So, I bought a Nuovo Simonelli Grinta grinder at a steal off of Craigslist but the seller took the hopper off to check something. It looks like when she put it back on she accidentally put the hopper's adjustment button on upside-down. Now, it's completely jammed. I'm trying to find some other option besides breaking it off and replacing it with a new one. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,

Can you post a picture? I'm not sure what you mean by "hopper's adjustment button." Are you referring to the lock button for the stepped adjustment? When I had one of those grinders, I modified it to be stepless by replacing the O-ring with a square section one from a bearing supply store so it had enough friction. That was many years and two houses ago, so I have no way of telling you where to get one, but it can be done.

Best,
David

That little gray button on the left-hand side. I reached out to SCG and they referred me to Nuovo's customer service to find someone who can repair it in the South Bay area. Any tips you guys have would be greatly appreciated though!

Page 12 of this PDF shows the part diagram http://nuovasimonelliusa.com/images/par ... book_a.pdf

The parts diagram shows how to disassemble the machine. 05000518 is the part number for the locking pin. It looks like the price for that part should be around $1.50 without shipping and you should be able to get it from the place you purchased it from.

Thanks. I actually ordered a new pin and spring earlier this week but they haven't shipped yet. I'm still concerned that even if I saw the pin out that I won't be able to get the top burr off. They really didn't make this machine easy to disassemble and I'm not a handy guy at all, unfortunately, so taking it apart seems like a gamble. Wishing I'd gotten another Baratza to be honest.

It's actually pretty easy. With that pin removed, the upper burr carrier should just screw out. If you want someone else to do it, call Great Infusions in Santa Cruz, and I'm sure they will help you.

Best,
David

Thanks guys. Funnily enough, when I was "sawing out" the button today the saw wound up knocking the button back into place and it was fixed. Wish I'd tried that a couple of weeks ago.

On another note, I'm noticing the beans get stuck on the "ledge" just above the burrs and that there seems to be a lot of grinds left in the chute. Anyone have any solutions to this besides "hit the side of the grinder"?

Thanks all!

kruzilla wrote:On another note, I'm noticing the beans get stuck on the "ledge" just above the burrs and that there seems to be a lot of grinds left in the chute. Anyone have any solutions to this besides "hit the side of the grinder"?

On mine, I found a plastic funnel and used a razor saw to slice off a section the right size to slide into the hopper throat and sit on that ledge. That took care of the first problem. As for the second, I took a small bottle brush from a home-brew supply store, and bent the wire just back of the bristles. That allowed it to go up the spout and clear it out. Every once in a while, I put the spout up the tube of the vacuum cleaner when the grinder was empty, and turned both grinder and vacuum cleaner on, which effectively emptied the grinding chamber. This is never going to be a great grinder, and eventually you will likely want to upgrade, but it's not a bad one and will be fine for a while.

Best,
David

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of something similar using a funnel to make sure the beans all get to the burrs without having to shake the machine around. Honestly, I've been pretty impressed with it overall despite its quirks. Very consistent grinds and no static whatsoever. Having to shake it a bit and sweep out the chute is a very minor inconvenience in the long run.