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  • Mazzer major alignment

    Apologies if this has been asked before but I did a quick search. I got a great deal recently on my Major from a fellow CS so certainly not complaining but I feel like the grind quality/taste from my Mazzer Mini with SJ burrs is still better so I figure the alignment must be off. I recently installed new Mazzer 83 mm OEM burrs. I have tried the marker test and I feel like the bottom burrs are OK (accepting the arguments about stationary v loaded burr alignment etc) but the top burr is maybe 60% although due to various noises I'm not always confident re exact touch point.

    ​​​​​​However, when removing the burr from the carrier there is very little room to shim with foil due the big holes in the carrier, so wondering if anyone has had success doing something else? Thanks.

  • #2
    Blues Im running a Major after migrating from a SJ that I ran for years.
    There's many Q's here as food for thought.....
    Before you jump straight Down that 'hole' (* "I figure the alignment must be off" !) .....
    For instance - Re new burrs
    1/ Where's your grind setting ATM in relation to true zero?

    Re: 'the rule of diminishing returns'
    2/ What we're your pre-arrival expectations for said Major?
    Regarding grind quality ? Work Flow? Taste expectations?

    Re;"New Age' espresso Marketing, The 'Tech' blah blah blah...
    Some many moons ago here ....in the day of 'Pid'ing the Slivia...often was asked 'What if I PID my E61 HX' Yes it was asked often!
    Well that was always *Beaten down with It wont pay dividends / not worth the effort / ! rule of diminishing returns !
    * Whats not stated here At All is that in Aust a local manufacturer gained Import duty relief ruling on importation of HX with P/Stat machines.
    Well suddenly around 2016 or so (memory, so don't quote?) Internet marketing lauded the new arrival of The New thing a PID controlled boiler!

    What Im pointing out IS just what has a micro thousandth of a mm post shimming going to do to improve the grind to improve taste of your shots?
    IMHO There's Much much more gain to be made flavour / taste wise from your Barista imputs. Such as re-assessing Dose weight, Puck clearance / saturation / pre-infusion / Flow Rate.

    Note Im not in any way being negative to your post, however as a 40+year mechanic measuring the clearances on a rotating head device When a lot of the crushing of the bean could actually be a larger portion(s) of bean crushing each other, Or the real final grind point is the finest point between top / bottom burr upon rotational points.....
    As well shimming with 'foil' - (aluminium foil? = home cooking foil?) would be less reliable than say using a donor 'Feeler Strip" at the correct thickness. But again how do you come to that dimension And allow for nominal crush ?
    See now Ive opened a real can of worms !! As I said in the opening lots of questions.....
    Of course only my opinion Blues'y, and happy to receive yours as well as others input.
    Cheers

    Comment


    • #3
      Thanks EA, very happy to be talked out of it as it seems very finnicky.
      1. about 12 notches
      2. pre-arrival was minor improvement in taste and grind quality, but definitely improved grind speed compared with the Mini (obviously achieved)
      Some good points re focusing on puck prep - I believe I have done as much there as possible - fresh well stored locally roasted beans, single dosed, VST basket, WDT, sometimes a very shallow distribution tool, puck screen, and a Normcore v4 tamper when lazy/wanting consistency or a traditional 58.5 mm tamper.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Blues1143 View Post
        I got a great deal recently on my Major from a fellow CS so certainly not complaining but I feel like the grind quality/taste from my Mazzer Mini with SJ burrs is still better so I figure the alignment must be off.
        The grind distribution and therefore flavour profile of these burrs is likely different, requiring you to re-dial in all coffee. The old recipes of X grams out in X seconds will likely need to change. Have you tried dialling in again by taste? I'd start there. Also how much force did you tighten the burr screws with? You really only need 2-3Nm. I do them up by gripping the shaft of the screwdriver between thumb and forefinger as loosely as I possibly can and still turn the screw, then I tighten it and let my fingers slip off. After that I move the screw 1/8 of a turn or less to tighten it.

