Versalab M3 grinder ordered today... - Page 5

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leonardo
Posts: 18
Joined: 18 years ago

#41: Post by leonardo »

I have used my Versalab since last July and thought I would pass along some things that have made using it a bit more rewarding.
To minimize the pop corning, I have fashioned a lid from a clear Pringles lid. Cutting a U shaped piece from the center ( about shaft wide) allows you to slide the lid on and off and pour beans into the grinder.
I pre scale into Bodum 2oz cups. These look great, hold about the right amount of beans and allow you to feed beans into the grinder without coming into contact with the upper housing.
To get all or most of the ground coffee into the portafilter I have been using a nice red funnel from Orphan. I also feed about 1/2 a dose into the grinder, let it grind, feed the remainder, then tap and remove the funnel. This allows you to get the fluffy, but, large volume of coffee into the portafilter.
As a result of filling the portafilter in two stages, I found the portafilter holder to be a pain, so I removed it.
On my grinder, a significant amount of ground coffee "drops" out after the grinder is turned off so keep your portafilter in place.
One problem I have never completely figured out is the presence of pretty good size, pretty dense "chunks" in the coffee that exits the grinder after it is turned off. I have tried modifying doses, different coffees, checked sweeper adjustment etc and the chunks still appear. If anyone has any ideas or experience let me know.
Thanks

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tekomino
Posts: 1105
Joined: 14 years ago

#42: Post by tekomino »

Leonardo, my M3 over time developed same problem with clumps being dropped after grinder is turned off.

What happens is that ground coffee gets thrown inside of the funnel and sticks to the sides instead of dropping down. As soon as little bit sticks more starts sticking and soon you have clump.

I contacted Versalab and they send me little polishing kit that I used to polish inside of the funnel. That pretty much solved the problem. There is still little clumping remaining but not as bad as before. The polishing is simply cleaning the inside of the funnel with the Acetone then going with some very fine sanding paper from top to bottom vertically and then polishing with the fruit wax (wax used to polish fruits)....

Grasshopper200
Posts: 17
Joined: 13 years ago

#43: Post by Grasshopper200 »

I've noticed some of these clumps on my M3 as well. I don't get it every time and the clumps break up easily when I tap the PF to settle the grinds. Doesn't seem to affect my shots-- not like the clumping that I experienced with my Rocky pre-WDT.

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shawndo
Posts: 1013
Joined: 14 years ago

#44: Post by shawndo »

Timeline of my order:
March 4 - Sent %50 deposit (Friday evening)
March 7 - Build started (Monday)
March 15 - Grinder ready for shipment, paid balance
March 22 - Shipped, received tracking number
March 26 - Received Saturday delivery
March 26.5 - Titan espresso!

no customer service issues, excellent espresso. Once I got the grind set, I haven't had to mess with it at all. Even as the beans age.
The clumps are very different than the ones from the BVario. These disintegrate completely and everything evens out extremely well with a little Stockfleth's to fill in the volcano.

Coincidentally though, I'm starting to exhibit some heavy caffeine addiction symptoms out of the blue in the last week. I'm still only drinking 2 a day, so I can't think of anything different in the last week except for the Versalab! I'm gonna try and cut back to 14gram doses and see how that works out.
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

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