Upgradeitis takes another victim

Ros · January 2014

My HG-One is still breaking in slowly ( I haven't ground too much on it maybe under 5kg) My main issues from the start was early blonding and thin creama, both of which have improved a lot. I have 15KG of Par Boiled Indian rice I got from a grocer which I may run through it yet. It has improved out of site from when I first got it. I have 71mm OEM Mazzer TiN coated burrs.

[li]Weigh the dose[/li] [li]Add a drop of water [/li] [li]Grind the beans[/li] [li]Brush excess under the funnel into the burrs and then a couple of more rotations ensures minimal grind retention[/li] [li]Tap the funnel to drop any excess grounds into the tumbler[/li] [li]Stir the grounds with a wooden skewer[/li] [li]Use my Orphan Espresso funnel on the top of the portability and rest the HG one tumbler on that, drop the grounds into the portafilter[/li] [li]Re-stir the grounds with the OE funnel still on[/li] [li]Shake, tap to level the grounds[/li] [li]Tamp[/li] [li]Pull shot[/li] adding the drop of water is essential for me as it's rather dry humidity here so if you don't add a drop of water then static will cause the grounds to stick to the funnel. The best thing about the HG1 is it's so easy to swap beans at any given shot, very minor burr adjustments are needed I've found if beans are roasted near the same level.

C-man · January 2014

Thanks Ros, I have only ground about 2-3Kg at the most so far What I get is very thin sometimes red crema , micro spurts and even cyclone spinning mouse tails and not much good taste yet. This is all VERY Slowly getting better, I pulled into a local roaster and they gave me a KG of over roasted oily looking beans. I spent a couple hours the other day grinding most of them, has not helped much yet, just reduced the number of cranks per dose. It is very time consuming, seems they really need a fair few KGs or a couple boxes of par boiled rice ( did not see them at Coles) An electric motor would be helpful for the seasoning process. seems the TIN coated burrs take the most time.

sctsprin · February 2014

I just upgraded from the year old regular burrs to TiN Mazzer burrs Mainly due to the effort of grinding lightly roasted beans for the L1 The new burrs took [size=78%]120 revs for 16g of beans, old burrs were 30 revs for same[/size] I ran a kilo of regular rice through it and its now at 50 turns The new TiN coating makes it effortless to grind compared to the old ones Pours are quickly improving too

sctsprin · February 2014

You can take the flywheel off and use a drill to speed up the grinding of atale beans or rice too I just did the rice by hand in small batches over a couple of days

C-man · February 2014

they say to use not regular rice but "par boiled" rice I have not been able to find it yet. I have ground about 4kgs coffee by now, it reduced the number of cranks required, but cup results still need to improve.

sctsprin · February 2014

Yeah but i couldnt find instant dried rice anywhere and it worked a treat

lukemc · February 2014

on 1391919424:

they say to use not regular rice but "par boiled" rice I have not been able to find it yet. I have ground about 4kgs coffee by now, it reduced the number of cranks required, but cup results still need to improve.

I found some quick cook rice at woolies c-man

sctsprin · February 2014

Is that the dried rice, or the soft stuff in a packet?

C-man · February 2014

I understand coffee beans to get the oil, but how does rice help? Rice oil? or just wearing the coating off the burrs? Did you just use plain Raw hard rice?

sctsprin · February 2014

Seasoning refers to removing the machining swath from the burrs, not adding oils as per a fry pan However i do clean the grinder occasionally by putting it in the sink and running a milk jug or two of boiling water through the burrs whilst turning, which gets a lot of stale oil off The grind setting changes to a coarser setting after this, until a new coating of oil builds up and i go back to the old setting Grind effort reduces markedly after the clean too, but gets harder as the oils build up again I just used regular uncooked rice on a coarser setting, which worked great They recommend instant rice as its much easier to grind than uncooked rice, not because of damage reasons Cheers James

steve82 · February 2014

Howdy all If you are looking for large amounts of par boiled rice for burr seasoning, search " Tastic par boiled rice 10kg" its around $20. Alternatively seek out your nearest Indian grocer they should have the same or different brands ect. Cheers

conikal · February 2014

on 1391984848:

Seasoning refers to removing the machining swath from the burrs,

Thats one possible definition...as is "add salt and pepper to taste" ! .. ..but neither is applicable in this case. You cannot remove "machining swath" from coated parts as there is none. ( define "swath' ? ) In preparation for the coating process, the burrs will have been thoroughly surface cleaned. And no amount of rice, coffee beans, Grindz, or wishful thinking....is going to remove any of that coating.... ... if its been applied correctly !

