Hey friends! Please like, subscribe and maybe leave a comment if you found this video helpful! Thanks so much. Oh! I read every comment and try to respond to them all in a timely manner, do let's chat!
Why do we have to align the stationary burr as well? Since we have a full wipe on one doesn't that mean they're both aligned perfectly to each other? or am I missing something
For the people asking about the need to align both burrs.. essentially... When you align the moving burr.. your actually aligning it to the burr carrier.. so ie spins consistently even to the carrier... Once that's done.. you then align the fixed burr.. which then brings both burrs into alighnment.. ..👍
How can you align the other burr if the burrs are now touching evenly each other, even if it happens that they both are misaligned against the grinder itself (or whatever "world" origin)? Am I stupid for not getting it... What I mean is that how can you use the same method of marker rubbing off if it already rubs off evenly i.e. the burrs are parallel.
@@zammie01 no, the moving burr was basically wobbling and touching the fixed burr on ITS high point. If you aligned the moving burr so it was running true, it would still be touching the fixed burr on the fixed burrs high point, so you then need to align the fixed burr.
Thanks for the tutorial Lance!!! When i bought my ode2 i also bought the markers planning to align the burrset right out of the box. But i just started using it instead and wound up procrastinated maybe 6 months or so. Until this morning when it sounded like there was a pebble or something that made its way into my grinder. Since i had to open it up to clear the foreign object, i figured might as well clean it out and align it lol. It was misaligned pretty bad and wound up taking forever. But I’m glad i did it because i’ve never seen it produce grinds anywhere even close to this quality before. I was really blown away by the difference it made. Thanks again goodsir!
You set a new standard for coffee related videos. Whenever I need to understand something I go to your channel and search your videos because I know you are going to answer things much more thoroughly than other people. Thank you so much. Subscribed, liked and commented.
@@LanceHedrick ended up getting the specialita for AU$550 instead of DF64 (AU$820). Will be aligning burrs and looking forward to your review for that :)
Trying to get this right on an EK43 has taken all my will to live, it drains life from me. On a serious note, great video. I just discovered your channel and I'm loving it.
as I read in another video, what about rotating the top plate 1/3 and retest with the markers. Then another 1/3 rotation, that might work. With the black line you did first, you can easily come back if unhappy and only then proceed with the shims.
Lance, thanks for dropping this knowledge! Just aligned the burrs on my 64mm Ceado. One small aluminum foil shim on the static burr and it's an even wipe. Seems to have solved the spritzing I was getting on harder beans as well as improved the cup!
Between these kinds of things and the cost of having a warranty, you can really see where the hundreds of bucks go to get a more expensive machine. Great vid. When I read the thumbnail I was like, no way I'm doing this. Totally doing this now!
My Eureka Mignon was misaligned, and Thomas Greene video I ran into first, and this made all the difference to get finer shot to get a 20-30 second shots. FYI, the safety on the grinder is our brains. Its not a child's toy. Fyi, you didnt have to wipe the marks to remark them on your final test.
It would be interesting to see exactly what the difference, in weight the of fines, actually was before and after the adjustment. Intellectually the alignment makes sense, but would love to see the real difference. Love your passion and enthusiasm for geeking out on all things coffee!
Massive difference. I'm sure you can find an abundance of charts online. I've never bothered charting it because I've done it so often and tasted the difference. I've even diagnosed multiple cafe grinders off taste alone from coffees I knew well. Checked alignment and they were 100% off. Massive difference Issue in measuring fines is, because the static bond, you won't be able to sift out more than like 50% anyway. So, measuring without maybe a laser diffractor is futile. Best way to test is just blind tasting side by side same grinders, one aligned and one not.
@@LanceHedrick does seem to have made an improvement though to be fair. One noticeable difference is that it’s reduced retention to virtually zero in my Mahlkonig Vario.
Shall be doing this again soon for an ek43, and watching your vid as a reminder - you have some key points in there that I'd not been aware of before, so this vid is huge! Thank you for this
Lance, don't know if you still monitor this post. FYI , I figured out a simple mod of the Urbanic 070 to be "stepless" like. The mod involves leaving the spring in the grinder and instead, bending the ribs on the "Step Disk" slightly down to increase the pressure on the spring. I found that this allowed the setting of the grind steps in-between the "Spring stopped settings". The downward bend of the ribs created enough pressure on the spring so that it keeps the "disk" in place. For me anyway, the "in-between settings" hasn't perceptually drifted from these in-between steps. (and has never drifted to the spring stops). I bent the ribs slightly by "hammering them ever so gently.
Hey! Just one note about changes in touching point. Yes, it will be lower but only if your recalibrate your zero point where burrs lock. Otherwise, you're moving burrs closer together and so your touch point with the same calibration might become bigger. Another thing I'd tell viewers is that, in general, if you previously dialed in your grinder and did a great job for alignment your grind setting should be a bit higher (coarser) after that. It's because you got more uniform distribution and water will flow faster through more uniform grounds.
You're correct on touch. Apologies. As for the other, I was going for concision and hoping for implications to be made when discussing less fines with better Alignment haha! People know sieving fines increases drawdown/lessens contact time..anyway, thanks for the engagement!
It’s probably been notes on here I. The comments. I’ve done this before on my older grinders, but I’ve found out that a better way can be using aluminum or copper tape. That way the shims don’t move around when adding or subtracting them.
Yes! It's been mentioned! And I know this way, but always believe for people who are learning to do this, not using tape is better so it is easier to manuever.
Delicious wipe. Thanks for bringing joy to my life, Lance lol. I need to align my Fellow Ode. Just picked up some SSP burrs and I feel like I’m getting way too many fines.
Did you ever end up doing alignment on your Ode with the SSP burrs? Ever since I upgraded to SSP MP burrs on mine I've noticed a lot more fines than with the stock v1 burrs and my V60 brews clog so much more easily. I'm thinking I need to do this but wanted to know if it worked for you.
