Baratza Vario Super Alignment owner experience - Page 44

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
ziggomatic
Posts: 128
Joined: 10 years ago

#431: Post by ziggomatic »

Technically the point which its starts to rub off would be the point to test from since this is your first burr touch point.

I would adjust to a setting of something bigger like 5 Q before removing the burr, using the dry erase marker, and re-assembling. This will confirm you arent hitting it somehow in the assembly/disassembly process.

If 3 really is your initial burr touch point, you might want to go off that assuming its your early contact point. If its uneven then maybe performing the alignment will make it easier for you to hear the touch point (as they will touch more flush than your current alignment). If you follow the alignment instructions carefully I dont think you will come out with a really bad alignment thats worse than what you currently might be experiencing.

s2alexan
Posts: 6
Joined: 8 years ago

#432: Post by s2alexan »

I thought I'd post my results here in case it helps someone else. The issue was mostly that small coffee bean particles get dislodged and can rub off the dry erase marker. There was also a minor issue of sometimes the top burr install-uninstall occasionally rubbing off a bit too.

The reason I got hung up on this is that in my job (as a hardware engineer), I can only design something as well as I can measure it. A really accurate and reliable measurement procedure is always the first step. And I found the dry-erase marker test to be inconsistent, the marker would rub off in different places in the burr, or at different grind adjustments.

My fine-tuned procedure to find the touch point after applying dry erase marker was to clean everything obsessively with a vacuum and wire brush, start with a coarse grind adjustment of 3, and then:
2. Move coarse adjustment to 1, adjust 1 or 2 fine-adjustment steps closer, run for 5s
3. Move grind adjustment back to 3
4. Remove top burr, examine for coffee particles, re-apply dry erase marker if I found any had rubbed the marker off, vacuum out burr chamber again
5. Repeat

I started at 1Z, ended up at 1N when the dry erase marker was actually rubbed off by burrs touching, and not by any coffee particles. There was no sound difference at all. Previous experiments showed the sound didn't change until 1F, but at that point the burrs were touching so much it rubbed off completely evenly.

So the dry erase marker pattern I ended up with, using this procedure, showed 100% rubbed off on one side of the burr, and about 50% rubbed off on the other side, at 1N. A second attempt happened at 1L. If it adjusted it one step finer, it would rub off completely evenly. So I think I can conclude my alignment is within one small-adjustment step, which seems like good alignment to me.

Jonk
Posts: 2175
Joined: 4 years ago

#433: Post by Jonk »

I don't understand - didn't you clean the grinder and burrs before the marker test?

You can get it to go from 0% to 100% in one micro step.

s2alexan
Posts: 6
Joined: 8 years ago

#434: Post by s2alexan replying to Jonk »

Yes, I always cleaned the grinder and burrs and hopper thoroughly before the marker test, with a wire brush and vacuuming everything out, spent around 5m on it. Even the first times I tried this, when it was inconsistent, everything was really clean. I could still see some grinds in the bottom burr screws, I couldn't get it all out of there with any tool I had. I don't know where the grinds were coming from, but I kept getting marker rubbed off at 2, sometimes even 3, and I could see particles stuck in the dry erase marker left on the burr.

I believe this alignment can result in 0% to 100% in one micro step, that's pretty great, but it doesn't seem worth the trouble to get all the parts and tools together, compared to 0% to 100% in 2 micro steps. I'm not sure how much different that kind of alignment makes in practice, unless I'm grinding at around the 1N level where my burrs are just about to touch.

Jnthhk
Posts: 8
Joined: 3 years ago

#435: Post by Jnthhk »

A bit of a plea for help :-).

I tried out the alignment technique and everything seemed to go well, and I even had what looked like a very nice marker test.

However, after reassembly my grinder made various worrying clunking and ratting noises that it hadn't made before, which changed with the grind setting. I've made a quick video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WumgGgX-kU

It was even louder when grinding, although the grinds that did pop out seemed pretty fluffy. Not sure I the people in the next village will put up with that kind of noise though :-).

Does anyone have any suggestions for what I might have done wrong and what's causing the noise?

Thanks!

jgood
Posts: 891
Joined: 6 years ago

#436: Post by jgood »

I can't tell much from the video but a problem I had after reassembling my Vario was the belt occasionally skipping which was solved by a slight tightening (increasing the tension). It was more an occasional clunk as the toothed belt slipped a notch or two on the toothed pulley. Good luck!

Jnthhk
Posts: 8
Joined: 3 years ago

#437: Post by Jnthhk »

Ah, I wonder if that could be it. I didn't pay much attention to the tension on the belt when putting things back together as I was concentrating on the levers so much. I'll try and have a tweak later.

I guess there's no reason why the procedure otherwise would lead to problems. Am I correct in understanding that the process simply helps you get the grind chamber postponed corrected on the horizontal plane, so that the bottom burr sits up straight (parallel to the top one) - and so even if you get it wrong it's no worse to when its just screwed in with no alignment at the factory?

Jnthhk
Posts: 8
Joined: 3 years ago

#438: Post by Jnthhk »

A little update.

It turns out it was the belt tension. Once I tightened things up the weird noise went.

Over the past few days I've made a few attempts to get the alignment right, but I still can't seem to crack it. Ive tried both the lever method and with a woodworking clamp.

It seems like the problem I'm having is with belt tension. When I leave the belt looser I can get a nice clean wipe (and some nice chirping noises. However, if I do this belt slips when I grind. If I tighten things up, then the alignment goes out.

I'm a bit confused about when I should be tightening up the belt during the procedure, and how. I've tried both doing the procedure in full, then tensioning the belt at the end, and leaving it tensioned throughout. However, neither lead to alignment. Some of the posts earlier in the thread seem to imply that the tensioning should be done gradually, along with the gradual tightening of the screws holding the grind chamber in place. I can't seem to find a way to achieve this without having an extra hand though!

Am I misunderstanding what should be done with the belt tension in the procedure, or is there a trick to tightening the belt gradually I've missed.

Thanks all for your help!

Jonk
Posts: 2175
Joined: 4 years ago

#439: Post by Jonk »

Finding correct tension was the most difficult step for me. I think you have to do everything in increments - focus on the chamber screws first and then belt and redo the belt until you can get a clean swipe with the grinder running (using a battery helps a lot!). Trial and error got me there in the end.

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baldheadracing
Team HB
Posts: 6225
Joined: 9 years ago

#440: Post by baldheadracing »

Here's a post that I made in another thread showing the setting of my degree of belt tension: Vario belt tension video
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada