Ummm, I have had a bit of a different experience with my junior. I have found that grinding per shot gives me excellent results. Perhaps the difference here is that my burrs are good, and I weigh my shots. Using the doser in a per shot manner I have never seen more than a .2g difference pre ground vs ground. I was worried about using the grinder in this way (something that was damn near impossible with my mazzer mini) but it works extremely well. As for the fluffiness of the Junior vs your le-lit I can't say specifically (since I've never used that grinder) but a new set of burrs along with the agitation created by multiple "thwacks" of the of the doser lever should create fluffy espresso with no clumps.

As for the doser, after you remove the back case (screws on the bottom) there are two screws that hold the doser bottom on, and then two screw/nuts at the bottom of the doser that hold it to the front case. Once you remove those two screws you'll notice some play. Remove the plastic trim surrounding the doser (bottom trim snaps in and two screws on the side trim, one each side) The top doser trim clicks in, but once you remove it the plastic doser window will come off. If you need I have some pictures that may help you with your cleaning. I used some Jo-Glo and soaked all of the parts except the doser mechanism, vacuumed the hell out of it and used lots of q-tips and alcohol. It came out rather nice. Good luck!

Dennis

Chosemerveilleux wrote:Ummm, I have had a bit of a different experience with my junior. I have found that grinding per shot gives me excellent results. Perhaps the difference here is that my burrs are good, and I weigh my shots. Using the doser in a per shot manner I have never seen more than a .2g difference pre ground vs ground. I was worried about using the grinder in this way (something that was damn near impossible with my mazzer mini) but it works extremely well.
Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Etes-vous francophone?

Here's something to try: Just for laughs, try using the grinder with more beans in the hopper. I'm not suggesting that you don't weigh your grinds, but weigh them after you grind (since for this trial you will be using a hopper that has more beans in it, so weighing before grinding will not work). Try to keep 3 or 4 oz. of coffee in the grinder hopper at all times for this little test. You will need to adjust your grind coarser, since you are used to using your grinder empty, and hence the grinds are by definition coarser as a result of this. When you put more beans in the hopper the grind will become "finer" in comparison so you need to adjust for this.

Try this little test for long enough to determine if it makes any difference for your straight shots; I'd suggest a 4 day to one week trial.

My guess is that you will find that your shots have improved in both average taste and in consistency from shot to shot.

ken

I'm with Ken on this one.
The popcorning effect is quite noticeable.

Grind adjustment, if you are making small adjustments like changing the grind one or two clicks either direction to fine tune a blend, I dont worry about running the grinder while adjusting. If I am making a half to full number adjustment, which is pretty large, I will pulse the motor a few times while adjusting.

The counter on the doser, not really sure. In a cafe where they run the doser full of coffee and have the star adjusted for a specific dose, one pull would be one shot. So you could use it as an index to count how many shots you have pulled in a day. Beyond that, useless.

Grind per dose, not really what the machine was designed to do, along with every other commercial grinder on the market. Some of the smaller home grinders were designed that way and the Versalab was specifically made for dose per grind work. Flat burr grinders suffer much less popcorning than conicals. You will still get a little, but no where near as much as a conical. My Max will occasional pop beans completely out of the hopper if I have the lid off while cleaning it out for the next blend. You can still dose per shot, but you have to consistently dose per shot. Your grind will vary from the beginning to the end. As the bean column gets chewed up, the back pressure drops, as it drops the grind gets coarser. If you keep enough coffee in the hopper to keep it level with the top of the hopper inlet, you are pretty safe. Once the bean level drops below that you start to get a big drift in the grind. I keep about 4 shots worth of beans in the hopper and have no issues.

Dosing, get yourself a scale, dose into the basket and weigh it instead of weighing the beans before you put them in the grinder. You can take the spring out of your portafilter so the basket will just drop in without messing up the distribution. After a while, you will get good at eyeballing it and not need the scale any longer.

Thanks for all the replies.

I have another question, this time about replacing the burrs (I thought it best to post here instead of starting another thread). I just received a new set from Chris' Coffee. It seems by looking at these burrs and the old ones that the top and bottom burrs are the same. Is this correct, or is one burr designed specifically as a top burr and one as a bottom? If so, how do I tell them apart?

Thank you,
Will Bennett

Update 1:
Well, I did something wrong. It sounds like it's grinding, but grinds do not go into the doser. I have to go to sleep, so I'll try to figure it out tomorrow afternoon. Also, I don't think it has anything to do with the burrs being different. I can't find much information, but I read somewhere that all flat burrs, top and bottom, will be the same if the grinder uses flat burrs. Is this true?

Update 2:
OK, so I couldn't go to sleep with the grinder not working. It's working fine now. I think maybe that I was grinding at a level so fine that I cloged up the chute to the doser. Does this seem possible? I did go ahead and switch the burrs, but I don't know if that fixed it or not. I can see that there is a different "pattern" on each burr, but I don't know if their positions matter. I'm sure someone can enlighten me. It is grinding way finer than before I replaced the burrs. I just ground up some coffee 3.5 from zero, and it was way too fine for espresso. I look forward to testing it out tomorrow. Good night home-barista.

Ken,

There is definitely an improvement in grind consistency when I put about 1/4 lb in the hopper. I didn't have problems with popcorning before because I modified the chute with a silicone tube, cut to length. But the added weight of the coffee helps out. Unfortunately it leaves me using more coffee than I sometimes care to, much as opening a bottle of wine could leave one to drink more than initially desired (per its short life once exposed to air) but oh well. Cheers for the tip.

malachi wrote:I'm with Ken on this one.
The popcorning effect is quite noticeable.

Pour moi, aussi.

Hi there,

I'm new to this forum because I recently bought a La Cimbali Cadet grinder and I'm desperately looking for an owner's manual. Can anyone help? Thanx!

I was going to ask how the Cimbali Cadet was different than the Cimbali Junior, and then I came across this at http://www.ifyoulovecoffee.com/grinders/cimbali/cadet.htm:

La Cimbali Cadet Grinder
Our Price: $895.00
Retail Price: $1,095.00
Weight: 9 kg
Width: 8.6 in
Height: 18.5 in
Depth: 14.2 in
Maximum Power: 120 V / 300 W
Water Tank: 1800 cc
Boiler Capacity: 480 cc
Bean Hopper: 2.2 lb

Emphasis added -- JBL

Hey, any grinder with a boiler NEEDS an owner's manual!

Cheers,
Jason