@@interruptVEKTOR I’ve adjusted the burrs a few different times! The grind distribution is definitely better, but I’m still getting noticeably more fines than the stick burrs.
This video is probably the most helpful in understanding this process for me, but I have a few questions. When getting a full wipe after aligning one burr, doesn't that mean that the other burr is inherently aligned as well? Wouldn't you only be able to get a full wipe if they are both parallel ( even if you only aligned one to get that result)? Couldn't realigning the second Burr cause the result of the first alignment to become misaligned? I'm asking all this because I'm new to this process with very limited time on my hands and trying to find the most time efficient way to get the best result out of my grinder
Thank you very much for the demonstration! Why would you shimm the other burr if you got a good wipe on the first? Aren't burrs symmetrical and already properly aligned?
Nope! That's the point of aligning them haha! One is aligning perhaps an improperly manufactured burr carrier and the other is to make the burr perpendicular. See for yourself by checking if the bottom burr will have a full wipe! 🙏🏻
Checking my Rancilio Rocky. Thanks for explaining this. The aluminum foil makes me wish I'd thought of that when adjusting headspace on my single shot TC Pro Hunter Encore rifle. Thought my reloads were hot, even though they were on the low side of published data. Turned out I had a headspace problem. Took me forever to find 0.001 stainless steel sheeting to make shims. A company premakes them, but at a high cost. I could have raided the kitchen for aluminum foil and saved a few bucks. Great job on exposing shim material already in the home.
Shouldn't you make sure that the rotating burr is perfectly perpendicular to the motor shaft, then align the stationary burr to it? If the rotating burr isn't perfectly perpendicular to the shaft, it will forever wobble as it would not be rotating evenly along the axis, no matter the orientation of the flat burr.
@@NaserAlOqab the spinning burr can be slightly off axis and still spin true to the fixed burr due to the carrier design and manufactured tolerances in the drive shaft. You will be chasing your tail if the stationary burr isn't flat as possible in the bore.
Yes. The process is just coating the surface with a very thin polymeric film that contains a pigment you can see, and then seeing which part scrapes off when the two parts make contact. The polymer in a dry erase marker is an oily silicone polymer, which also acts as a release agent, allowing you to wipe it off (permanent markers use an acrylic polymer that remains solid after the solvent evaporates). The most toxic part of the fluid in the marker is the solvent, which quickly evaporates off, leaving the pigmented polymer behind (which you could clean off after the alignment process is complete). You could use anything that marks the surface but it needs to be thin, even and solid so that it clearly shows where the components touch, rather than smearing (e.g., peanut butter would not provide very accurate feedback), so an edible ink marker should be fine if it marks metal. If you really wanted to get excited about it, you could harvest your own squid ink or sepia, but you'd probably want to dilute it with alcohol to reduce its drying time and I'm not sure how well it adheres to metal, so you might need to consider adding an edible resin such as mastic and possibly a surfactant (wetting agent) such as lecithin.
Thanks Lance. A bit nervous to try this on my flat burr df64 Since I am not having any issues. I actually get out what I put in. If and when I upgrade my burrs to ssp I’ll definitely use this video!👍
@@LanceHedrick Yeah I’ve been told or asked if I’ve aligned my burrs coming from espresso outlet I wasn’t sure if they did it already so I guess I should test it to be sure. I definitely don’t wanna make it any worse. I’ve heard stories.Might need to get hubby involved :-)
After watching your previous video and this one here I'm tempted to make a purchase on one of these bad boys! I don't necessarily need one as my BBE has the built in grinder, but I'm curious to taste the difference in clarity between flat vs conical at an affordable price point! Thanks again for your uploads and sharing your expert advice with the rest of us coffee heads! Cheers!
If I'm not getting any chirping at zero point on my DF64P would shimming all around the fixed burr be an option to torqueing down the 1/2" bolt on the base of the grinder, and then do alignment on other burr? Thx Lance, great stuff on ur channel!
How did it go? I had mixed results, my rotational burr only got partially wiped off (I used up to 5 layers of foil) and I dont quite understand how to do the stationary one
@@richieyasu5683 Such a success. Two months in and my brews are so consistent. Able to grind a lot finer and have zero issues with stalling now. Almost every brew prior to alignment stalled, especially Ethiopian coffees which generally produce more fines. I had to do 8 folds of foil in one section! It was so far out of alignment
@@richieyasu5683 I started with the stationary burr, that's the one that needed a lot of shimming. Then I switched the the rotation burr and aligned that. Same as Lance in the video
14:05 What would we do it to the stationary burr ? If one is aligned doesn’t it means that everything is already good to go ? Thanks a lot i will now check on my X54 ^^
Nope! Both need to be checked. Perhaps some machines both won't need to be done, depending on the tolerances. I would hope the x54 doesn't need the stationary done but check both. Shim the rotary and once clean wipe, check the stationary. I can all but guarantee it won't be full.
@@LanceHedrick I'm also struggling to understand the double burr check. Everyone seems to agree on it btw, the tutorial by Matt Perger also indicate that it should be done with both burrs, but from a mathematical point of view I don't get it. As an example, you can align the plane formed between your hands by moving just one of them, right? Would it be the same with the burrs? What are R Dalmasso and me missing? PS: You are the heir to the Hoffmann's throne XD
@@Nole256 if you have one burr aligned that means that that burt is perfectly flat and the high point of the other burr touches the rotating burr at all points. Imagine that you have fixed your marker at one position and it cannot move. And then you have your burr spinning. Then you slowly move your burr closer to marker. If your burr is aligned as soon as marker touches one side of the burr it will draw on all sides. But if your burr is misaligned, the marker will just touch one part of it. So now, you can imagine that the marker tip is the highest point on your stationary burrs and it can be horrible misaligned. If it's also in alignment that means that both burrs touch each other with all flat parts simultaneously
Mike is correct. You have to remember the auger is at 90 degrees so if one side of the burr is down, that is the only side hitting the stationary burr and will thusly only wipe off there. Once aligned, all teeth will hit, but could only hit one side of stationary burr if it, too, is even barely misaligned.
