Matt,

Wow, that is a great looking grinder. I am very impressed with your craftsmanship skills. What's next? How about a video of the grinder in operation?

Rocky

That's the plan once it's redone with the new axle, and the burr aligned. I am awaiting the parts and measuring device.

Terrific project, Matt. There's nothing quite so satisfying as solving the challenges one at a time and coming up with something unique and high quality.

Ugh! I spent a couple of hours trying to thread the new axle. I was having a difficult time trying to get the threading started. I even tapered the end of the shaft a few times. I finally got it started, but it was super difficult to turn. Finally, I measured and discovered they sent me a 13mm shaft instead of the 1/2 inch I ordered!

I'm inspired by your perseverance and innovation with this project. Hang in there!

Thanks! No updates this weekend since I'm waiting on the supplier to decide on what they will do about the mixup.

Instead, for your visual pleasure while we wait...I couldn't find a coffe t-shirt I wanted, so I made up my own. (Front on the left, and back on the right.)

Admirable DIY project....just one thing to consider....the cone burr of the Pharos (and I am assuming this is the same burr) has a 13 mm I D and uses a 13mm axle, at least 13mm at the burr along with a 3 mm key. In the early Pharos days we used 1/2 inch axle but had to align and set it all up with wet green Loctite and lock it all down to set. Machining the entire rod to be 13mm at the burr and .505 at the bearings was a much better solution and the 1/2" bearings were only used due to the difficulty of sourcing metric bushings here in Inchland. This also helps assure the axle is straight vs standard whack a chunk out of a rod rod.
Current Pharos is all metric and makes a lot more sense.
Best of luck with your project!

Thanks a bunch Doug! You are right, I am doing it the original Pharos way for the same reasons you encountered. Unfortunately, I can't source the 13mm bearing to use this larger shaft and at this point my plates are machined for the 1/2" bearing. I can't turn down the shaft myself to accommodate the 1/2" bearings. Since this is just a one off for me, not to be repeated, I'm continuing with the original plan, using aluminum foil shims and the 680 green Loctite.

Once I got the burr/shaft out of the machine and tested, the alignment of the burr to the shaft was actually very good. Apparently the issue I was having was the marring of the shaft was interfering with the bearings.

I had another hiccup: I finally received the correct diameter shaft, but I had selected the wrong type of stainless this time (416 instead of the more machinable 303). I couldn't thread it. In fact, I snapped the die as I was trying to thread the harder material. The good news is I finally got the 303 shaft this week and have threaded it. Also, I am slowly improving my upper body strength. I will be aligning the inner burr on the shaft either Friday night if I have enough time, or on Saturday. Fingers crossed everyone...

So I got it all put together finally. There have been a lot of ups and downs, but there was one last major problem. If I loaded the full dose and ground for espresso, it would lock up and I could hear the teeth chattering on the pulley! It had worked on a drip corsness level, but not much finer. I was heartbroken.

I had images of having to completely redo the top section of the grinder, perhaps using larger pulleys, as I wasn't certain if the pulleys I was using were up to the task. I had to take a break and regroup before tackling this monster again.

In the meantime I had an epiphany. If the chattering wasn't due to insufficient pulley specs, it might just be a loose timing belt. Before redoing the whole top section, I could try some sort of tensioning mechanism. I thought about the parts I would have to order and how it would fit in the space. Then I realized I already had some left over axle material a washer and even some sleeve bearings. So,it's simple, but here is what I came up with.



The good new is it works! I'll have some updates tomorrow and perhaps a video.