Not sure if this is any help, but I've wrapped some rubber bands around the forks to reduce the effect of vibration. The metal PF fork is a bit too slippery to keep my PF in place.

Rob, first I want to thank you for your posts about the vario. They're very informative.

Now I have a question about something you wrote a while ago.

IMAWriter wrote: Now, hit manual, turn on the grinder, and SLOWLY raise the Macro lever....when you're past drip, a few above you should hear either the motor start to lower in pitch as it works harder, or at a notch below espresso, you might hear a few ticks of burrs.

Are you referring to 'ticks of burrs' as in burrs touching each other?

I definitely hear the "ticks of burrs" when I get the macro lever a notch below the top. Logic tells me hearing burrs touching when no beans are present is not a good thing. But only when using these settings and finer actually I am going to get a good grind for espresso. Is this your experience also? I had the opportunity to play with a version 1.0 of this grinder and I wasn't hearing the ticks at that level of finess. I'm wondering if it can have a negative effect on the burrs.

Sylvain

ps. I just bought a vario as to let my newborn sleep, he wasn't liking the clac-clac of the SJ very much

SylvainMtl wrote: ps. I just bought a vario as to let my newborn sleep, he wasn't liking the clac-clac of the SJ very much

Congratulations on the new addition to your family. You'll need the coffee for the first couple of months.

The ceramic burrs can touch with no damage (if I'm remembering the info from Baratza correctly). I've got one of the first versions and I really like it. The shots from my T1 goes to show that a grinder is more important than the machine. With the older KA Proline, adjustments were not as simple as with the Vario. I could get pretty good shots, but the Vario's simple adjustments make dialing in dead simple. More consistency is what I'm seeing.

I've not emptied it of beans in quite some time, so I can't remember if it's sounding loaded right now. If that's where you are getting the grinds you need, I'd leave it and enjoy the espresso.

Enjoy,
Mark

Thanks Mark, the little boy is so much fun and he's the first one to appreciate the quietness of the vario for sure.

I'm still figuring out how to properly dial it. I went through about a pound of Transcend Org espresso yesterday which is already a super easy blend to work with and I was having good results (at least visually by the end of my experiments). I'm having a bit more problems today with Klatch Belle espresso, but I'm sure things will turn around

Hi! Thanks for all the information. I was able to easily accomplish this adjustment (post-271) towards a finer grind, and am now pretty happy with my Baratza Vario. Before the adjustment, I was able to dial in a suitable grind for espresso on my Cremina, but the Macro Lever was all the way to the top at Espresso, and the Micro Lever was pretty darned close to the top...I was running out of adjustability...and that really made me second guess myself about the purchase of the Vario. After the adjustment, I still have quite a bit of flexibility left to adjust for different varieties of beans I want to grind for the Olympia. Thanks!

My Mahlkoenig Vario seems to grind coarser over time (about two months of use now). Is this normal? Is it time to re-calibrate using the procedure at the beginning of this thread?

It is possible that after a bit of use and a short "break in" period that your Vario could benefit from a minor recalibration. Since your Vario is a Mahlkoenig i don't know the serial number when they began with the secondary calibration screw (the 2mm one, NOT the 2.5mm). I would not recommend adjusting the 2.5mm screw unless the secondary screw is not present. You can check by looking up at the grinder near the discharge chute. The secondary adjusting screw is on a round hole between the discharge chute and the rubber grommet.
Let me know if you have further questions.
Regards,
Kyle (of Baratza)

Hi Kyle, I found the 2mm adjustment screw and turned it clockwise (looking toward the screw). It got it back to where it was and even made some 4-5 clicks finer on the Micro slider for future allowance. Thanks.

I found this thread very helpful for adjusting my Vario. Finally getting close to making some decent espresso. Thank you, Rob!

I got VERY confused when I printed out this thread to use as a reference. Firefox is my browser of choice, and the printout left out a LOT of important information from the first two pages.

Eventually I figured out that what I printed out did not make any sense, and it was quite different than what is actually shown on the web pages. I then printed this thread from Internet Explorer, which showed everything correctly.

My Vario grinds too fine. Changing the Macro does nothing. I followed your procedure however the adjustment screw is already all the way to the front of the machine. I guess I must have a bad one.