@@Nole256 The whole idea is to align them not just parallel to one another, but also both should be perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the moving burr. The only way to do so is to check for the alignment of the moving burr first.
Well, I have an interesting challenge ahead of me. I found an old Chemex coffee grinder from the 1980's at a garage sale, opened it up and was surprised to find out it is a flat burr grinder. I wonder if it's worth trying to align the burrs. It looks kinda cheap, I didn't even know Chemex made these.
Thank you for this very informative video. I got the 070S and "engaged" the burrs (I do hear a grinding noise and backed out the grind size) only to find there are no "cleaned" spots on my burr wheel. I did paint the outer teeth of the burr but nothing was "wiped". The grinding noise was not just a gentle chirp and I could feel the burrs engage. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for this video. Has anyone ever tried to shim a p64? Not sre its necessary , but i've always been curious about if lagom p64s could benefit from shimming the burrs
I can't get a perfect wipe on my 807 Lab Sweet. The closest is both North and South have a wipe but east and west don't...is it possible due to the burr being cast that it isn't machined as precise to be level within the thickness of a sheet of aluminum foil? I can get the bottom half rubbing by itself, top half by itself, and just now settled on most of the top and most of the bottom with some gaps on the left and right, but never the full circle.
Lance!! I got a request video to you! It has been bugging me recently, i do cupping regularly so i purchase quite a lot of beans and also doing home roasting so theres plenty of unconsumed beans for like several months and i dont wanna just chuck it away so i still have it, do you have an idea or tips to brew nice cup of coffee using old beans apart from storage/canister(longer store)? Those extraction was normally watery and sour and very weak crema on espresso,,,, even filter brewing was fairly disappointing. So my question is if you have old enough beans how do you brew? Which brew method would you choose? And whats your tips to brew it delicious? Thx 😊 sending big love as always!
Yeah i normally brew big batch of cold brew for muggle friends who aint have any brewing tool and share whole beans with coffee geeks but these all geeks share THEIR coffee with me as well so it always ended up same 😂 cant wait to see lance’s hack
this method is to align the stationary or to get little close to perfect aligenemnt because the rotational burrs is difficult to align and need more tools !
So is this a reason to just go with a conical burr set; no alignment issues? Or do they also have alignment issues? I ask as a Baratza Preciso owner who saw grind uniformity go downhill after years of great results. Communicated with Baratza and sent it in, got it back and the problem was worse. Then communicated with Baratza, sent it in and bought a new Preciso burr set as an upgrade. Got it back, mixed results and am not wondering again if there is a problem or if the new burrs need to season? Much help would be needed, I am very close to saying goodbye to Baratza forever and would be torn between buying a niche (conical) or D64 (flat). I know, I know, Baratza support is legendary in the industry; yet the problem is not willingness to support and is instead the idea of a grinder causing so many problems to your daily living. Sometimes you just don't want to deal with certain things. Also, since Breville took Baratza over I wonder how things have changed from a support standpoint as it seems far less personal now; processed the support ticket with no confirmation of fixing anything and same problems. So this video matters to me personally right now. Great tutorial, I appreciate any further advice in response...
Kitchen foil shim may not last long enough to hold the grinding burr well aligned. Burrs are moving so fast and grinding each other. Owners manual does not mention about this. 😂
G'day Lance, I did this today and at the end noticed the carrier has movement that throws the top burr out on my single dose mazzer super jolly. I might try a bit of thread tape and see if that fixes the issue.
G'day Lance, have you come across a mazzer with excessive play in the thread which can cause slight movement in the top carrier? Aligning my burrs revealed this to me.
Lance don't you have to do the fixed burr first and then the moving burr? Isn't the fixed burr the reference point and then we align the moving burr to it?
The reference is the axis, to be honest. But you can always double check at the end! If you get the rotary clean, then get a clean fixed, test the rotary again. My bet is it'll be clean 😉
Hey Lance, have one of these on order after watching your review video. Just wondering how you know which burr is out of alignment? When you do first wipe, how do we know if it is stationary or moving burr (or both) that need alignment?
Oh yeah! Have heard about using this but haven't yet. Tape makes me feel nervous with leftover gunk and having to be perfect when lying it down haha. But I'm sure it holds a lot better!
Hi Lance, I bought the Urbanic 070s based on your last video with the titanium burrs. It is working great and producing tasty espresso. I tried this alignment technique and even with the knob removed, I cannot get the burrs to touch. Any pointers? I guess I could shim the back burr to get it to touch but I am wondering if I am missing something.
Hi Lance, love your videos and all the work you do for the coffee community. I am having an issue aligning my SSP MP burrs on my Atom 75. After applying the marker and reaching chirping point, I don't see any ink rubbed off.... The outer edge of the burrs have little teeth instead of being flat, is that the problem?if so, do you have a work-around?? Thank you
I would not recommend trying to align brew burrs. I would suggest either trying to align with a dial indicator OR you can try to align another set of burrs then put the shims in the same spots on the other burrs. Issue is, burr tolerance isn't at 0%
Great video as always Lance! I bought my 070s a year ago. It worked fine for espresso at first. Ever since I opened it up to clean it, it's never been the same. Now I pulling turbo shots even at the lowest settings. The burrs don't chirp at the minimum setting. I think the torque is off or something. Do you have any suggestions?
Hope you already got the answer to this question.. if you take the front knob off, there is a screw under the sticker, the knob can then be rotated to the minimum chirp position. In Lance's budget grinder showdown, he shows you how to do this.
I have recently changed the burrs on my silenzio. The grounds keep getting stuck in the chute. I have removed the declumper to further ease the flow of grounds. Just a few days ago I went to brew my first shots of the day. The first grind went fine, and using bellows all the grounds came out. When I grinded the beans for the next shot ALL of the ground coffee was lodged in the chute, and likely further up into the grinder. Horrible. If my burrs are misaligned...and because of this misalignment I am having to dial down further to get my shot right... could this be causing this problem?
