How are the burrs unscrewed on the Compak K10 WBC? I have one of the newer models with the "floating" collar system, and no grind adjustment screw. I took off the polished aluminum top, and removed the three screws holding the ring on top of the burr carrier (not sure if this is necessary). The instructions say you simply unthread the carrier (reverse threaded as usual). The thread is very tight, and I didn't want to turn it too much without checking if I was doing the right thing. What happens when the carrier is removed?

Right, so no need to actually remove the screws and plate unless I want to reset the zero. I'm surprised by how difficult it is to turn the burr carrier in the threads. My old M4 glided through the threads as I rotated the carrier. On the K10, it's tight enough that I posted this thread to make sure I was doing it correctly. Unscrewing such a long thread is bad enough when it's loose, let alone under pressure. I guess it gets easier as the springs decompress, though.

I set out to clean my K10 this evening, and after some messing around, finally managed to figure out that it's a very simple procedure to unthread the upper burr carrier and get access to the grind chamber. It didn't help that the manual hasn't been updated for any of the hardware revisions, and the current model is quite different from the original. However, I can't for the life of me figure out how you're supposed to remove the safety stop so you can unthread the carrier with the top attached, instead of by hand.

I can't find a good photo, but this huge photo from David Schomer's blog shows what I'm talking about. The thin black post at the right catches on the protrusion from the grind regulator. It doesn't have a head, so I have no idea how to remove it. The only way I could take off the upper burr carrier was by removing the grind regulator, and grasping the carrier tightly and turning it by hand. I would rather not put it back on this way. What am I doing wrong?

The interior of my K10 was reasonably clean, unlikely what David apparently found in the one he used for his (scathing) review. Some tightly caked grounds, but certainly no whole beans and such.

Some general questions about the K10 WBC:

1) Should the burr thread be so tight?

2) When I re-thread the burr carrier, do I just slot it in and go at it? As far as I can tell, there is only only starting position, and no need to turn backwards until the threads slot together, but the thread is tight enough that I want to check first.

3) How much play in the thread is normal? I can rotate it a small amount, and I can see the grind regulator jerk around slightly when the motor torque is applied. I'm pretty certain this contributed to my mini hopper cracking within a few days.

4) I get a fair bit of vibration with the motor running, and I was initially concerned that the motor mount was off-axis. Pressing on various parts of the grinder changes the intensity and sound. The three main screws on my grinder (again, see photo) have rubber grommets underneath the heads, but one of them was screwed down wrong and twisted the grommet out of shape. Could this be an issue?

This photo should show what I'm talking about more clearly:



The pin circled in red stops you from unthreading the upper burr carrier with the grind regulator in place, because it catches on a non-removable protrusion on the bottom. On previous revisions, the stop had a screw that could be removed, so you could unthread the upper burr without removing the grind regulator. This gives you something to grip, rather than having to hold the burr carrier itself between your hands.

The little slot circled in blue mates with a pin on the burr carrier. There is no way to reverse the threads until they lock, because there only seems to be one possible starting position.

The screws circled in green have rubber grommets under them in my grinder. One of them wasn't tightened properly, and the grommet isn't sitting underneath it properly.

Here is a photo of an older version of the K10 WBC:



The slot I'm talking about, as well as the corresponding pin on the carrier, are circled in blue again. The removable stop I mentioned is circled in yellow. As you can see, the grind regulator is still attached to the burr carrier.

More questions:

1) Where are the springs?

2) Is it necessary to lubricate the threads every time after wiping off the grinds?

What is the point of any of this? Are you running something foul through your grinder?

I must admit to being baffled by reading about home users who feel they need to disassemble their commercial grinders in order to "clean" them. What exactly are you cleaning inside of the grinder? Do you have vermin running around your house who get into the recesses of your grinder? Are you grinding something other than coffee in your grinder?

I could understand it if one was to buy an old used and abused commercial grinder, received it in deplorable condition, and wanted to clean it up. What I can't understand is the compulsion to disassemble a commercial grinder, in light home service, with the only apparent justification being that the grinder can be disassembled and that there are other people posting on the internet about how they disassembled their grinders, so hey, why not do it yourself?

My personal opinion is that if you regularly use your grinder, there will be some coffee build up in certain recesses that will fill voids internally. Even if you "clean and remove" these small collections of coffee from the innerds of your grinder, the next time you use it new coffee bits and pieces and grinds will end up refilling these recesses, and you will have accomplished essentially zero. Taking commercial grinders apart is not as benign a procedure as it may appear. The soft brass burr carrier threads are easily misthreaded and if you do this, you are going to have a much bigger problem on your hands than a few stray grinds in the recesses of the innerds of your grinder.

Granted, sometimes you have to change burrs, and that's a good reason to open up a grinder. Granted, sometimes people buy old and abused grinders that are simply too GROSS, too unappetizing, to consider using them without a major cleanup. But in the case of a home user with his home grinder, often a grinder designed for much more use than the home user is going to give it -- what is the point of all this? What is the proof that this sort of ritual accomplishes anything that anyone can taste?

Here are my suggestions: (1) don't take your grinder apart unless there is a really good reason to do so; (2) don't run disgusting beans through your grinder, and then you won't feel you need to take it apart unnecessarily; (3) keep the parts of your grinder that are accessible to you clean; by this I mean the discharge chute from the burr chamber to the doser, the discharge chute from the doser to the PF, the doser itself, and the hopper; (4) if your grinder sits for a prolonged period unused, consider using one of the commercial grinder cleaner products, then grind some decent beans afterwards to clean out the cleaning product.

If someone, anyone, could post here about their experiences taking their commercial grinders apart regularly and what they have observed in the taste of their shots afterwards, that was different, I'd love to hear it.

ken

Compak removed the locking screw from the grind regulator some time ago. I was under the impression that the burr carrier had been upgraded to a "floating" type like Mazzer uses, but I can't see any difference between my grinder and an older model in this respect. Very confusing.