Video: Is this grinder aligned?

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
mad1
Posts: 65
Joined: 9 years ago

#1: Post by mad1 »

Hi folks

I fear I might've messed up the alignment on my Compak K10 pro barista. It all started when while I was doing the pulse and brush thing to clear grinds. My timing was slightly off and it looked like I had "lost" a bunch of brush hairs inside the sweeping chamber or whatever it's called.

I've been wanting to tinker with the grinder for a while anyway so i took the top off and unscrewed the upper burr carrier and took look around in there but it seems that there was no bunched up brush material to be found.

However, I did notice significant pitting on the lower burr carrier


I cleaned up the threads as best I could but when I reinstalled the upper burr carrier, I started to notice a noise that sounded like there was an alignment issue. I'm not sure if this was always there and I just started noticing it or if my tinkering is what caused it. Anyway, the video below shows the grind set in approximately the espresso range. Of course, if I go finer, the rubbing noise is more apparent.

Pressino
Supporter ♡
Posts: 1370
Joined: 3 years ago

#2: Post by Pressino »

Just guessing, but it sounds like a bearing knock or maybe a very slight wobble of the shaft. Again, that is just a guess. Not sure about the pits. Could be from manufacturing or later corrosion.

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mad1 (original poster)
Posts: 65
Joined: 9 years ago

#3: Post by mad1 (original poster) »

Thanks. I suppose the other question is - is this normal or does it need to be looked at? I wonder if other K10's have the same "issue" - one doesn't need to disassemble the grinder; the periodic scraping noise is apparent while running it without beans, fully assembled.

Related, I'm wondering how much I would actually taste the result of any suboptimal grinding as a result of bad alignment

chr514
Posts: 12
Joined: 4 years ago

#4: Post by chr514 »

it seems to be sth wrong with your shaft. you may go through some coffee and check that again.
mis-alignment on conical burr grinder may cause relative nutation, but that is always because you disassembled the grinder and reassembled it without cleaning it up.

mad1 (original poster)
Posts: 65
Joined: 9 years ago

#5: Post by mad1 (original poster) »

It could well be that I didn't perfectly clean it up. Pretty hard to get into all the threads one by one

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Jeff
Team HB
Posts: 6731
Joined: 19 years ago

#6: Post by Jeff »

I've used a dry toothbrush on my Compak K10 WBC's collar threads. They have always been pretty stiff. Just make sure that you don't cross-thread when you replace the collar.

mad1 (original poster)
Posts: 65
Joined: 9 years ago

#7: Post by mad1 (original poster) »

Update: I took off the upper burr carrier, really cleaned out the threads with a needle. Cleaned the threads of the lower burr carrier with a toothbrush and then Q-tips. Put it all back together, no significant difference. I'm just going to leave it as is for now. The coffee tastes fine to me and if anything, the rubbing has not gotten worse since the first pull-apart. A little better maybe. Maybe the burrs are wearing into the new position

Thanks for the ideas

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DaveC
Posts: 1734
Joined: 17 years ago

#8: Post by DaveC »

I'm not completely clear on this....did you actually remove the burrs whilst still in their carriers and give them+everything else a good clean with a dry toothbrush, microfibre cloth whatever?

The shafts not misaligned or wobbling, that's just the nut holding the lower burr in...probably thread is a tad offcentre.