Hey, not sure anymore if this grinder has standart dc in (america) or if I would also need a power translator whatever thats call! Planing on buying it as a first grinder to learn!
For videos like these I just wish you'd invest the money and have a zoomed in overhead camera shots for those details that you're doing with your hands. We can't see it will being 15 feet from your main camera
Eh- i've sniffed enough expo in my day.... JUST KIDDING. It is non toxic, of course. I don't use an alcohol wipe, but I do scrub it off with a hard bristle brush.
Hi Lance does it matter in which order you shim the burrs? I tried to do my Mignon Specialita and done the moving shim first, but just couldn't get the static one right, I gave up in the end!
@@LanceHedrick it was showing one patch about 1" where the marker was being taken off. I lifted the opposite side one layer of foil at a time using 2 places I got up to 31 layers before it then went over the other way. There was no gradual change. I took it back to 30 layers and was back again to almost where I started. It took me 12 hours! In the end I just removed all the shims and put it back together. A repair guy did tell me that after quite a few kilos of coffee they will sort themselves out, they then are seasoned. Not sure what to think to be honest. Maybe I will have a go when I get bored. What was shocking is most people only talk about 1-5 layers of foil, mine didn't move till 31! I did wonder if it is the way that the specialita burrs drop into the carrier. Not allowing you to slip in foil at the side.
when u get a clean wipe do u really have to do it with tge stationary burr also? i mean bec theyre alrdy perfectly flat, if u start fiddling with the other variable ( the stationary one) wont it give it a chance to get misaligned again?
@@LanceHedrick One more maybe dumb question. Do you ever have to stack shims on top of each other to get more height, or like, fold it more than twice? Is there a limit to how many layers of foil should be stacked up?
Hey friends! Please like, subscribe and maybe leave a comment if you found this video helpful! Thanks so much. Oh! I read every comment and try to respond to them all in a timely manner, do let's chat!
Hi there! Do you have a video on the Alicorn alignment for the Vario?
Why do we have to align the stationary burr as well? Since we have a full wipe on one doesn't that mean they're both aligned perfectly to each other? or am I missing something
@@robertwontkowski8082 you aren't aligning them to one another. Instead, you're aligning both the the axel, or the imaginary perpendicular axis.
@@LanceHedrick Ohhh, that makes so much more sense! Thank you so much! :)
@@LanceHedrickfair point but impossible to align the other burr using the technique you’ve shown after you aligned the first burr.
For the people asking about the need to align both burrs.. essentially... When you align the moving burr.. your actually aligning it to the burr carrier.. so ie spins consistently even to the carrier... Once that's done.. you then align the fixed burr.. which then brings both burrs into alighnment.. ..👍
I was just going to ask this. Instinct says not to align the fixed burr since its already rubbing correctly after aligning the moving burr...
How can you align the other burr if the burrs are now touching evenly each other, even if it happens that they both are misaligned against the grinder itself (or whatever "world" origin)? Am I stupid for not getting it... What I mean is that how can you use the same method of marker rubbing off if it already rubs off evenly i.e. the burrs are parallel.
Exactly. So yes, aligning both burrs with shims (if necessary) makes sense. And also trying to have them centered around the axis of rotation
@@zammie01 no, the moving burr was basically wobbling and touching the fixed burr on ITS high point. If you aligned the moving burr so it was running true, it would still be touching the fixed burr on the fixed burrs high point, so you then need to align the fixed burr.
@@richardmiddleton7770 Thanks for your reply. I shimmed and aligned both burrs. Hopes it stays aligned for a good while more!
Thanks for the tutorial Lance!!! When i bought my ode2 i also bought the markers planning to align the burrset right out of the box. But i just started using it instead and wound up procrastinated maybe 6 months or so. Until this morning when it sounded like there was a pebble or something that made its way into my grinder. Since i had to open it up to clear the foreign object, i figured might as well clean it out and align it lol. It was misaligned pretty bad and wound up taking forever. But I’m glad i did it because i’ve never seen it produce grinds anywhere even close to this quality before. I was really blown away by the difference it made. Thanks again goodsir!
Wow. This is a good and informative video but after watching newer stuff, it's clear how much better your new stuff looks.
Yeah he’s always put out stuff with good substance, but his production value has really leveled up exponentially hasn’t it.
One cannot understand the joy of finally seeing a complete wipe, before having tried to align his grinder.
You set a new standard for coffee related videos. Whenever I need to understand something I go to your channel and search your videos because I know you are going to answer things much more thoroughly than other people. Thank you so much. Subscribed, liked and commented.
Saving this for later - if I pull the trigger on DF64.. Also well done to Jason for some crisp focus pulling there
Absolutely! He did a great job. Happy with those close ups
@@LanceHedrick ended up getting the specialita for AU$550 instead of DF64 (AU$820). Will be aligning burrs and looking forward to your review for that :)
Nice! Hope you enjoy it! I'll see if I can get my hands on one.
Trying to get this right on an EK43 has taken all my will to live, it drains life from me.
On a serious note, great video. I just discovered your channel and I'm loving it.
Thank you so much! Seriously means a lot
Actually your dealer is responsible for it. if they are misaligned they would normally fix it for you
as I read in another video, what about rotating the top plate 1/3 and retest with the markers. Then another 1/3 rotation, that might work. With the black line you did first, you can easily come back if unhappy and only then proceed with the shims.
Lance, thanks for dropping this knowledge! Just aligned the burrs on my 64mm Ceado. One small aluminum foil shim on the static burr and it's an even wipe. Seems to have solved the spritzing I was getting on harder beans as well as improved the cup!
I've been delaying burr alignment for some time now. I'll definitely do it after this video. Great content as always
me too! i've been the oh it's touching, it's done lol.
Between these kinds of things and the cost of having a warranty, you can really see where the hundreds of bucks go to get a more expensive machine.
