What FAEMA Forgot
Or: FWW, How I learned to love the beast
Or: These modifications may cause bodily injury and "owwies" YMMV!
FAEMA did make two slight boo-boos in the design of their sturdy and useful grinder.
1. They forgot that it might be nice to clean the doser without major disassembly!
So, here is a simple modification to change of the doser top to allow cleaning. It is not difficult, but if you can't see where to go from these sketchy photos, It may not be for you to do.
2. They also did not have under cupboard use in mind.
So, if the large hopper is not needed, FAEMA FORGOT #2 HEREis a simple part to make in order to do without it. (Added as Edit)
If you look at the photos you may see the simple change to the doser inner cover. My Bad! I didn't think take photos at the beginning so you will have to look at the photos from assembly backward for disassembly of the unit. This would also be a good time to change burrs!

To disassemble the grinder: FIRST UNPLUG THE GRINDER!!!!
1. Remove the bean hopper.
2. Remove the upper burr carrier
3. Remove the two screws on top of the doser cover. Then the cover
4. Remove the 4 screws holding the grinder cover and metal switch protector.
5. Remove the two micro switch screws
6. Slowly lift the grinder case and tilt it back to expose all!
7. Remove the 4 inner doser cover screws. The nuts will drop off the screws if you don't hold them.
8. Remove the inner doser cover.
9. Use a magic marker to mark that cover from the bottom side with the switch actuator plate forward.
Do not remove the mounting bosses from the plate.
10. Carefully thread a fine tooth coping saw blade through the original hole and cut along the new outline
marks
11. File the new opening and then scrape the edges with a pocket knife to remove the burrs.
12. The real hassle of the job is getting the rubber trim strip to cover the bottom of the case while
assembling! Trust me, It can be done!
13. Reassemble in reverse order after cleaning everything while the grinder is disassembled.



The doser cover is not screwed down so it can be removed at will

That is part one of housebreaking the FAEMA
Obviously, there is another mod you can make: Remove or bypass the fill flapper cut off switch
Cheers
Richard / espressme

Hi,

I have my MPN stripped down and I'm thinking about doing this.
What downsides does this mod have? The round hole in the top cover lines up with and fits into the hole in the lower cover that this mod would enlarge. Does that cause any problems when the hole is enlarged?

I'm also thinking about removing the flapper altogether, to aid cleaning. And I would bypass the switch that it actuates. Is there any reason not to remove the flapper? It looks like I can just pry up the hinge that it pivots on.

Thanks,
Fergus.

My MPN is perhaps an earlier model that had no hole. There was no way to brush the interior of the hopper. With the flapper out, a larger hole would allow the cleaning of the exit chute. I did not do that on mine. A bent, cheap metal handled bristle "acid" brush is a great grinder cleaner.

Removing the flapper would be no problem for use. You would need to bypass the flapper microswitch to do so. I believe the switch turns off when the hopper is full so a simple bridge between the two switch wires will do. Check your switch with a device to see whether it works that way. I would save the pieces so it could be re-equipped with the auto refill.

I think that the timer relay is only operative when the flapper switch is triggered. It would give a certain amount of grind time. Since I never used the flapper before I mod'd the machine, I don't know. I would think that a momentary switch in lieu of the flapper switch could be nice. The timer could be set to "0" which could allow the use of that switch to time the grinding. I just use the main power switch to time the grind.

I foresee no problems with the modification. I use a throwaway, clear plastic, picnic tumbler as a hopper for the beans. The one I have is a tight slip fit into the opening. The canning funnel I have for my SJ does not fit. It is too large a diameter for the hole.

Wag Aero has rubber channel which will replace the verdamt poorly installed seal that is on the machine. It is the same size and shape. It is about the second or third page of the PDF HERE catalog# H-796-000 @ about $1.10 a foot.

Enjoy your great grinder!!
-Richard

Hi,

Here's the hole I'm referring to.



I think I could clean the doser reasonably well through it with a shop vacuum and a brush.

The upper and lower covers are a tight fit together around the hole, and I think that prevents coffee from getting out into the rest of the grinder. So I don't think I'm going to enlarge the hole unless I can figure out a way to cap it.

I do think I'll remove the flapper, which I think will aid cleaning a lot. I'm going to figure out the relationship of the flapper, its switch and the timer, to decide how best to bypass.

At some point I'll post all my photos of the complete stripdown and rebuild of this machine on some website, so that others can just follow the pics if they want to do this too.

Thanks,

Fergus.

Great photos! Thanks.
You have a later model than I. The one I have made no cleaning provision at all. That made it really cheap as it was really, really cruddy.. So I made the large opening mod on it. I, also, did not screw down the top of the hopper so I could get to the larger opening in the switch plate . Your machine has the top cover connect with the switch plate, which keeps the switch plate clean. I could have made a plastic plate to protect it but it has caused no problem during home use. I could have bypassed the microswitch to remove the flapper but decided not to.
They are a really great grinder and fortunately for us, few people know it! Larger burr size could be nice but these will grind better, in my opinion, than my Mazzer SJ with Duranium burrs. Bang for buck is great!
-Richard