Thank you for the replies y'all!

@brewzologist I feel a little better knowing im not the only one with this burr rubbing situation. Perhaps the grinding is normal in that case, since youre able to pull good shots. I was thinking this too, that perhaps the rough grinding is normal, or a result of design updates or such, and that the grind consistency issue is due to something else. I like to roast coffee on the pan occasionally, and have underroasted coffee a few times, resulting in relatively hard beans. Ive wondered if these hard beans may have damaged the burrs on my grinder. I will update with pictures of various grind settings

So the coarse is one revolution clockwise from zero. The other pictures are - x notches from 1 revolution. By minus i mean number of notches finer or counter clockwise from 1 revolution.

The coarse setting is pretty inconsistent. but the consistency seems to improve as i go finer. At 1 revolution and above the coffee doesnt really taste sour, but flat, lacking flavor.. perhaps a little sharp or salty. I kept going finer until about 1 revolution -8, at that point there seemed to be an increase in the recognizable coffee flavor but it also became really bitter.. like overextracted bitter. So really, none of the range i covered gave me desirable results. I think i might try brewing even finer; its a bit of a vain thing at this point though, lol

At first glance, those grinds don't look too bad. I would think certainly better than a blade grinder. Perhaps others with more experience will chime in.

FWIW, with the V60 I can reach a point where grinding finer creates astringent and bitter tastes, so then I back off until I get a more balanced cup. If I go the other way and grind too coarse, the cup tastes thin and lifeless.

The standard way to represent the grind size for a Lido is [revolutions]+[notches]. That might help in the future for your grind setting to be clearer to others. So the coarse grind size would be represented as 1+0. There are 16 notches so your 1-8 is 0+8. This is definitely a typical range. But are you counting from your "true zero" where the burrs are tight, or are you counting from factory zero (the black line)? My Lido 3's true zero is -4 from the factory zero, so my 0+8 is really 0+4 from the factory zero. This is the setting I use for a 20g/320ml pour over, and I dial in from there, and it can be 1/8th of a notch that gets me from good to great, or from decent to bad.

The grinds look fine/acceptable to me. Any grinder is going to have less consistency at the coarse range and get more consistent when finer. So I wonder if you just haven't hit the right grind size and been able to dial in yet?

I watched your video. First, doesn't Doug say in his video that the tool provided is not correct or intended to remove/tighten the 4 alignment screws? You need a proper Allen wrench for that. On mine, I would have stripped the screws trying to use the provided tool, so I'm not sure how you even got them loose with that tool, but I also think it might not be able to get them tight enough. It has a ball end, preventing it from having a very secure fit, and is only really intended to get the handle and washer+screw out. You can use it for 90% of screwing the alignment screws back in, but should use an Allen wrench to snug them up. Make sure to go in a criss-cross pattern and to only screw a little at a time. I go 50% on all screws, then 80%, then 90%, then only one twist at a time with the Allen wrench until firm/snug.

Second, you need to think about what each part does. That washer and screw are what hold the burr down to the adjustment wheel. If you don't have them installed, then when you flip the grinder over, gravity will cause it to sit against the outer burr. That is why the screw+washer magically fixed that issue.

@brewzologist

Hmm.. perhaps I had my expectations in the wrong place. I should add that my grind consistency has improved considerably compared to when i first made this point after trying to carefully realign. Although my coffee still tastes bad, its better than before. Perhaps i do just need to find the right grind consistency

@mikethebluecow

Thanks, i will use this conventional way of describing the settings from here on out.

My grinds have improved since i first made this post after carefully realigning. With that said, i may have been misjudging what constitutes an acceptable level of variation. Ill try to play around with the grind size and see if i can get a good extraction.. hopefully soon :p

I wasnt able to use the hex tool to remove the screws initially. I had to use an allen wrench. In the video doug uses the hex tool to tighten the screws then uses the allen tool to tighten. Ive found though that im able to get the screws pretty tight without the allen wrench so i never figured that i needed to further tighten them

Yall! I wanted to give my last update on this thread
Ive finally fixed the issue with my grinder!
Someone on here suggested that I tighten the screws with the L-key tool thingy. I had 2 of them with the right size in my possession, but didnt think it would help at all. This morning I randomly pulled up on the handle, and noticed alot of movement. I also twisted the handle in a side-side motion with downward pressure and noticed alot of sway. I thought maybe this is normal, but tried tightening all the screws, including the handle screw, and now there is virtually no up and down movement, and the side-side sway has been completely eliminated. My grinds are dramatically better and the significant amount of variation Ive noticed (especially when grinding alot of beans and checking the bottom/middle of the pile) has been virtually eliminated. To whoever suggested using the L-tool to tighten the grinder, a thousand times THANK YOU! and to everybody else who posted on this thread I extend my eternal gratitude!

^^^ Great news!

I'm confused, though, because I feel relatively certain that tightening the screws would have been covered in any video that Barb or Doug posted. I suppose the hex driver that the grinder came with (which I assume you were using) could have become stripped. The L-shaped allen wrench does the same thing as the non-L-shaped driver.

And having a loose screw or two wouldn't have anything to do with the complaint that the burrs were making a really rough sound when the screws were intentionally all loose.

So there was nothing actually wrong with the grinder.