Great vid. When I read the thumbnail I was like, no way I'm doing this. Totally doing this now!
My Eureka Mignon was misaligned, and Thomas Greene video I ran into first, and this made all the difference to get finer shot to get a 20-30 second shots. FYI, the safety on the grinder is our brains. Its not a child's toy. Fyi, you didnt have to wipe the marks to remark them on your final test.
Thanks mate, this was really easy to watch and really informative for me.
Fantastic! So glad you enjoy it, friend.
I am very curious about this causing damage/dulling the burrs? Should that be of any concern?
It would be interesting to see exactly what the difference, in weight the of fines, actually was before and after the adjustment. Intellectually the alignment makes sense, but would love to see the real difference. Love your passion and enthusiasm for geeking out on all things coffee!
Massive difference. I'm sure you can find an abundance of charts online. I've never bothered charting it because I've done it so often and tasted the difference. I've even diagnosed multiple cafe grinders off taste alone from coffees I knew well. Checked alignment and they were 100% off. Massive difference
Issue in measuring fines is, because the static bond, you won't be able to sift out more than like 50% anyway. So, measuring without maybe a laser diffractor is futile.
Best way to test is just blind tasting side by side same grinders, one aligned and one not.
I’ve been hating you for the last 90 minutes Lance!! 🤣 This better be worth it.
Hahahaha! Yes. It is a pain in the arse!
@@LanceHedrick does seem to have made an improvement though to be fair. One noticeable difference is that it’s reduced retention to virtually zero in my Mahlkonig Vario.
Dude is a coffee legend
Yeah him and hoffman really be doing their thang here fr.
Amazing movie. It gave me so much clarity and perspective!
Shall be doing this again soon for an ek43, and watching your vid as a reminder - you have some key points in there that I'd not been aware of before, so this vid is huge! Thank you for this
A wonderfully clear, precise, and easy to follow explanation. Well done! Just need to get an expo marker so I can get to work on my grinder.
Lance, don't know if you still monitor this post. FYI , I figured out a simple mod of the Urbanic 070 to be "stepless" like. The mod involves leaving the spring in the grinder and instead, bending the ribs on the "Step Disk" slightly down to increase the pressure on the spring. I found that this allowed the setting of the grind steps in-between the "Spring stopped settings". The downward bend of the ribs created enough pressure on the spring so that it keeps the "disk" in place. For me anyway, the "in-between settings" hasn't perceptually drifted from these in-between steps. (and has never drifted to the spring stops). I bent the ribs slightly by "hammering them ever so gently.
Great wipe 🤝
Dang! I'm glad I have a conical burr grinder.
Informative, helpfull and entertaining like most of your videos. Thanks for the great content.
Just ordered an DF64 hope I can get it to run smooth.
Hey! Just one note about changes in touching point. Yes, it will be lower but only if your recalibrate your zero point where burrs lock. Otherwise, you're moving burrs closer together and so your touch point with the same calibration might become bigger.
Another thing I'd tell viewers is that, in general, if you previously dialed in your grinder and did a great job for alignment your grind setting should be a bit higher (coarser) after that. It's because you got more uniform distribution and water will flow faster through more uniform grounds.
You're correct on touch. Apologies.
As for the other, I was going for concision and hoping for implications to be made when discussing less fines with better Alignment haha! People know sieving fines increases drawdown/lessens contact time..anyway, thanks for the engagement!
Your videos are so helpful! Thank you Lance!
Fantastic, now I just need to get a flat burr grinder!
Hey lance,thanks for your useful videos,would you please make a video for Mahlkoenig AE80 shim alignment .
Great Vid. Practically usefull on most flat burrs. Have fun Peepz and keep it safe.
Appreciate you! Thank you very much!
Great job. Exactly how The Wired Gourmet does it. Red marker and all ;)
How it's always been done! Good method.
thanks for the brief explanation Lance! Now İ know. Delicious wipe. Haha.
Well.. after 12 years of coffee game... its time for my frist alignment on the monster Mazzer Stark . Lets go
This was so helpful, thanks Lance!
Absolutely! Hope it helps!
YOO HOO you just got a mention in James Hoffmans new Flair vid.
YESSSSSSS so awesome! Daddy Hoff, the patron saint.
Delicious wipe.
#waitwhat
It’s probably been notes on here I. The comments.
I’ve done this before on my older grinders, but I’ve found out that a better way can be using aluminum or copper tape. That way the shims don’t move around when adding or subtracting them.
Yes! It's been mentioned! And I know this way, but always believe for people who are learning to do this, not using tape is better so it is easier to manuever.
Delicious wipe. Thanks for bringing joy to my life, Lance lol. I need to align my Fellow Ode. Just picked up some SSP burrs and I feel like I’m getting way too many fines.
Oh fantastic! SSP burrs are great. Did you get the multipurpose?
@@LanceHedrick Yeah! Super pleased with them. I feel like I “unlocked” the Ode.
Did you ever end up doing alignment on your Ode with the SSP burrs? Ever since I upgraded to SSP MP burrs on mine I've noticed a lot more fines than with the stock v1 burrs and my V60 brews clog so much more easily. I'm thinking I need to do this but wanted to know if it worked for you.
@@interruptVEKTOR I’ve adjusted the burrs a few different times! The grind distribution is definitely better, but I’m still getting noticeably more fines than the stick burrs.
Hey I was just thinking about how I was gonna go this! Ty Lance!
Perfect! Glad it was timed well!
Just aligned the brew burrs for my Ode gen 2! Out of curiosity, is it better to align before or after seasoning a new set of burrs?
This video is probably the most helpful in understanding this process for me, but I have a few questions. When getting a full wipe after aligning one burr, doesn't that mean that the other burr is inherently aligned as well? Wouldn't you only be able to get a full wipe if they are both parallel ( even if you only aligned one to get that result)? Couldn't realigning the second Burr cause the result of the first alignment to become misaligned?
