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!

I hope you searched the forums for my guide:
http://www.monkeyfaq.com/mazzer

As for the wires on the switches,

You can completely take them out of the relay (or the white thing that holds wires).
The switch at the bottom turns the machine on after 12 pulls of the handle, but you can remove it without doing anything else

The switch under the doser turns the machine off after it fills up with an un-godly amount of coffee. This switch is "ON" until it is tapped by coffee at which point it turns off. This switch you need to jump.

godlyone wrote:I hope you searched the forums for my guide:
http://www.monkeyfaq.com/mazzer

Yes, definitely - and thanks! I linked to your guide in my original post.

You can completely take them out of the relay (or the white thing that holds wires).
The switch at the bottom turns the machine on after 12 pulls of the handle, but you can remove it without doing anything else

The switch under the doser turns the machine off after it fills up with an un-godly amount of coffee. This switch is "ON" until it is tapped by coffee at which point it turns off. This switch you need to jump.

OK, great. And my apologies, but I'm a bit slow when it comes to electrics. I understand how to remove them from the relay. When you say I need to "jump" the lower switch, can you tell me a bit more about how to do that? (I think you mean I need to close that circuit, but I'm not exactly sure if that's right or how best to do it.)

Thanks again.

Hi Sam, and welcome to H-B. I believe I have the same model of Major Auto as you (mine is a Rio rebrand). Follow the two wires from the autogrinding device at the top of the doser down to the plastic wiring box on the inside bottom of the grinder. Remove these wires by unscrewing the little retaining screws, and replace them with a small piece of wire that shorts the circuit. The two wires from the bottom of the doser may simply be removed from the wiring box.

Thanks, John. That's perfect! Mine's an Astoria rebrand, and what you describe is exactly what I've got. I really appreciate the help. I'll be sure to post some pictures if and when I get the thing painted! Thanks again.

RapidCoffee wrote:Hi Sam, and welcome to H-B. I believe I have the same model of Major Auto as you (mine is a Rio rebrand). Follow the two wires from the autogrinding device at the top of the doser down to the plastic wiring box on the inside bottom of the grinder. Remove these wires by unscrewing the little retaining screws, and replace them with a small piece of wire that shorts the circuit. The two wires from the bottom of the doser may simply be removed from the wiring box.

Oops! One more question.

The wires that run from the bottom of the doser go into the same connector slots on the relay as two wires running from the switch. The doser wires and the switch wires are soldered together before they connect to the relay.

Should I:

1. Disconnect the wires that run to the switch (thereby removing the "auto" setting entirely)?

2. Cut the soldered wires. Then reconnect the wires from the switch to the relay, while disconnecting the bottom doser wires?

All of this still assumes that I will remove the top doser wire from the relay and jump the connectors that they ran into.

Yes, I would cut the wires and only reattach the wires from the 3-position on-off switch. The wires on my grinder were not soldered together.

Kinda goes without saying, but don't touch any of the wires while the grinder is plugged in.

RapidCoffee wrote:mine is a Rio rebrand

fronesis wrote:Mine's an Astoria rebrand,

I have one of each, to go along with my Astoria machine. Do either of you know if there is an actual difference between any of the Majors (Astoria, Mazzer, Rio)?

There may be some differences between Mazzers and rebrands (e.g., see this post). Astoria and Rio rate the motors at higher wattages for the SJ and Major than Mazzer. What this actually means is anyone's guess.

It is interesting that yours were soldered together.. I would cut them before the solder point re-strip the wire and place them back in the relay.

John was exactly right about using a short length of wire to short the connection.

If you want to tidy the wires, you can take the incoming wire and route it straight to the relay.. but it will work perfectly fine either way.

The way it is now is incoming wire -> switch -> back from switch ->relay

so you did: incoming wire -> short wire jump -> relay

or you can do incoming wire-> relay

But either way will be fine.

Thanks again to both of you.

I've now done the following:

- take the bottom doser wire and cut it before the solder points
- reconnected the wires that it was soldered into
- removed the top doser wire entirely
- run a very short wire to jump the connectors on the relay where the top doser wire was run initially

Since my grinder is still completely disassembled (painting process is not complete) I haven't turned it on yet, but I feel fairly confident that I've got it right now. (But please do say so if I'm missing something!).

Oh, and John, I appreciate your reminder about making certain the grinder was not plugged in. I almost always double check, but it's the sort of thing where triple-checking is a good idea!

It all works!

If you cut your funnel down to about 1" above the mounting screws you will find it much easier to sweep out the chute. How is the static/clumping with the plastic funnel?

Good suggestion about the height of the funnel. It's at the height it currently is simply because that's where I cut the 2 L bottle off. But you're right, the angle makes it hard to get to the chute.

I've only had this operational for 24 hours, but at the moment I'm getting no static at all. There's probably a small amount of clumping, but not very much. And certainly not that I'd notice, coming from the Saeco Titan, the Mazzer just makes the fluffiest grounds I've ever seen...!

Nice restoration and nice colour. Though if it was over here in England, you might have people trying to post letters through those slots

You're right: it does look like a postbox!

I lived for the last 3 years in Wales before returning to the States...

Any way you could post a video of it in action?

That looks so nice. I'm almost tempted to have a go at painting the one I just bought although I kind of like the tatty gold Donald Trump bathroom colour on mine. Can I ask what you are using in the throat instead of the hopper? I have been using a 53mm tamper I had lying around in the SJ but in the Major it touches the spinning hex bolt if it's not sitting straight.
Sam.

Scott - let me try to dig out the old video camera and see what I can produce.

Sam - First, the painting project wasn't all that hard, just time-consuming. The better you do the prep work, the better it comes out. I was in a rush and only 2 coats of paint (after 2 of primer), and I think I'd do 4 thin coats if I was to do it again. And you need to have a good ventilated place outdoors to do the painting, which in my case wasn't easy to find.

As for the throat: I, too, started by putting the tamp in there, but that looked like a bad idea long term to me (hex bolt). Right now I have the bottom collar of the standard hopper; it disconnects from the hopper with just one screw. I just open the little trap door to put in the beans, then close when I grind. This works fairly well except: A) it won't hold many beans this way, and B) the opening into that collar is very small, so it's easy to spill beans.

I think some folks have fashioned little PVC funnel setups, and I'd love to hear recommendations or see links to those solutions. I don't have much space to clear the cabinets, but I'd love something a little wider and a little larger.

Here are photos of stainless steel canning funnels. A very sanitary mod! Here
-Richard