same burrs. Goigle "ssp burr resharpening" and it should be near the top. That person also got them coated by SSP as well.

    Also, I see some sort of coffee related rehab in your future. Welcome aboard!

    Leave a comment:


  • ctagz
    replied
    Yeah I figured it was time to give back to this community. I photo documented most of everything I’ve done so can show more details about the whole story. I always found I liked reading stories on forums like this rather than just straight to the point questions that can be sorted with a google search in a flash.

    Leave a comment:


  • EspressoAdventurer
    replied
    Originally posted by ctagz View Post
    Good Morning Team
    Long time coming but I've..........
    Before long upgraditis snuck in.....
    Thrifty at heart (read as cheapass) I stumbled.........
    My goodness I too am yet to get anywhere near the end of this.
    However CTagzy the thought hit me and I shouldn't get to familiar, but, when was your last full medical mate?
    You may indeed have CTAS (syndrome). A true affliction to live with.

    The last census found around 2% of the population live with this affliction.
    I should now Ive struggled with this all my life.
    G L mate.

    Leave a comment:


  • WhatEverBeansNecessary
    replied
    Next to impossible to tell the state/sharpness of the burrs from the photos.

    Short answer is that resharpening isn't really possible, you have to fork out for new ones if you think that is needed.

    Leave a comment:


  • yochiya
    replied
    Dear lord, long post, I share your affliction.

    Not sure about the burrs though, they don't seem in too bad shape?

    Leave a comment:


  • ctagz
    started a topic Intorduction followed by, "Can my burrs be resharpened?"

    Intorduction followed by, "Can my burrs be resharpened?"

    Good Morning Team


    Long time coming but I've finally reached my pinnacle of coffee. I've been a long time lurker here on the forum since my teenage days at university (2011). It's only been since the covid lockdown that i went a little crazy. to be fair to my partner i've gone full on crazy.


    Starting with pre ground coffee and an aeropress, this place, my fellow snobs posts got me to realise I needed to upgrade to a burr grinder. I got one of those breville bar grinder shaped like a rectangle with conical burrs. I got it from a big box store for about $200. This lasted me a very long time, and I enjoy doing the little mod to make it grind that little bit finer. A tinkerer at heart, this place fuelled the fire. After it finally packed itself in I progressed to Breville Smart grinder, used in the marketplace for about $150. Soon enough Christmas came around and I was given a chemex 3 cup. The coffee game was getting progressively better. but still I yearned for an espresso machine.


    I had a hand grinder at work, hario slim and was happy making aeropress at work, all of a sudden everyone wanted to get in on the coffee party. I was more than happy, the only rule was they had to do the work of grinding the beans. One day a Mazzer mini piqued my interest as I was scrolling to which I figured christmas was upcoming "treat yo-self" $300 seemed like a steal for a cafe quality machine. More and more time was being spent dreaming in this forum. I now had a grinder I could actually make espresso with.


    Before long upgraditis snuck in. I wanted bigger and bigger burrs. I got my hands on Mazzer Super Jolly auto for $200, then I found another for $200 as well. i decided i wanted to paint one in fancy colours so got to business sanding it back and doing my best at painting with a rattle can. I figured I probably needed new burrs at this stage so I went looking. My goodness my heart sank and I could feel my stomach in my throat when I was seeing these SSP burrs for about $400, I couldn't imagine how much the Mazzer original burrs would cost. Needless to say, this website got me back in the right headspace. However I was left wondering, what did these other burrs do. I was down another rabbit hole.


    My next score was a group effort. Scrolling through once again I stumbled upon what I thought was the steal of the century. A Mazzer Major electric.... for $290. It was a race to get the seller to reply. somehow the gods were smiling down on me that sunday. I told the guys at work I had to go for a bit and hopped in the car and off I went. I had the biggest smile and was on such a high that I didn't even notice the weight of the behemoth as I plunked it down in the work kitchen. We were now making bulk coffee in record times. The filter coffee was good, and everytime we went to buy more beans we would get espresso drinks of some sort. I would smugly point out to my mates how our grinder was at least as good or better than what the shop had on the bench.


    It had seemed this upgradeitis had turned into some sort of addiction, chasing the rush of new gear at bargain prices. The main reason I'm writing this out is that others can get on this coffee bandwagon and not feel left out by barriers of cost to entry. This story is about to get, as mentioned earlier, "full on crazy".


    looking at the prices I could fetch for the Mazzer(s), the bloody rabbit hole of SSP unimodal had me deeeeeep. Here I was using espresso burrs for filter this whole time. Everytime I went to a coffee shop with one of those huge towering black monstrosities I would ask if they would make me a V60. respecting how busy they were of course. Surprisingly most of the time they just wouldn't even bother. I guess it was dialled in for the batchies. Yet still I imagined what it would look like to have one of those EK43 in my home kitchen, would it even fit? Before long a Ditting 804 popped up on this very website, located in Brisbane, just my luck. It was priced at $1400 which to me was a lot of money. I was able to sell a few of my Mazzer grinders, being left with just one super jolly, and I paid the man. I now had a Ditting 804.


