Owner experience with Pharos manual coffee grinder by Orphan Espresso - Page 60

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
claypriley
Posts: 303
Joined: 14 years ago

#591: Post by claypriley »

Man, I love my Pharos! #162 ...... I am excited every morning when I wake up to go and make espresso Quietly while my wife sleeps........ It is even more quiet now that I have teamed the Pharos with an old Cremina Lever......

I have been roasting SM's Espresso Monkey blend for my Dad because he likes it, and I have always thought it was kind of "so-so" (no offence to SM), maybe it is my roasting.....but I have done a lot of different roasts on that blend (60# over the last 2 years) but I am no pro..... Anyway, I always try a little of the roasts I do for my Dad, and one day after I received my Pharos I ran the espresso Monkey through it, and made some espresso......and Man o' Man, it was a different coffee!! I really really liked it for the first time.... It had some depth, and fruit, and some body that I never experienced before, and this was before I got the Cremina, and I was making it on the Vetrano, which is very consistent.

So I am not sure if it is the Conical burrs, the low speed of the burrs or the Super Duper design of the grinder as a whole.... but it really changed this coffee for me, and it is now a blend I like......not just for my Dad anymore.......

I am going to try this with coffees that seem ho-hum ground on the Mazzer SJ..........grind it in the Pharos and see what happens to it.......

I also had the reverse happen with some Moka Kadir blend from SM. I really really like this blend through the SJ, but when I tried it in the Pharos it didn't change dramatically like the Espresso Monkey did....... in fact, I prefer the Moka Kadir through flat burrs.......

Anyhow, I can't wait to take my Pharos apart with the latest tech video.....

The Pharos Rocks!
LMWDP #347

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craigcharity
Posts: 265
Joined: 14 years ago

#592: Post by craigcharity »

Hey Guys,

I have had Pharos #95 for some months now. I have been a bit frustrated with getting it 'ultra' aligned and also with the fine adjustments so I did the pinch nut adjustment that someone else posted and I put 3 aluminium bars with a threaded hole around the lower burr to help the aligning process. So instead of banging it I use the bolts facing the burr to move it.

It is taking some practice to get it aligned but I pulled a great shot earlier today on my Cimbali m20 lever. I just need to sort the grinds coming out between the shaft and the plastic funnel.



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vicroamer
Posts: 128
Joined: 16 years ago

#593: Post by vicroamer »

I like the idea of those adjustment blocks, the concept could evolve into a machined ring holding the 3 bolts, nice idea well done.

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drgary
Team HB
Posts: 14336
Joined: 14 years ago

#594: Post by drgary »

Hello Everyone,

I've just spent almost an hour just skimming through the clever mods people have been trying. Why? Because it's Christmas here on Candy Cane Lane and a Pharos just arrived from Santa's workshop! Let me set the scene.

First I had a restoration to do.



Here's what it looks like across the street!



Friday night a dance troupe rocked out to Christmas music in front of our house.



Saturday night we had a train for the kids.



I just finished dialing in a pre-Millennium Pavoni on my Super Jolly and discovered it too can make finely tuned shots with ample crema. It's Tuesday night before Christmas and Pharos #224 just arrived with Doug and Barb's friendly note on the packing slip. I can't imagine how busy they must be!

It's exciting just getting one of these! I haven't seen another post of this part of the user experience, so here goes (if I missed it, apologies for the repetition).

It's double boxed of course, in OE style.



Then parts start to emerge from tissue paper along with the manual.



Getting the first glimpse was an exciting moment!



Here it is out of the box. This thing is hefty! I kept thinking to myself this is the best hand grinder that's ever been built. Everything about it says "quality."



For anyone who hasn't seen one, the size is a bit surpising. Here's a sense of its scale between a Super Jolly and a Pavoni Europiccola.



Thank you Doug and Barb for your years of experience that went into cooking up such a unique design. And thank you everyone else for contributing to the development of this fine piece of gear. I hope I don't have too long a learning curve ahead of me. I'm really excited to find out what my espresso machines are capable of, because from what I've seen on these boards over and over again, the grinder does more to contribute to espresso quality than the espresso machine. I can't wait!

Ho Ho Ho! :D
Gary
LMWDP#308

What I WOULD do for a good cup of coffee!

expy98
Posts: 170
Joined: 14 years ago

#595: Post by expy98 »

hope you're not too attached to your SJ Gary. The day my Pharos arrived,
my SJ (since long gone) never saw beans again.

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drgary
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#596: Post by drgary »

What can I say? It's a mass production device. :P
Gary
LMWDP#308

What I WOULD do for a good cup of coffee!

expy98
Posts: 170
Joined: 14 years ago

#597: Post by expy98 »

I say you don't grind, you don't drink. However, almost everyone wants to
give it a whirl until they realize they can't crank the handle.

I need the added workout to rehab my rotator cuff and labrum anyway,
does wonder for my serves...

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drgary
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#598: Post by drgary »

expy98 wrote:I say you don't grind, you don't drink. However, almost everyone wants to
give it a whirl until they realize they can't crank the handle.
One of the reasons I waited this long is the repetitive stress from writing client notes with my right hand. Polishing Conti Prestina steel panels -- or at least attempting to polish them -- convinced me that if I'm careful with such movement I should be okay.

I'll also see how long it takes to change the settings on the Pharos. If I want to go from one machine to another on the SJ, turning the setting (with beans in it when going finer) is really fast and easy. Of course if I had the bucks my "mass production device" would be the Pharos equivalent, a Wega-branded Compak K10. Maybe next Christmas ...
Gary
LMWDP#308

What I WOULD do for a good cup of coffee!

expy98
Posts: 170
Joined: 14 years ago

#599: Post by expy98 »

I also couldn't turn the handle w/out sweating the first few days until my shoulder
gained some strength, made me go pull on my stretch band to be able to grind. No such
problem since esp now w/ the new pad.

I still have some trouble w/ trivial tasks like using a manual toothbrush or washing the car.
But once my serve is humming like Roddick's again, the K10 would be the natural choice as well
but hard to justify at 6x the price.

My (coffee) world is no longer flat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m37uTAHfVco

time8theuniverse
Posts: 46
Joined: 12 years ago

#600: Post by time8theuniverse »

When I got #191 it took a small effort to move the handle around but now that the settling in period is over i can use one finger to swing the handle around. The Pharos is part of my routine now and i don't see that changing its just so good. There is a learning curve but stick with it the results are incredible.
Infinitely capable of being completely wrong.

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