New Macap not grinding into the doser

[Viewer]

Macap stepless was delivered today.

I put it together, put in the bean, but they're not grinding into the doser. A few beans do seem to grind up in the neck portion, but they aren't falling out.

Chris is not open right now, so I'm coming to you for help.

[Thwack]

Did you do the routine that came on the supplemental instructions to find your zero point before putting in beans? If you did that, did you back it off a bit from the zero point? Seems like if the burrs are too close you might not get anything to come through. Remember that bigger number on the dial means coarser.

Also, if you unscrew the finger guard in the doser you will be able to easily inspect the chute to make sure nothings clogging it. Just a couple of thoughts... hope you get it working.

[Viewer]

At first I only did it a little, but don't think I actually found the zero point. When I ordered it, Chris told me he didn't think finding the zero point was really necessary.

Anyway, I cleaned it out and did find the zero point (just above 2) and screwed it back to about 4. I can hear some coffee grinding, but not really releasing into the doser.

I haven't taken off the protecting finger guard.

How long should it take for coffee to come out? I guess I waited about a minute.

[HB]

It shouldn't take more than 5-10 seconds for a goodly amount of coffee grinds to spew forth. I've seen the "spinning beans in the grinder throat" problem when the burrs are way too far apart. The Macap has a long, long threading. Once I removed the upper carrier to check out the burrs. When I spun it back on, I stopped when I felt some resistance. What I thought was the burrs touching was actually resistance from some grinds in the threads. What a "duh" moment that was...

(Just to be certain, did you actually hear the burrs touching? I'm sure it's not the case, but another potential "d'oh!" moment is mistaking hitting the carrier safety stop screw for the burrs touching when turning it the wrong way.)

[Viewer]

Thanks for your response.

I'm pretty certain I found the zero point. At around 2. Then I pulled it back to about 4 or 4 1/2. Now it's at about 3 1/2. I know I'm going in the right direction. Smaller finer.

The motor is running, and some beans do seem to grind in the grinder itself, but outside of a few stray grounds, nothing is going into the hopper. Seems like even if they are course, they should be falling into the doser.

Frustrating because my daughter just brought back some of my favorite beans, from Cafe Roma in San Francisco.

[HB]

Strange, everything you describe sounds like you're well above the zero point and the beans are not feeding into the burrs because they are too far apart. For those reading along, Jim's Grinder burr types explained shows how this works:

"The typical burr grinder has three angles where the bean breaking, coarse and fine grinding respectively occur. As the burrs are put together, these angles create a progressively constricted space the beans are forced into. At the outer diameter, the grindstones are perfectly parallel for the final grind to a powder."

The grinder's high-speed rotation forces the beans into successively narrower cutting surfaces. If it were my grinder, I would remove the upper burr carrier and confirm everything looks "normal," then clean out the chamber with a vacuum cleaner and confirm the zero point by spinning down the carrier with the grinder off (properly threading the carrier is described in Cleaning a Mazzer Mini). Backing off just a teenie bit from there should produce talcum powder like grinds.

(Alternatively, call Roger at Chris' Coffee and he'll walk you through the diagnosis.)

[Viewer]

Again, thanks.

I'm not inclined to take anything apart at this point. I guess it's possible that what I believe is at the zero point, is actually not. But I also don't want to over tighten since I don't want to ruin the burrs either.

On the other hand, given your evaluation, wouldn't very coarse grinds be coming out the chute anyway?

later....

I spoke to Chris' support department. He seemed pretty certain that the problem is the burrs are too close. He said just keep opening to a larger number till the beans come out.

[HB]

There's always the risk of cross-threading during reassembly, but you can't "ruin" the burrs since they are flat, parallel surfaces. Not that the sound of metal-on-metal is comforting. If the burrs are far apart by a wide margin, the beans will just spin in circles.

[woodchuck]

Dan, I also remember we had a problem like this once with a grinder we were testing at CCC for the first time. You may recall better than I but I think it was the Macap doserless. When we took it apart the burrs were all gummed up with old coffee. When we cleaned them and put them back the thing worked fine.

[OlywaDave]

Man that sucks I'd be anxious to use that thing!!! I haven't heard this issue yet in regards to any of the Macaps, but our advice from EspressoParts is much the same as above.. Back the burrs way off as course as you need to get the beans flowing. On the step-less it seems like it could be a slower process as it really does move in the tiniest of increments.

[Viewer]

Things seem to be working fine. Chris' advice seem to work. We backed way off till grinds started coming out, then moved finer from there. Seems opposite of the usual "zero point" method, but it seemed to get me to a decent grind. (ok, I'm still fine tuning).

Thanks for everyone's advise. Dan, my wife was particularly impressed with your diagram (and with your grinder review).

[HB]

Glad to hear it worked out! If you have a chance, would you post what you find as a good "start here" espresso zone setting for the Macap so I can note it in the review?

Dan, my wife was particularly impressed with your diagram

Not me, all the credit goes to Jim Schulman. His explanation of how the different burrs work cited earlier is great.

[Viewer]

For Intelligentsia Black Cat and (I'm not sure which blend from) Caffe Roma in San Francisco, I'm using about a number 8 1/2 (in front---the screw is pretty much centered. In back the number would be about 4 at the worm drive.) That leaves the grounds pretty close in texture to the way Intelligentsia was grinding it while my old grinder was broken. I should note that I'm using a pressurized portafilter on an older Estro (Saeco) Profi. -- Waiting for Saeco to get some non-pressurized portafilters in (or till I get a new machine).

So again, thanks to everyone here, and to Chris at Chris' Coffee who saw my posts on HB and sent me an email with some suggestions and a place to call on weekends if I have questions.

[CakeBoy]

Hi everyone, I am finally making my first post having been an avid reader for some time and active on the TMC forum

I have only just seen this thread, but had the same issue with a Macap M4 stepped grinder fairly recently. It had always been fine, then suddenly one day nothing was coming out. Compounding the issue was that it continued to grind and just ended up with lots of fine grounds in the burr area. I backed it right off as has been discussed here and all was fine.

At first, I assumed that a bean had jammed or become stuck in some way, but I don't think that was entirely the issue because it was clearly still grinding. I actually had to back off a lot further than usual for a simple stuck bean and go in and out a few times. It remains a mystery and was very odd when it happened, especially because someone else was grinding to make coffee for a group of people and thought she had broken something!

[cajun_brew]

Glad to hear it worked out! If you have a chance, would you post what you find as a good "start here" espresso zone setting for the Macap so I can note it in the review?

On my 1 month old M4 the sweet spot for home roast is 14 full revolutions of the worm drive from true zero (burrs touching) which is right at 1 ½ numbers on the dial. It's probably a full turn more or so of the worm drive for a lot of pro roasted stuff I get. This is using a double basket.

[niad]

I got my Macap M4 Stepless yesterday. I found that i have to let the grinder work as i adjust the fineness otherwise it will not grind it just spins when i start it. I adjusted it with the burrs not spinning and then i got no grind as with the problem in the start of this thread. I had to move to much coarser grind when it was running and than back again and now i only adjust it when it is up and running and it works all the time.