I'm asking all this because I'm new to this process with very limited time on my hands and trying to find the most time efficient way to get the best result out of my grinder
I think the second burr is stationary, meaning you are always aligning the first burrs position to match the second's.
Both burrs should be marked to determine which burr is out of alignment.
Thank you very much for the demonstration!
Why would you shimm the other burr if you got a good wipe on the first? Aren't burrs symmetrical and already properly aligned?
Nope! That's the point of aligning them haha!
One is aligning perhaps an improperly manufactured burr carrier and the other is to make the burr perpendicular.
See for yourself by checking if the bottom burr will have a full wipe! 🙏🏻
Thanks for the vid as always! How do the 'gevi' burrs help to improve the grind? Thanks!
Checking my Rancilio Rocky. Thanks for explaining this. The aluminum foil makes me wish I'd thought of that when adjusting headspace on my single shot TC Pro Hunter Encore rifle. Thought my reloads were hot, even though they were on the low side of published data. Turned out I had a headspace problem. Took me forever to find 0.001 stainless steel sheeting to make shims. A company premakes them, but at a high cost. I could have raided the kitchen for aluminum foil and saved a few bucks. Great job on exposing shim material already in the home.
I use a digital caliper to make sure the stationary burr is perfectly flat in the bore. Then I shim the outer burr accordingly.
Heck yeah! I will be working on a vario alignment video at some point and will include this trick
Shouldn't you make sure that the rotating burr is perfectly perpendicular to the motor shaft, then align the stationary burr to it? If the rotating burr isn't perfectly perpendicular to the shaft, it will forever wobble as it would not be rotating evenly along the axis, no matter the orientation of the flat burr.
@@NaserAlOqab the spinning burr can be slightly off axis and still spin true to the fixed burr due to the carrier design and manufactured tolerances in the drive shaft. You will be chasing your tail if the stationary burr isn't flat as possible in the bore.
Great tutorial. Thanks
Can one use edible ink markers? I am loath to have the toxic chemicals of a regular marker in contact with my food.
Yes. The process is just coating the surface with a very thin polymeric film that contains a pigment you can see, and then seeing which part scrapes off when the two parts make contact. The polymer in a dry erase marker is an oily silicone polymer, which also acts as a release agent, allowing you to wipe it off (permanent markers use an acrylic polymer that remains solid after the solvent evaporates). The most toxic part of the fluid in the marker is the solvent, which quickly evaporates off, leaving the pigmented polymer behind (which you could clean off after the alignment process is complete). You could use anything that marks the surface but it needs to be thin, even and solid so that it clearly shows where the components touch, rather than smearing (e.g., peanut butter would not provide very accurate feedback), so an edible ink marker should be fine if it marks metal. If you really wanted to get excited about it, you could harvest your own squid ink or sepia, but you'd probably want to dilute it with alcohol to reduce its drying time and I'm not sure how well it adheres to metal, so you might need to consider adding an edible resin such as mastic and possibly a surfactant (wetting agent) such as lecithin.
I was definitely here cuz of the thumbnail
Haha! Weird coffee mcgyver
Thanks Lance. A bit nervous to try this on my flat burr df64 Since I am not having any issues. I actually get out what I put in. If and when I upgrade my burrs to ssp I’ll definitely use this video!👍
So, this has nothing to do with retention. I promise your grinder will perform better doing this!
You got this! Gotta open it up to clean anyway 😁
@@LanceHedrick Yeah I’ve been told or asked if I’ve aligned my burrs coming from espresso outlet I wasn’t sure if they did it already so I guess I should test it to be sure. I definitely don’t wanna make it any worse. I’ve heard stories.Might need to get hubby involved :-)
For sure! It'll help clean up your shots, for sure
Do you think you could do a video trying out different milk frother/steamer alternatives for people wothout a coffee machine? 🥺🥰 Love your videoos 💛
Hey! Sure can! I've got a nanofoamer, which I love, and can use a french press no problem
@@LanceHedrick thank youu 💛
After watching your previous video and this one here I'm tempted to make a purchase on one of these bad boys! I don't necessarily need one as my BBE has the built in grinder, but I'm curious to taste the difference in clarity between flat vs conical at an affordable price point! Thanks again for your uploads and sharing your expert advice with the rest of us coffee heads! Cheers!
Absolutely! So glad you enjoy it!
If I'm not getting any chirping at zero point on my DF64P would shimming all around the fixed burr be an option to torqueing down the 1/2" bolt on the base of the grinder, and then do alignment on other burr? Thx Lance, great stuff on ur channel!
Just did this on my Ode with SSP. Game changer
Wonderful! Such a good brewing grinder
How did it go? I had mixed results, my rotational burr only got partially wiped off (I used up to 5 layers of foil) and I dont quite understand how to do the stationary one
@@richieyasu5683 Such a success. Two months in and my brews are so consistent. Able to grind a lot finer and have zero issues with stalling now. Almost every brew prior to alignment stalled, especially Ethiopian coffees which generally produce more fines. I had to do 8 folds of foil in one section! It was so far out of alignment
@@sammcallister1081 oh ok! This makes sense for me, thank you. How do I know how to work on the stationary burr btw?
@@richieyasu5683 I started with the stationary burr, that's the one that needed a lot of shimming. Then I switched the the rotation burr and aligned that. Same as Lance in the video
You make really useful and entertaining content, Lance 👌
Thank you sincerely! Means a lot
Someone needs to make a Hance Lendrick account
14:05 What would we do it to the stationary burr ? If one is aligned doesn’t it means that everything is already good to go ? Thanks a lot i will now check on my X54 ^^
Nope! Both need to be checked. Perhaps some machines both won't need to be done, depending on the tolerances. I would hope the x54 doesn't need the stationary done but check both. Shim the rotary and once clean wipe, check the stationary. I can all but guarantee it won't be full.
