About 4 years ago, I posted about my Baratza Forté / Vario Portafilter Fork Mod.

I have been single dosing for almost the entire time I've owned it, using an Encore hopper. I finally got around to this hopper mod.

Space is tight in my coffee corner, so I needed my grinder as short as possible. This mod allowed me to put the grinder in a spot where it would previously have obstructed a light switch and disposal switch.

I tried one of the 3D printed hoppers from Etsy, but it failed to engage the safety microswitch and the grinder would not run. I tried filing, filling, and cutting until I gave up on it.

I decided to start with a factory Encore hopper, because I KNEW I'd have no issues with the safety switch that way. I cut it way down with a hacksaw, by hand. Then I sanded the cut edge on a workbench top with progressively finer sandpaper, until the surface was perfectly smooth.

But I couldn't find a cover for it that would fit.

So I designed an extension, and had a friend print it for me.


So far, I'm very pleased with it.

Jack

Does the single dose feed as well and with the same retention as it did when it had a hopper full of beans weighing down on it?

If you're asking if it grinds the same dose in the same time, at the same grind level -- I doubt it. It would take some controlled testing to answer that question.

But since I'm single dosing, I have to grind by time. I just set the grinder for longer than it normally takes. At 13.5 seconds, it runs out of beans before grinding stops.

Regarding retention -- it can't possibly be more than with a hopper full of beans -- by design, half-ground beans are still in between the burrs when using a full hopper. But I use a bulb duster now and then.

Jack

Thanks for the info. I was just wondering about your experience with the Baratza SD conversion, since I converted my Mazzers (Mini & SJ) from hoppers to SD a couple of year ago and like you found that some grind parameters changed. I think the retention actually increased a bit, which seemed counterintuitive. May have been due to the design of the DW conversion kit, which addressed the issue using a blower and wooden mallet taps to clear grinds from the chute. I also guessed that the lack of the usual hopper bean mass might have an effect on retention as well, but that could have gone in either direction depending on how you thought about it.

Since you're a tinkerer I'd like to suggest you somehow hang that PF mod onto the other attachment that allows the scale to the be used. Turn this thing into a GBW machine

I've thought about it quite a bit -- but that was before I decided to stick with single dosing.

When you're single dosing, what good would a scale be? It stops grinding "automatically" when it runs out of beans.

Jack

I've thought about doing something similar with my Urbanic. But as under-counter space is not an issue, decided against it.

Great work though! Inspirational. I love seeing folks successfully modify their gear to suit their needs.

JR_Germantown wrote:I've thought about it quite a bit -- but that was before I decided to stick with single dosing.

When you're single dosing, what good would a scale be? It stops grinding "automatically" when it runs out of beans.

Jack

I'm way too lazy to SD, so it would be very useful for me