I've just reached about a month and half of ownership with the MXKR and have noticed that after repeating a similar change of beans there was practically no adjustment needed on the grind setting. Unlike the time before, during the first 3 weeks of ownership, I had much greater changes. Say, from 7 down to finally 4 and 3/4s. The first time I went from week old Black Cat to thawed Toscano to thawed Klatch Belle. Both were frozen 3 days after roasting, valves taped and double zip-locked. This latest change was from 4 day old Klatch House espresso to thawed Toscano to thawed Klatch Belle. So add another 3 weeks to the freezer storage of the Toscano and Belle.

Is this new grind consistency between blends indicative of the grinder "settling in" or perhaps the additional aging of the two blends in the freezer?

Thanks in advance.

I just switched from Klatch WBC to Belle on both the MC4 and the MKX. Both grinders needed a full 360° coarser. The switch from my previous roast to WBC needed no adjustment on either.

±720° adjustments are quite common, depending on the coffee.

Hi Ian,

But, this time the change between the first two was almost nil and the 2nd two was less than a 45 degree turn compared to 2 whole numbers on the dial. I've never counted how many 360 degree turns make a full number change.

Both grinders have about 100 teeth for a full rotation of the burr carrier. There are 9 segments, so it's ~11 teeth.
I full number increment is therefore 11 360° turns of the adjustment knob.

FWIW, the MC4 and the MKX thus far are within about ½ a number increment.

Randy G. did post something a while back about a big sea change on his grinder. I don't remember if it was his Kony or not.

edwa wrote:Is this new grind consistency between blends indicative of the grinder "settling in" or perhaps the additional aging of the two blends in the freezer?

It's probably overkill, but I run several pounds of coffee through a new grinder to eliminate flashing, swarf, and whatnot. Initially I skipped this step in the days leading up to the Compak K10 WBC vs. Mazzer Robur taste test and noticed some grind setting drift. Counter Counter Coffee generously provided five pounds of stale coffee to break in the burrs. It's only one data point, but the K10's grind setting has been rock solid consistent ever since.

Hi guys,

on my Major it's usually no change, or very small 0.5-1 notch changes to either side. Sometimes when dialing in the grinder I check various coarser and finer setting and usually come back to the one I had at the beginning.

Regards,
dsc.

When I initially got my Compak, I found the first week of coffee disappointing. The same happened as the other Titans arrived; so I eventually got the memo -- they need to grind a few pounds before they are up to speed.

My guess is that new burrs need a polish, and that grinding coffee does this, like honing a knife after it's been sharpened.

cafeIKE wrote:Randy G. did post something a while back about a big sea change on his grinder. I don't remember if it was his Kony or not.

If my grinder had been new when I got it I would not have been as surprised, but the grinder I own is the one used in the Titan Grinder Project, and had been used extensively by three or four people before I got it, and the change took place after I had been using it for a few months (iirc). It has been rock-solid since then in regards to grind setting.
Maybe the wimblett bearings needed to seat in or the wheelbase was out of adjustment...?

This morning when I was refilling my narrow home-made hopper I inadvertently forgot to put the tamper back on the bean column as it had been before. I immediately saw a difference in the pull and I realized what I'd forgotten to do. This got me to remember some advice Dan had given me when I was considering the grinders purchase. He had said the grinder was sensitive to the bean column weight. Here lies the reason, I believe, for the grind setting fluctuations. I had forgotten that in the first few weeks I had experimented with different hopper configurations as I didn't want to stick with the excessively huge stock hopper. I had fashioned an adapter ring and tried using my Mini's shorter hopper, and then there were a few different shaped bottles before I finally settled on what is essentially a tube and added my extra tamper on to the bean column.