@@LanceHedrick I'm also struggling to understand the double burr check. Everyone seems to agree on it btw, the tutorial by Matt Perger also indicate that it should be done with both burrs, but from a mathematical point of view I don't get it. As an example, you can align the plane formed between your hands by moving just one of them, right? Would it be the same with the burrs? What are R Dalmasso and me missing? PS: You are the heir to the Hoffmann's throne XD
@@Nole256 if you have one burr aligned that means that that burt is perfectly flat and the high point of the other burr touches the rotating burr at all points.
Imagine that you have fixed your marker at one position and it cannot move. And then you have your burr spinning. Then you slowly move your burr closer to marker. If your burr is aligned as soon as marker touches one side of the burr it will draw on all sides. But if your burr is misaligned, the marker will just touch one part of it.
So now, you can imagine that the marker tip is the highest point on your stationary burrs and it can be horrible misaligned. If it's also in alignment that means that both burrs touch each other with all flat parts simultaneously
Mike is correct. You have to remember the auger is at 90 degrees so if one side of the burr is down, that is the only side hitting the stationary burr and will thusly only wipe off there. Once aligned, all teeth will hit, but could only hit one side of stationary burr if it, too, is even barely misaligned.
@@Nole256 The whole idea is to align them not just parallel to one another, but also both should be perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the moving burr. The only way to do so is to check for the alignment of the moving burr first.
Well, I have an interesting challenge ahead of me. I found an old Chemex coffee grinder from the 1980's at a garage sale, opened it up and was surprised to find out it is a flat burr grinder. I wonder if it's worth trying to align the burrs. It looks kinda cheap, I didn't even know Chemex made these.
You mean kalita?
@@LanceHedrick No, Chemex coffee grinder model ECG. I can't find hardly any info on it.
Thank you for this very informative video. I got the 070S and "engaged" the burrs (I do hear a grinding noise and backed out the grind size) only to find there are no "cleaned" spots on my burr wheel. I did paint the outer teeth of the burr but nothing was "wiped". The grinding noise was not just a gentle chirp and I could feel the burrs engage. What am I doing wrong?
Another great video Lance! So, you leave the shins in and they don’t come Off flying? Thanks for creating good content.
Hey Lance, just subscribed. Very informative video. Any thoughts on making a comparison video on Amazon grinders? Thanks
Thanks for this video. Has anyone ever tried to shim a p64? Not sre its necessary , but i've always been curious about if lagom p64s could benefit from shimming the burrs
I can't get a perfect wipe on my 807 Lab Sweet. The closest is both North and South have a wipe but east and west don't...is it possible due to the burr being cast that it isn't machined as precise to be level within the thickness of a sheet of aluminum foil? I can get the bottom half rubbing by itself, top half by itself, and just now settled on most of the top and most of the bottom with some gaps on the left and right, but never the full circle.
Lance!! I got a request video to you! It has been bugging me recently, i do cupping regularly so i purchase quite a lot of beans and also doing home roasting so theres plenty of unconsumed beans for like several months and i dont wanna just chuck it away so i still have it, do you have an idea or tips to brew nice cup of coffee using old beans apart from storage/canister(longer store)? Those extraction was normally watery and sour and very weak crema on espresso,,,, even filter brewing was fairly disappointing. So my question is if you have old enough beans how do you brew? Which brew method would you choose? And whats your tips to brew it delicious? Thx 😊 sending big love as always!
Good idea! I'll need to make that a video
Maybe you could share some with your local coffee geeks.
Sharing is caring! But there are great ways to brew old coffee. A video is overdue
Cold brew!!
Yeah i normally brew big batch of cold brew for muggle friends who aint have any brewing tool and share whole beans with coffee geeks but these all geeks share THEIR coffee with me as well so it always ended up same 😂 cant wait to see lance’s hack
Hey lance, is it best to align the stationary burr first on the rotational burr/ what is the rational for this.
Thanks for the awesome guide though!
this method is to align the stationary or to get little close to perfect aligenemnt because the rotational burrs is difficult to align and need more tools !
So is this a reason to just go with a conical burr set; no alignment issues? Or do they also have alignment issues? I ask as a Baratza Preciso owner who saw grind uniformity go downhill after years of great results. Communicated with Baratza and sent it in, got it back and the problem was worse. Then communicated with Baratza, sent it in and bought a new Preciso burr set as an upgrade. Got it back, mixed results and am not wondering again if there is a problem or if the new burrs need to season? Much help would be needed, I am very close to saying goodbye to Baratza forever and would be torn between buying a niche (conical) or D64 (flat). I know, I know, Baratza support is legendary in the industry; yet the problem is not willingness to support and is instead the idea of a grinder causing so many problems to your daily living. Sometimes you just don't want to deal with certain things. Also, since Breville took Baratza over I wonder how things have changed from a support standpoint as it seems far less personal now; processed the support ticket with no confirmation of fixing anything and same problems. So this video matters to me personally right now. Great tutorial, I appreciate any further advice in response...
Lance; you really need to make a video on the fixed SSP burr alignment...
It's the same process
Kitchen foil shim may not last long enough to hold the grinding burr well aligned. Burrs are moving so fast and grinding each other. Owners manual does not mention about this. 😂
G'day Lance, I did this today and at the end noticed the carrier has movement that throws the top burr out on my single dose mazzer super jolly. I might try a bit of thread tape and see if that fixes the issue.
Can you align conical hand grinder burrs? From a 1zpresso j ultra for example
Thanks Lance
Thank YOU!
G'day Lance, have you come across a mazzer with excessive play in the thread which can cause slight movement in the top carrier? Aligning my burrs revealed this to me.
Lance don't you have to do the fixed burr first and then the moving burr? Isn't the fixed burr the reference point and then we align the moving burr to it?
The reference is the axis, to be honest. But you can always double check at the end! If you get the rotary clean, then get a clean fixed, test the rotary again. My bet is it'll be clean 😉
@@LanceHedrick oh ok that makes sense. So long as the axis is correct I guess. FYI your vid's are awesome man. I really appreciate your work.
Hey Lance, have one of these on order after watching your review video.
