La Cimbali Junior Grinder Adjustment

[wmfamily]

Just got my new grinder from Chris' Coffee and have to say its quite the piece of hardware. Big thanks again to Chris for the great HB Birthday deals.

Anyway, we got a pound of crap beans to learn to use it and after grinding about half of it it was able to get a decent time/pressure pull on my Tea. Once I got to the "sweet" spot on the Tea, the dial was between 0 and 1 and the burrs were starting the rub a bit. The question is whether this is normal or should I be a little higher on the scale. Is it a tamp issue (I don't know how I could tamp any harder), the coffee, or ....??

I did grind some of my good stuff and I was able to loosen it a bit but not much.

Thoughts??

John

[Fred]

FWIW, I bought a Jr. from Chris about three weeks ago and am grinding between 6 and 7 on the scale. I don't know that the machines are pre-calibrated, but your setting sounds extreme. I would suspect the beans are the primary culprit, but I would also double-check the dose and your tamping pressure.

Hope this helps,
Fred

[bobroseman]

Mine runs between 4 and 5 mostly with the occasional 3.5. I would say that if the burrs seem to be touching something is definitely amiss.

Bob

[wmfamily]

Well good news. After fiddling with the grinder a little more I've gotten different results. I ground more of my home roasted (same as the first night) and found that I completely plugged the machine. Hmmm....hate to waste good coffee. I increased the grind size and tried again. Still a little slow so I increased the grind again to about 3.25 and pulled a shot. Success!!

Fast forward to tonight and I ground some more home roast I was was again able to pull several very nice shots. More success!!

So whatever was the original issue has worked its way out. The only thing that I can think that has changed is that I work a little more to clean out the grind discharge chute. Maybe the fine stuff that usually hangs up in there affects things...I don't know.

Anyway I'm still very happy with the grinder. Maybe it's like every other machine, especially espresso machines, and takes a little getting used to to "learn" its personality.

Thanks for the help.

John