Well I cleaned up my $175.00 SJ. So far so good. I must say this is quite a bit more machine than my MACAP M4. The MACAP is a bit quieter but the doser on the SJ is nearly silent in comparison.

Anyway, I pulled the burr set and cleaned everything. I looked at pictures of the burrs online and decided that these looked new-ish to me. I couldn't really detect any wear (though I might not really know what I'm looking for), so I decided I'd use them as is.

I set my zero point, which turned out to be 8 (drives me nuts that the collar isn't adjustable to zero) and proceeded to open it up about 6 more digits back around past 0 and onto 5. I figured that would be a decent starting point. I dropped in about 1/2 lb of old beans. It was really tearing through those so I figured I was way too coarse as it was about press consistency. I cranked it down some but had to get very close to my zero point before it started producing finer stuff, really too fine from the feel of it, close to powder.

So the question is, does this simply sound like worn burrs?

PS- What are the 2 screws in the adjustment collar for (not the horizontal one for holding the hopper)?

That sounds about right, 6 whole numbers on the adjustment collar will make a big difference.I usually find about 1- 1&1/2 numbers from burrs touching is in the ballpark for espresso.I always find it hard to detect burr wear by looking at them, i usually just buy new ones when i get a second hand grinder, that way you know if somethings wrong its not the burrs.Especially as you got it so cheap!

The screws in the adjustment collar are safety screws to stop the collar unscrewing itself.They protude down into the grooves on the grinder body.If you want to remove the adjustment collar and burrs you'll have to remove them first.

Fr. John wrote:So the question is, does this simply sound like worn burrs?

That's a great price for a SJ. But you didn't pass enough information along to know if the burrs are good or not. I believe that it would be money well spent to buy new burrs in any case when acquiring a new grinder. That way you'd know for sure. If it made no difference, then you simply have a spare set of burrs on hand.

Espresso grounds should look like a powder but feel slightly gritty. Of course the better measure is how the resulting shots pulled & tasted, which you didn't describe. With a lot of grinders the working espresso range is close to the zero point, so that is not a problem per se. It would be very hard to judge anything other than gross defects in burrs visually. A lot of people examine the edge sharpness, but this really isn't a good measure of burr condition. You'd need to make numerous precision measurements to characterize the burr gap consistency to really know if the burrs were good. It's easier to simply pull some shots.

Worn burrs will show symptoms such as inconsistent shots, erratic pours, wandering grind setting, less tiger striping and very warm or hot grounds. Nothing that you've written (so far) suggested to me that the burrs are (or aren't) worn.
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Thanks for the quick replies, both of you.

I should have clarified a few things:

- I've already ordered new burrs. I thought however that if these are good I might as well use them. Using new ones does however remove at least one variable. They should arrive yet this week.

- I really did no real testing, certainly no pours. I thought that things seemed so far off that I'd be better off not wasting time and coffee (even garbage coffee) if the preliminary symptoms were very telling.

It's sounding like possibly I was expecting too much range between a proper grind and just off that. I thought I had read that it was common for the SJ to be 7-8 whole numbers between zero and just right. Now it's sounding like that range should be more in the 1-2 whole number range.

I think I'll give it another try and see if I can't get good results. If I do, well then I'll just have a spare set of burrs on hand.

Fr. John wrote:I think I'll give it another try and see if I can't get good results.

It sounds like you are doing everything right. I don't think that you are seeing anything so far that shouts the burrs are bad! But you won't truly know unless you try some shots. I'm going from memory here (no longer have a SJ), but I don't recall a large number of notches between zero and the espresso zone.

Perhaps there is some confusion going on here. You might see 6 whole numbers between zero and a drip or FP grind. But I would expect the espresso zone to be a lot closer to zero. And as Dan points out, the espresso zone itself will probably only be a handful of notches in breadth. If it was me, I'd try pulling a shot with the current burrs. But you may prefer to wait for your new burrs. Entirely up to you.
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As others have noted, on Mazzers, from your finest grind to your coarsest(all for espresso) will be a short adjustment.

When I had my Major, 99% of the time I never moved the collar enough to pass by two numbers. You'll use the notches are your settings. I remember I had them marked for what I used most often, and the difference between my finest(usually a light S.O. dosed around 12-14) to my coarsest(Something like Klatch's Belle, or Rustico, dosed at 18-21gr) was only 4 or 5 notches. There were of course exceptions, but that was the norm.

If you happen to want to use the grinder for brewing say, press pot, or even some pour over, then you'll make some larger adjustments, but even then, probably only like 3, maybe 4 actual numbers. I did press pot now and then, and I simply turned the collar 1/4 of a turn from my espresso setting.

If you do a fairly thorough cleaning of a used grinder before reselling it then it is minimal extra effort to degrease and clean the existing burrs, which must be removed in order to clean the area that surrounds the burrs. When Mazzer burrs are worn enough to need replacement they won't necessarily "look worn." If they're really trashed they will but not always and you also can't always tell by running your finger on the cutting edges. When in doubt - change them. It's my experience that when selling a used grinder you won't typically get a higher price by changing the burrs and advertising it as "includes new burrs." Burrs are a nominal expense compared to the frustration of burning through a pound or two of coffee and the time required to finally figure out that they need changing. If I'm keeping a used grinder to have on hand for personal use (which I often do and they stay in my kitchen for anywhere from a few weeks to six months) then first I clean it and try grinding a few shots with the existing burrs. If I can get them dialed in close enough to be pulling fairly good shots after three test pulls... then I leave them in - otherwise they get tossed in and I install new ones.