Just wondering how you know which burr is out of alignment?
When you do first wipe, how do we know if it is stationary or moving burr (or both) that need alignment?
Hey! 9.9 times out of 10, they both do.
thanks you so much.
I highly recommend the tesa 50565 Aluminium Foil Tape as it makes the whole process a lot easier!
Oh yeah! Have heard about using this but haven't yet. Tape makes me feel nervous with leftover gunk and having to be perfect when lying it down haha. But I'm sure it holds a lot better!
Hi Lance, I bought the Urbanic 070s based on your last video with the titanium burrs. It is working great and producing tasty espresso. I tried this alignment technique and even with the knob removed, I cannot get the burrs to touch. Any pointers? I guess I could shim the back burr to get it to touch but I am wondering if I am missing something.
Hey! THere is a little spoke that is bent down to prevent you from touching burrs Make sure to straighten it out.
Won't aligning the 2nd burr throw off everything you just did to the first burr?
what a great (delicious) WIPE
12:23 Those same words were also said right after the morning coffee.
Does your grinder used in this video same as feima n600?
Hi Lance, love your videos and all the work you do for the coffee community. I am having an issue aligning my SSP MP burrs on my Atom 75. After applying the marker and reaching chirping point, I don't see any ink rubbed off.... The outer edge of the burrs have little teeth instead of being flat, is that the problem?if so, do you have a work-around?? Thank you
I would not recommend trying to align brew burrs. I would suggest either trying to align with a dial indicator OR you can try to align another set of burrs then put the shims in the same spots on the other burrs. Issue is, burr tolerance isn't at 0%
@@LanceHedrick thanks for the insight. Much appreciated.
Great video as always Lance! I bought my 070s a year ago. It worked fine for espresso at first. Ever since I opened it up to clean it, it's never been the same. Now I pulling turbo shots even at the lowest settings. The burrs don't chirp at the minimum setting. I think the torque is off or something. Do you have any suggestions?
Hope you already got the answer to this question.. if you take the front knob off, there is a screw under the sticker, the knob can then be rotated to the minimum chirp position. In Lance's budget grinder showdown, he shows you how to do this.
The coffee grinder is quite similar to Zerno Z1
Delicious wipe 😜😜😜😜
Say you got the moving burr aligned, by the time you change the alignment of the stationary burr wouldn't the moving burr be misaligned again?
No. You align to the axis. The axis doesn't change
Tried to align my 600n grinder with the method above but was unable to get results after several hours. Does anyone have tips?
Thank you
I have recently changed the burrs on my silenzio. The grounds keep getting stuck in the chute.
I have removed the declumper to further ease the flow of grounds. Just a few days ago I went to brew my first shots of the day. The first grind went fine, and using bellows all the grounds came out.
When I grinded the beans for the next shot ALL of the ground coffee was lodged in the chute, and likely further up into the grinder. Horrible.
If my burrs are misaligned...and because of this misalignment I am having to dial down further to get my shot right... could this be causing this problem?
The grounds were so lodged that when pressing the bellows there was stiff resistance.
Do you recommend alignment on a new grinder or wait until there has been a run-in or break-in period of time? Thx.
If you do it right out of the box, everything is nice and clean
Hey, not sure anymore if this grinder has standart dc in (america) or if I would also need a power translator whatever thats call! Planing on buying it as a first grinder to learn!
Urbanic has standard US plug!
For videos like these I just wish you'd invest the money and have a zoomed in overhead camera shots for those details that you're doing with your hands. We can't see it will being 15 feet from your main camera
I can hear my burrs touching but the marker is not coming off. Any thoughts?
Wait, if it's aligned after doing one side, why do you have to do it on the other side?
when finished, do you then go in with an alcohol wipe or something and clean off the rest of the dry erase marker?
Eh- i've sniffed enough expo in my day.... JUST KIDDING. It is non toxic, of course. I don't use an alcohol wipe, but I do scrub it off with a hard bristle brush.
Hi Lance does it matter in which order you shim the burrs? I tried to do my Mignon Specialita and done the moving shim first, but just couldn't get the static one right, I gave up in the end!
I definitely recommend moving burr first. What was wrong with static?
@@LanceHedrick it was showing one patch about 1" where the marker was being taken off. I lifted the opposite side one layer of foil at a time using 2 places I got up to 31 layers before it then went over the other way. There was no gradual change. I took it back to 30 layers and was back again to almost where I started.
It took me 12 hours! In the end I just removed all the shims and put it back together. A repair guy did tell me that after quite a few kilos of coffee they will sort themselves out, they then are seasoned.
Not sure what to think to be honest. Maybe I will have a go when I get bored. What was shocking is most people only talk about 1-5 layers of foil, mine didn't move till 31!
I did wonder if it is the way that the specialita burrs drop into the carrier. Not allowing you to slip in foil at the side.
@@LanceHedrick Why moving burr first?
Thank for your tutorial.
Just suscribed to your chanel😁.
What is the make of your coffee grinder please?
Thank you! And this is the urbanic 070!
@@LanceHedrick thank-you and take care from Montréal, Québec
does this work with the cast lab sweets from ssp on df64 set up. Thanks!
when u get a clean wipe do u really have to do it with tge stationary burr also? i mean bec theyre alrdy perfectly flat, if u start fiddling with the other variable ( the stationary one) wont it give it a chance to get misaligned again?
Nope! You're assuming one is perfectly flat. We are aligning based off the axis.
Do you clean off the marker completely when you're done? If yes, how?
Using dry erase, it just comes right off like on a white board!
@@LanceHedrick One more maybe dumb question. Do you ever have to stack shims on top of each other to get more height, or like, fold it more than twice? Is there a limit to how many layers of foil should be stacked up?
Yes I've done this! No limit, really, but if you're at 7 layers, might need to rethink what you're doing hahaha
Can anyone tell me why doesn't KitchenAid make a coffee grinder attachment to their stand mixers? It seems like a no brainer to me