www.wholelattelove.com: our caffeinated commitment to you

A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy - Page 4

Beginner or pro barista, all are invited to share.

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by shadowfax on Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:16 pm

michaelbenis wrote:Can anyone tell me if it is any way feasible to think of running the dosered Robur for single dose operation, emptying the chute each time for minimal grind retention? :roll:

I sure never liked it that way, which is why I sold mine to JonR10, but I think that may be what he does (maybe?). I know he's loving the beast. Don't know why you would get it if you have a Nino other than to try something new, though... it's a pretty similar grinder in terms of cup results... same basic burrs, bigger motor, better grind adjustment mechanism, more waste, nooks, and crannies.
Nicholas Lundgaard
User avatar
shadowfax
 
Posts: 2196
Joined: May 04, 2005
Location: Houston, TX

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by michaelbenis on Tue Nov 24, 2009 6:34 pm

The why is simple, Nicholas:

I can get it for a lot less than another Nino, which I don't use in single dose mode because it works so well the way it's supposed to. I can keep the Nino for whatever is the staple of the week and use the Robur for my wake-up Ethiopians.

Cheers

Mike
LMWDP No. 237
User avatar
michaelbenis
 
Posts: 782
Joined: Mar 18, 2009
Location: Brighton UK

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by Koffee Kosmo on Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:10 am

One of my mottos is the simple things always work best

My remedy to pop-corning is a balloon filled with rice if a heavy weight is required or coffee beans if a lighter weight is required. If fact nothing is preventing one from having both
The balloon is filled to a level that suits ones hopper

KK
User avatar
Koffee Kosmo
 
Posts: 36
Joined: Dec 04, 2009
Location: Brisbane

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by RapidCoffee on Sat Dec 05, 2009 9:18 pm

I've thought of this too (maybe not a balloon, but a small sack filled with rice or dried beans). The problem is, a nut protrudes up into the throat of my Mazzer grinders, and spins at several hundred RPMs with the burrs. The balloon wouldn't last very long... :shock:
John
User avatar
RapidCoffee
 
Posts: 1928
Joined: Dec 11, 2005
Location: Rapid City, SD

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by CRCasey on Sun Dec 06, 2009 12:10 am

Only if you were filling daily. I would not want to get a bunch of rubber out of my grinder.

-C
Black as the devil, hot as hell, pure as an angel, sweet as love:LMWDP#244
User avatar
CRCasey
 
Posts: 597
Joined: Jan 20, 2009
Location: Lewisville, TX

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by Koffee Kosmo on Sun Dec 06, 2009 3:15 am

RapidCoffee wrote:I've thought of this too (maybe not a balloon, but a small sack filled with rice or dried beans). The problem is, a nut protrudes up into the throat of my Mazzer grinders, and spins at several hundred RPMs with the burrs. The balloon wouldn't last very long... :shock:


It reminds me of a hacky sack :idea:

KK
User avatar
Koffee Kosmo
 
Posts: 36
Joined: Dec 04, 2009
Location: Brisbane

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by RapidCoffee on Sun Dec 06, 2009 10:57 am

Image
Throat of a Mazzer Major.

Do they make kevlar hacky sacks? :)
John
User avatar
RapidCoffee
 
Posts: 1928
Joined: Dec 11, 2005
Location: Rapid City, SD

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by Koffee Kosmo on Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:40 am

I have found no problems with my Mazzer Major when one uses the original wide segment blades

This the wide segment profile of the original Mazzer burr and the blades I use
Image

The problem with the after market blades is that they require the beans to have a little weight behind them for the blades to initially grab and rip the beans

This is the blade profile of the after market burr set
Image

I have tested both burr profile types and the original blades don't require any assistance in the form of a weight

KK
User avatar
Koffee Kosmo
 
Posts: 36
Joined: Dec 04, 2009
Location: Brisbane

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by Martin on Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:38 pm

I agree that weight of tamper is a variable corrected by proper grind adjustment. As long as you are using the same tamper, it shouldn't matter. Much. If it does matter, it's quite small on my current list of shot production defects that could be improved. Like, maybe, upgrading my Mini. Or quit buying beans at Whole Foods.

I use a 12 oz tamper for single dose on my Mazzer. At the bottom center of the tamper I've affixed a 1/8 inch thick +/- round silicon "chair slider" to take up a little of the volume created by the hopper supports. Toward the end of the 16/17 gram grind, there's a little popcorning. However, this is a very small proportion of the total (maybe, what? 10 or 15%?)
Martin
 
Posts: 158
Joined: Oct 30, 2006
Location: NYC

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by ljguitar on Thu Feb 04, 2010 9:22 pm

Koffee Kosmo wrote:One of my mottos is the simple things always work best

Hi folks...
I single dose.

I use one of these cups (empty) resting in the chute to keep the dose/beans contained, where it fits nicely without touching the whirling burrs. Then when I'm grinding and the grinder quits ''popping'' (but is still running) I lift the cup, brush the left-over beans/grounds down into the grinder with a 1'' paint brush which lives in the kit which lives next to the grinder.

Then after the grinder stops, I sweep out the chute with the same brush & pulse the grinder one more time to evacuate any more grounds which are on the burrs.

Simple, no weight at all on the beans and it works great...


Image
L  a  r  r  Y

<°)))><
User avatar
ljguitar
 
Posts: 54
Joined: Dec 17, 2009
Location: Cheyenne

Link to "A Tamper is Too Heavy for Grinder Anti-Popcorn Remedy"by sdavidp on Sat Feb 06, 2010 1:24 pm

I too single dose. My girlfriend can only have decaf and I have decaf at night, so I can't keep the hopper full or half-full.

The tamper solution wouldn't work for me since the grinder's throat is too small. However, after I made this mod last week I don't think that a weight is necessary. (For me, this mod totally makes single-dosing viable with this grinder.) A single dose of beans are in a very small column on top of one another and feed directly into the burrs; there's nowhere else for them to go but up, and the black divider thingy keeps that from happening. (Only closed part-way in the pic so you can see how much space 15.0 grams of Luna Nuova takes up.)
Image

After reading this thread this morning I found something that is almost perfect as a weight, just to try it out.
Image

It doesn't weigh very much and will sink down with the beans as they're ground to finally rest on the spinning nut at the bottom. However, I think it wasn't as good as not having it since a few very small pieces crept up the side, and I heard a little extra grinding than when I didn't use it. I then had to shake the pieces off and pulse the grinder to put them through.

An alternative to this is the small end of the plastic tamper that came with the Duetto. It's too big to follow the beans down because it rests on the top of the cardboard throat extension so it's not acting as a weight but it does reduce the distance out of the throat that a bean can pop by about an inch or so.
Image

I'll play a bit with these a bit more but so far I don't think there's any difference that my limited experience/palate can detect in the cup.
sdavidp
 
Posts: 24
Joined: Jan 31, 2010
Location: Newburyport, MA

Previous

Return to Tips and Techniques