        Comment


        • #5
          Thanks level3ninja some good things to try - I possibly did screw tighter than that and I am likely too inflexible with ratios.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Blues1143 View Post
            Thanks EA, very happy to be talked out of it as it seems very finnicky.
            Your coming from a Mzzr Mini - 64mm burr set, Im coming from the SJ. There's not much room in grind quality to accede to.
            Remember in a commercial setting the Major's main aim was to be quicker, put out higher volumes at a much cooler temp - re: the fan installation.
            If your using the 'E' I have checked with the main AU importer (there are a number of others in parallel) and dose quantity accuracy was not a main concern of its spec. And Most G.o D. grinders still fail if in the +/- 0.1g - 0.2g dose range.
            Originally posted by Blues1143 View Post
            1. about 12 notches
            In similar 'range', so Although this cant be relied upon, was just a dble check to see where your at. So alls good.
            Originally posted by Blues1143 View Post
            2. pre-arrival was minor improvement in taste and grind quality, but definitely improved grind speed compared with the Mini (obviously achieved)
            Is your major an 'E' or Manual doser?
            What is your work flow? i.e. Do you measure grind out?, Single dose? or Hopper feed?
            Non of the above are an issue...it really comes back to how fine / tight you want to consistently run your shots.
            And how much effort your prepared to go to. My view is Its just as easy long term to pull a really good shot as it is to pull a close but not quite there shot! Or rubbish one !
            Originally posted by Blues1143 View Post
            Some good points re focusing on puck prep - I believe I have done as much there as possible - fresh well stored locally roasted beans, single dosed, VST basket, WDT, sometimes a very shallow distribution tool, puck screen.
            What size basket? What head height clearance does your recipe for this basket run?
            As an example I run just an old skool manual HX E61 And I wasnt a prescriber to the "preinfusion using the lever half way' type. It was argued here many moons ago. Anyway a guy I knew.....doesnt matter here....anyway he visited I pulled us a cple cups, as you do after a tasty coffee, hmmm id like a cple more sips, so another was the order, he said Can I, of course.....anyway long short was I watched his prep, as he did mine, nothing to dissimilar except he did the 45deg manual pre infusion. Same / similar result. Except I could of stuck my head in the sand.
            Anyway I experimented and experimented etc.etc.. long short was, its a 'whole' that eventually Paid Dividends! Except its Manual and Highly Unrepeatable / Unreliable at the low end, but worth the effort if you want to get the best of a bean.
            Point being? - well youve changed 'one thing' out of your espresso recipe....a big thing at that obv.
            So revisit your recipe setup and try some different settings etc. see where you head to taste wise
            .
            Originally posted by Blues1143 View Post
            Normcore v4 tamper when lazy/wanting consistency or a traditional 58.5 mm tamper.
            1% here. But as above. Just as easy to repeat the 1% as it is to not.
            A lot of VST (G) size variant baskets take different size tampers as 3 out of my 4 do, if measured to within 0.15mm.
            As is experienced here many CS'ers Mileage will vary as to what they've experienced based on there own inputs.


            Lets see what others can offer here in relation to fine alignment of burrs etc.

            EDIT: typing this whilst L3N posted #4 above.

            Comment


            • Blues1143
              Blues1143 commented
              Editing a comment
              Thanks - it's a major E, I single dose using a tamper as a weight in the throat (58.4 seems to work best) and a puffer to get reliably 0.1 gram weight difference pre and post (accepting likely some exchange etc) so happy re that part. My VST is 22 grams - I use 22 if no puck screen and 19 with a puck screen (I find more than that causes weird things to happen).
              I will definitely fiddle with the ratio and make sure my screws are not over tightened as L3N suggests.

          • #7
            Id say work on your puck prep consistency before you go playing with your grinder. Try keeping a coffee diary for a few months. Write down - bean type, grinder setting, dose, time, weight (and whatever else you can manage). Aim to get ballpark the same time/weight each time to show consistency.

            Once you have that you can play around with dose and grind to start seeing how different beans react. You'll find some love a coarser grind than you'd typically use.

            Comment


            • Blues1143
              Blues1143 commented
              Editing a comment
              Thanks - I regularly get the same beans stored the same way out in the same ratio in the same seconds +/- 1 second only without much visible channelling on the naked so pretty happy with that bit but definitely agree re tinkering with different ratios out and potentially grind sizes more generally.

          • #8
            In case anyone has similar issues, I think I realised my error. I just thought some downward force, via a tamper or similar, was required when threading in the adjustment dial, but with some new food safe grease it installs with much less resistance and without the need of a tamper, which I presume was throwing something off with the burr carriers. I also reinstalled the burrs as L3N suggested so that may also have helped.

            Comment


            • #9
              Blues does that mean that simply greasing the threads of the adjustment dial was enough to improve the alignment of your grinder and the output? The one thing i was going to mention is that new burrs often take a few KGs to settle in, especially if they’re stock mazzer burrs and not say SSP pre-seasoned burrs.

              Comment


              • Blues1143
                Blues1143 commented
                Editing a comment
                Yes it does - without a lot of grease I needed to use a tamper while threading to provide downward force otherwise I could not grind fine
                enough so I presume this was messing up the subsequent alignment.

            • #10
              Ah interesting — good to know! Is the grind quality now equal (or better?) than the SJ you were using before?

              Comment


              • Blues1143
                Blues1143 commented
                Editing a comment
                At least equal, I currently have them dialled in for very different coffees so hard to compare easily right now though
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