    Now let me tell you, after pulling apart and gaining intimate knowledge of the Mazzer brand grinders, those Italians can make a good grinder. I was not ready for the Swiss... Ditting is next level quality. just amazing. I have fallen in love. As my research went deeper I started to understand what I had, specifically machined steel burrs. I had been hoping I had an old enough grinder to sneak in with a set of cast steel burrs, previous to the machined but hey you can't win them all. I'm curious to this day what the cast burrs are like, if you have a set please DM me. I know you can get a new set of PEAK burrs for about $850 all said and done, but sheeeeeesh that is wild. more wild than SSP pricing.


    Thrifty at heart (read as cheapass) I stumbled upon a broken Breville dual boiler. how hard could it be to fix i said to myself as i handed over $140. I really had no idea what I was doing but ordered a few parts to try and get it up and running. After stumbling onto a youtube video linked from here I discovered scale tends to build between the solenoid and grouphead block. a new seal at like $7 and i was in business. I had full functioning dual boiler for less than $200. Now I was in a different world of coffee. For lighter roasts I had the unimodal burrs in the Ditting, for traditional italian espresso i had an italian grinder the super jolly. Now this little unassuming consumer good Breville is a dark horse. Did you know with some fiddling around and re-routing of some water hoses (no copper pipes here) you can turn this little machine into a flow controlled one? I could now play around with pressure profiling and super long timed extractions. Im talking about 90 sec, ground extra fine on unimodal burrs. Well it's not everyone's cup of tea. I'll tell you that, all my friends couldn't recognise the taste as "coffee" anymore.


    The next conquest was a Rancilio classe 9. The owner just wanted it gone after it had been in storage for years. The boiler was still full of water... yes, approximately 5 year old water. I left that meetup with $300 less dollars to my name, and a 60kg hunk of metal and wires in the trunk (thank goodness I have a station wagon. At the very least I thought I would have hours of entertainment so would break even on that front. Everything else is gravy baby. It was a cinch to take apart and descale and then put back together. It helped that I had an electrician mate, so I got to play apprentice one day to lay the cable to carry the 20+ amps required. Now this was a properly built Italian stallion. The only part I didn't descale that needed it was the rotary pump, this was seized with the motor unable to turn it. After manually breaking it free by hand it was working and i was back in action. I have a commercial machine designed for high volume on my back deck. This machine costs approximately $1 every time I turn it on. I get to enjoy playing barista nowadays.


    The breville was the workhorse at work now, we were making espresso just as good as the food truck that came around. The depressing fact we never seemed to get locked down at work being "essential" was somewhat less gloomy with the prospect of coffee. I had picked up some SSP unimodal burrs from another gentleman here on the forum(I believe from a lagon p64), so had more experimentation available. Another benefit was that the Burrs would get honed in, something I would never achieve at home on 30g a day. I still haven't done a serious side by side with them in super jolly and the ditting. If you guys wanna see that just mention.


    Just by chance an old VBM popped up, I was interested and willing to roll the dice at $250. You heard me correct approximately 1/10 the new price. When I went to pick it up, I couldn't test it (fine at that price) and the guy told me he thinks the element is blown. Interesting… haha. I wasn't phased, not after tearing down the rancilio classe 9. This was a baby one. Full brass boiler. Took me a while to pull my finger out and get it fixed but when I did it worked well. This was the dream since uni days, an E61 group that just looked classic. The more and more espresso i was having, i found myself enjoying the filter more. I was making batchies at work when the guys were pulling shots. Honestly there's something zen about about a pourover in the morning, i was onto V60 now at home. Pouring water in concentric circles has a mesmerizing effect. COmpare that to the mean angry espresso machine that needs to be tamed. If you touch it the wrong way you will get burned, literally. It was decided, I am done with espresso personally, but will keep one for the partner, plus I enjoy the challenge of latte art.


    Now everything I had been reading about the Ditting lab sweet was saying it is superior to an Ek43 at brewing. Would anyone here agree? I'm not very trusting in nature. I have to see to believe. I'm sure you guys can see where this is going. Long term plans now involve getting an Ek43 and also finding some Peak or cast steel burrs for an 804. I had been seeing EK43 go for around $2-$3k but that was a bit out of my range… Till one day, I shot my shot and found an ek listed for weeks. I ended up getting it for $1600. I couldn't even turn it on and test it out before parting with my cash. This upgradeitis should finally be quenched. Upon a well needed cleaning I have hit a half jackpot. It is an older EK so I plan to get my machinist friend to help me hone the burr carrier, that's the bad part. The good part are the burrs STW 302 02 04 A, to those that know, know.


    TL;DR And that's really the whole point of this post, can the burrs be resharpend or are they on their last go around.



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