Pharos alignment, inner bolts

January 23rd, 2014, 10:22 pm

My Pharos is getting aligned. Again. It needs aligning every day, more or less. I always think its just me being anal, but when it needs aligning, it doesn't align. I'm using the tightened screw method, but based on the OE tech video, it can be left loose. From my quick test this seems to stay aligned, but does it as accurately as when tightened?

#2: Post by **TomC** » January 23rd, 2014, 10:49 pm

Just use it and not over geek the thing.

January 23rd, 2014, 11:58 pm

That's my probable end result. I have discovered that my thrust washers may not be flat, so checking alignment the normal way may not be possible. I removed the washers, then checked the alignment again. What was unaligned before seemed in alignment. I ground a sample, it still seemed aligned. I'm going to put it together properly and check again. The minor issues I've been correcting may not exist.

January 24th, 2014, 12:53 am

It could also be that none of my inner bolts are actually straight.

probably from all the tightening and fooling with them. I'll try replacing them, any idea what they are? I guess I could contact OE.

#5: Post by **TomC** » January 24th, 2014, 2:29 am

I was being facetious/tongue in cheek, basically mimicking straight from their other thread. Fixing grinder alignment is no more "over geek" than having burrs that are optimized by a brief, easy rice grind. First you need to verify that the problem truly is a misalignment that can't be adjusted to fix.

Frank (teranova) here has done an incredible job teaching many of us how tight the tolerances must be on a grinders moving parts, in order to achieve not only quality, but consistency in what we're doing. So if somethings misaligned, some part of your routine is going to suffer.

So, email OE or wait a few hours for someone with a Pharos to reply. You'll be good to go in a short manner of time either way.

#6: Post by **dsc** » January 24th, 2014, 10:03 am

How exactly are you checking for misalignment?

Regards,
dsc.

January 24th, 2014, 10:52 am

Check for rise and fall in the axle while spinning the burrs at zero, visual check of the bottom of the burrs, examining particles after grinding. When all of them say its unaligned, I think it is.

#8: Post by **rpavlis** » January 24th, 2014, 2:04 pm

If you adjust the burrs so that they are almost touching, when they are badly aligned, if you turn the handle there will be uneven resistance as you go around, and the point where the resistance is lightest and heaviest will remain at the same relative positions on each turn.

I am sure that if one would use methods such as described below to measure particle size distribution, the variation in particle size distribution will be noticibly wider when there is misalignment:

Coffee particle size distribution - poor man's approach

I suspect, however, that the "fines" will not vary much from bad alignment.

When the original bolt covers are replaced with aluminium ones the aluminium ones must be made to a fairly narrow tolerance because aluminium is much more rigid than the plastic on the original Pharos. However, if one use carefully made aluminium ones, they work at least as well as the originals. In the long term aluminium certainly wins out as the best material because polymers tend to creep over time and are thus not dimensionally stable. Improperly made aluminium bolt covers are an invitation to unstable alignment.

#9: Post by **dsc** » January 24th, 2014, 2:13 pm

Based on personal experience I can tell you that most visual misalignment checks are a big nono, unless of course we are talking massive errors of 1mm+.

pacificmanitou wrote:examining particles after grinding

How was this done?

If you forget about the alignment issues and simply grind to pull a shot, what's the effect?

Regards,
dsc.

January 24th, 2014, 2:58 pm

It's usually >1mm when its noticeable. I set the nut to have a 1mm height, then rotate, if it gets closer, its a problem.

I'm looking at the grinds, I notice an unaligned burr has particles of considerably wider size distribution, visually well outside the expected bimodal range. Pulling a shot when its out of alignment results in an uneven pour, thin mouthfeel, and generally more sour taste.