I always try to do my best to nail it in a single attempt. That means that I loosen the belt tension during the first iteration of loosening the grind chamber and wiggling it with the proper burr to burr contact and then gently snug it up after I'm confident that the belt isn't holding the bird carrier in a "front up, tilted back" position. Then I tighten, wiggle, jiggle, and repeat till the screws are tight and then pull the upper burr, put some ink and test right then and there. No sense getting any further in the process without verifying.

Cheers!

- Jake

Hi Jake,

I've tried a bunch of times since your last post and keep ending up with a pattern in which the marker has worn off on the front of the burr (i.e. towards the screen). I have been able to get rid of side-to-side patterns but in none of my attempts have I ended up with wear at the back of the grinder. Would you mind elaborating on how you become confident that the belt isn't holding the burr carrier in a "front up, tilted back position?" Anything else to try? As you suggested, I loosened the 2 motor plate screws to loosen the belt on the first iteration, then loosened the grind chamber, wiggled the burr around, tightened the belt by tightening the motor plate screws, and then proceeded with tightening the grind chamber. At a loss but remain persistent!

Thank you!

Steve,

Front wear indicates that the belt is indeed a potential cause, as the belt pulls the drive sprocket relative to the motor plate. I would loosen the belt a little bit (how loose is it?) And try again, making sure that the burr carrier is free to move forward and backwards when the mounting screws are loose, and then using the levers to decrease that range of motion.

With the levers in a coarse setting and the burrs loose, the chamber should move quite freely. With the burrs touching and parallel, the chamber should only move as much as the slop in the bushings allow. Excessive slop would allow excessive chamber movement, although the friction between the burrs would make thos movement less obvious than when the burrs are loose. Point being, you should wiggle the chamber with the burrs not touching, raising the lever(s) until they touch and wiggle the chamber again, noting whether or not it seems to move, and repeat this a couple of times. If you find that the point at which the burrs touch and the chamber gets "stuck" in position moves to a finer setting on the lever(s) that is a good indicator that you have found a "more centered" position for the grind chamber, which is a good thing.

Persistence will pay off.

Cheers!

- Jake

Hi Jake,
I've been looking at getting a used Vario thanks in part to this thread and was wondering if you would recommend getting the vario or paying the difference to get the forte for brewed coffee/not espresso
Thank you,
Peter

Jake,

Thanks for your continued help here! Unfortunately, I tried another bunch of times with possibly 0 movement with the exception of increasing/decreasing how much marker I'm able to erase.

I keep ending up with this pattern in which the marker is removed from the front and right side of the burr. Regarding the belt tightness, I've tried loosening just a bit, significantly, and even tried as one of the posters suggested completely removing the motor (I didn't even put it back before checking the pattern and tested with the belt loose still). As I'm tightening, I'm not forced to go finer. With the grinder right side up, when going coarse to fine and wiggling the burrs, I'm able to detect not touching at a particular setting and then achieve a light touch as I push up the levers. However, when I flip the grinder over for each iteration of tightening the screws, regardless of how coarse I go and how coarsely I calibrate the grinder (with the screw controlled by adjustment tool rather than the primary calibration screw), the burrs always touch. This may not have happened every attempt but wondering if this is an issue as I can't go from no touch to touch and wiggle the burrs when upside down for tightening.

I also experimented with both maintaining that lighter touch and also pushing the burrs much closer to each other before the first tightening pass. For tightening, I leave the burrs a few micro settings past touch time (grinder right side up).

I must be missing something big here?




Thanks!
Steve

Hi Jake,

Could you share the 3D drawing you used for the steel burr spacers?

P/S: I've tried the Alicorn once more time today but no matter what I do, the burrs seems to rub on one side

Thank you!

- Tung

This may seem like a dumb question but... for the small 2mm screw, which way to turn it to get it out, clockwise or counter-clockwise (or Coarse or Fine according to the tool)? This is for in the end removing it for super calibration.

I fear that I've turned it both ways too much and have now stripped the tap.

If you can't feel the screw going in/out, I'm afraid you have damaged the thread. You should contact Baratza support and ask them to send you a new motor plate. Next time, don't use the Baratza tool to adjust the calibration screw but buy a L-shape tool instead.

The way how you turn it to make it finer/coarser is label on the Baratza tool. I don't have it here so I can't figure it out for you. Coarser = burrs touching at coarser settings and vice versa.

platinumlotus wrote:If you can't feel the screw going in/out, I'm afraid you have damaged the thread. You should contact Baratza support and ask them to send you a new motor plate. Next time, don't use the Baratza tool to adjust the calibration screw but buy a L-shape tool instead.

yeah, that's what I was afraid of. it also slows down and stops occasionally while grinding, even with the new motor, so I think the grind pressure may be way off. Maybe I'll just send it to them as part of their repair program at this point.

platinumlotus wrote:The way how you turn it to make it finer/coarser is label on the Baratza tool. I don't have it here so I can't figure it out for you.

It is a standard thread (anticlockwise to loosen/remove the screw) but since you are generally looking down and not up at the screw it gets confusing. That's why the arrows on the tool, and coarser is the direction that loosens/removes the screw. When looking at the screw head (looking up, or looking with the grinder on its back) you turn the 2mm key anti-clockise to loosen or remove.