Hey guys, quick question about my Rancilio Rocky, the doserless model.

The problem is, Im not sure it grinds quite fine enough.

I always have to keep the grind setting *really* close to zero (out of 50 something) in order to have decent extraction times (25-28sec), with most coffees. I've experienced this with my both my Anita and Breville Dual Boiler. This could be a technique thing, but looking at the naked portafilter, i dont think its that bad 90% of the time. I have a little reversible mod to make it stepless, but that's irrelevant to the conversation. I usually work with a 18g dose, 25-28s extration for a 31g of coffee.

Being close to zero in itself is not a problem, but the other day I wanted to try an 18g VST basket to replace the stock Breville basket (which has a angle, not a big fan of it). VSTs are notorious for requiring finer grind and are less tolerant to faulty techniques. Faulty technique I can probably correct, but finer grind, I cannot produce with my Rocky. Im at ZERO! So all i've been able to get were 12s gushers with the VST so I put that project on hold.

I tried opening the grinder and making sure zero was the absolute zero and it seems like it was, following this video:
The stopper is only there to prevent burrs from touching.

Do you guys have suggestion for me? Do you think my technique is faulty? Does my grinder need new burrs? Is there a hack I can do to make the burrs get closer to each other?

Thanks!

-Mat

You're at the point I was when I replaced my Rocky. I tried new burrs, and all kinds of other machinations. I think what happened was that my technique and expectations exceeded the Rocky's abilities to provide a consistent and fine grind. The fix was replacing Rocky with a Macap MXK.

One thing - have you used teflon tape to help take some of the wobble out of the threads?

Well that's depressing.

No I havent tried this mod. What is it supposed to do? I guess I'll do a quick search on the forums.

-Mat

See Rocky thread slop and the teflon tape fix.

There have been many many posts here about the Rancilio Rocky.

I have long had the suspicion that the reason that some swear by them, and others at them is that Rancilio does not have enough quality control, especially in the threads on the upper burr holder. That leaves many of them with a lot of "slop" in the threads.

The "Teflon tape" method, however, seems to improve both the "lemons" and the ones that do not have any real problems. (This, as many posts describe, involves simply wrapping plumbing teflon tape around the burr holder.)

The one I have is one that does not have a serious loose thread problem. Some descriptions of the "Teflon tape fix" describe putting multiple turns of tape around the threads. It would be impossible to put more than one on mine and reassemble the thing.

Nevertheless, putting that one turn of the tape improves it a lot. To get the same grind with tape as one gets without it, the number on the scale needs to be about four higher. i.e. 6 without tape requires about 10 with it. It seems to run a bit quieter and with less vibration. When I adjust the grind it turns like adjusting a high quality camera lens.