Hello everyone,
It's my first time posting here after learning and getting the home espresso bug over at the Coffeegeek forums. I'm in the middle of refurbing a Mazzer Major (as helpfully detailed
here) and converting it to doserless (as discussed in these very help threads,
here, and
here).
I have one question I haven't seen answered anywhere, and it's about wiring. My major has the automatic timer switch with the 3 positions. As I'm removing the doser, I won't be using the automatic feature, nor will I be reconnecting the wires. There are two of them (and on each there's a positive and a negative), one that ran to the bottom of the doser to activate the grinder and one that ran to the top to deactivate it.
My question: should I just tape up those wires so that the positive and negative are NOT connected and I'll be OK, or do I need to so something more?
Oh, and if anyone has any masking/sanding/priming/painting tips, they would be much appreciated!
Also, I did learn a couple of things doing my refurb that might be of help to folks like me with very little skill.
1. The main bolt that holds the rotor in place is NOT a 13mm hex on my machine; it's a 6 mm allen. So if you have a machine like mine (a 2000 Astoria) you'll need a long allen wrench or a socket with allen head since you need a lot of torque. (My unit also has a brass rotor assembly, and the one in the photos on the site linked to above is not brass.)
2. The long bolts that you need to push up the main rotor assembly are 5mm. Other posters seem to have had these lying around, but I went through about 300 bolts I had at home and none did the trick. I also found it very difficult to locate LONG 5mm metric bolts at hardware stores (I went to 3).
3. The portafilter holder comes off with ease, but on my machine the bolts were held tight my nuts on the inside of the machine (that is, there are no threads in those holes), so as soon as I unscrewed the bolts the nuts fell to the bottom of the machine. No big deal, but something to look out for and requires the added step of taking off the bottom of the machine.
I now have the machine ready for paintwork and reassembly, but I must confess that it took me longer than expected...
cheers!