The Alicorn: Achieving Precision Alignment with the Baratza Forté/Vario - Page 21

July 15th, 2020, 11:17 pm

awolmartinez wrote:So I asked the Baratza rep that I have been working with for an issue on my forte, about aligning the grinders in house, about if they are a able to get a perfect alignment, and of they would offer it as a paid service to have it aligned. His response essentially, was that they always consider, but final results aren't consistent, post assembly, nor did they find enough of a discernable improvement to warrant more stringent alignment.

You can confirm with Jake... but I don't think Baratza does/plans to do it, the way Jake does.

As far as retaining alignment, I haven't re checked mine, but other than being half as fast, I find zero difference between it and my Monolith Max that is easily discernible. When I get back home full time at the end of the summer, I am going to have to really ratchet up my comparison testing between the two, to spot smaller differences.

-Peter

July 16th, 2020, 12:30 am

No they don't, that's what the rep was telling me, that in their experience it wasn't worth the effort for the results they got.

July 16th, 2020, 1:01 am

Apparently the folks at Baratza aren't compelled by the process, but it's hard to argue with results. "They have it in their mind that this process is aligning the burrs through misalignment of the bushings between the motor plate and the grind chamber. That would imply that the bushings are somehow aligned to begin with. I have yet to see any evidence that this is actually the case," according to Jake.

I do love Baratza's support team, but I think after a consistent dialogue between users who are confused with the Alicorn process and the support team, there's some confusion on their end about the process, too, and they can't fully stand by it quite yet. Just speculation.

#204: Post by **viveur** » July 16th, 2020, 1:43 am

pcrussell50 wrote: As far as retaining alignment, I haven't re checked mine, but other than being half as fast, I find zero difference between it and my Monolith Max that is easily discernible. When I get back home full time at the end of the summer, I am going to have to really ratchet up my comparison testing between the two, to spot smaller differences.

This is interesting - I'm just about to get my Max, and am wondering what to do with my Vario. The Vario is currently my brew grinder, and I'm thinking it might be worth doing this alignment process to let me keep the Max purely for Epsresso? (I'm too lazy to want to switch between espresso and brew on the Max all the time.) If I can get similar filter quality out of the two, then keeping the Vario seems sensible?

July 16th, 2020, 9:22 am

Re ^^^

I don't do a lot of brew maybe a Chemex or Aeropress about every other week or three. But even that is enough of a PITA that I have a dedicated brew grinder for it rather than fiddle with disturbing settings on my espresso grinders.

-Peter

#206: Post by **neohk** » July 17th, 2020, 7:39 pm

awolmartinez wrote:So I asked the Baratza rep that I have been working with for an issue on my forte, about aligning the grinders in house, about if they are a able to get a perfect alignment, and of they would offer it as a paid service to have it aligned. His response essentially, was that they always consider, but final results aren't consistent, post assembly, nor did they find enough of a discernable improvement to warrant more stringent alignment.

So it sounds like the issues some guys have had in retaining the alignment, are in fact an issue. Which is most likely a result of the internal design. Of course we know it's possible because a few guys have done it successfully, but it will most likely take some patience, and some trial and error before you get it right.

I won't even get to confirm if my alignment stuck because it is being replaced due to a weight dosing issue. My burr spacers still haven't arrived to put the steel burrs in to check it. So I'll have to do it again with the new forte.

I for one couldn't get the alignment to hold - maybe need a much looser belt but can't be bothered atm

#207: Post by **awolmartinez** » July 22nd, 2020, 1:35 pm

Well I just received my replacement Forte, this one works great and is much quieter! So apparently the last one had more than just a dose weighing issue. Anyways, installed the steel burrs with 3d printed spacers, did ink test, and got a result of 50% clean wipe on the upper burr, 100% on the lower burr, which seems to be typical factory alignment. So I will hopefully soon attempt another alignment with this new machine and see what comes of it.

#208: Post by **Angel0** » August 10th, 2020, 5:46 am

Hello All!

First of all this thread is incredibly insightful, I am learning a lot from it!

I have a question for you all. I followed the Alicorn Alignment instructions and spent a good 5 hours (in two rounds) trying to align the ceramic burrs of my Forte AP.

In the pictures attached you see the original alignment, where the burrs touch in a single small area.

Then you see my first attempt

and my second attempt

In my second attempt I marked the two areas where there seem to be full touch between the burrs.

What is puzzling me is that the two touch areas are nearly 180 degrees apart. how could that happen?
Wouldn't it be that if two such areas, 180 degrees apart, are toucing, everything else should touch too?

Any help would be very much appreciated!

Cheers,
Angelo

#209: Post by **Angel0** » August 15th, 2020, 6:12 pm

Hi,

In absence of opinions and hoping that someone would pick his/her brain on the issue I am having, I reply to my own post.
I thought the result of my mis-alignments in my previous post was due to the motor belt not being loose enough. So today I dismounted everything again and made sure the belt was as loose as possible.
The result is as in the picture below

I still have two points, 180 degrees apart, where the burrs do not touch. At this point and after about 8 hours overall spent on trying to align my Forte, I ask myself if this is a problem I can fix or whether I have to accept this is the best I can get...

any help would be appreciated

Cheers
Angelo

#210: Post by **jja619** » August 15th, 2020, 8:22 pm

That looks pretty dang good Angelo. How tight are your screws? Might that be from Taco Burrs?