sctsprin · February 2014

This is the swath i'm referring too, which hasn't been removed before TiN coating, these are just the larger ones i could easily photograph with the iPhone, but their are smaller ones on the smaller grinding burrs too, these get removed after seasoning and even out so you get a more consistent particle distribution

sctsprin · February 2014

on 1391993167:

Howdy all If you are looking for large amounts of par boiled rice for burr seasoning, search " Tastic par boiled rice 10kg" its around $20. Alternatively seek out your nearest Indian grocer they should have the same or different brands ect. Cheers

Great thanks Steve

QM0996 · February 2014

" You

sctsprin · February 2014

well theres no moving parts or bearings to bed in, it's a very simple device

UNM · February 2014

on 1392011168:

well theres no moving parts or bearings to bed in, it's a very simple device

No moving parts??? That is one strange grinder...

sctsprin · February 2014

aye aye aye theres two sealed bearings at the top of the grinder with a shaft running through it connected to the inner burr you can spin the flywheel and it whizzes around with no resistance with no beans in the grinder so yeah, theres no bearings to bed in as they don't have any affect on this "seasoning" process

Ol Grumpy · February 2014

Actually, I would like to know what 'bedding in' actually does mean when referring to a coffee grinder. I have seen the results of my Pharos grinder steadily improve during the bedding in process, but don't really know exactly has transpired during this 'seasoning' process. I do hope we can get there without someone losing their head.... My Pharos has several bearings, there's the sintered bronze? self lubricating bearings top and bottom and with the VD Mod a couple of needle bearings at the handle to deal with thrust loads, I imagine. I always thought the 'Burr' was what we are 'seasoning', but I'm happy to learn from those more experienced....

Ol Grumpy · February 2014

Just had another thought... If indeed there are slight machining 'swath' or 'burr' as I would call the dags hanging off the machined edge(s)... We must be consuming these if we consume the coffee from the bedding in process??? Like I did... Eeeek! Maybe running some rice through is not a silly as I first thought it was!!!

sctsprin · February 2014

yeah that has me worrying too sometimes, then i have another espresso and forget about it :P

Koffee_Kosmo · February 2014

In the context of a coffee grinder Bedding in or seasoning the burrs means The cutting edges of both static and moving burrs is what is being bedded Bedding in means that they wear to fit each other Bear in mind that the burrs have a provision to break the beans to smaller pieces prior to grinding it to smaller portions as we know it KK Edit Just as an explanation with an example of what bedding means When I used to assemble racing motors there was a small process that was required prior to fitting the valves to the head That was a process called lapping in The assembler would use an abrasive paste at the contact points and hand spin with a special tool and bed the two contact surfaces in to fit together It is a very critical procedure, as even the smallest of gaps or irregularity would result is a blown valve

conikal · February 2014

on 1391999387:

This is the swath i'm referring too, which hasn't been removed before TiN coating, these are just the larger ones i could easily photograph with the iPhone, but their are smaller ones on the smaller grinding burrs too, these get removed after seasoning and even out so you get a more consistent particle distribution

??? jeez ! My apologies,..you are correct ! . That is one shoddy piece of precision engineering, and an even worse job of coating. Have they never heard of finishing processes or even simple deburring ? There is absolutely no point in coating a burred /rough machined part like that. Once the "lumps" break off the coating is no longer one uniform surface and will fail prematurely. And these are purportedly the "ultimate" in quality grinders ?

sctsprin · February 2014

these are the aftermarket burrs, i have returned them and replaced with the TiN Mazzer burrs which are much much better, but they still do have "burrs, swath, swarf" or whatever you call it, as noted on lots of other forums or fora or whatever you call it

sctsprin · February 2014

heres a coffee snobs discussion about robur burrs: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/grinders/31284-mazzer-burr-finish-quality.html it's not HG1's fault on the quality, it appears it's very hard to get a precision burr set without this kind of issue, maybe theres a market for it?

Koffee_Kosmo · February 2014

on 1392023075:

heres a coffee snobs discussion about robur burrs: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/grinders/31284-mazzer-burr-finish-quality.html it's not HG1's fault on the quality, it appears it's very hard to get a precision burr set without this kind of issue, maybe theres a market for it?

It's not actually hard Consider it just another process that no one wants to pay for It's also the responsibility of the manufacturers to have sharp tools - they try and get every ounce out of a tool before it's replaced KK

C-man · February 2014

on 1392023075:

heres a coffee snobs discussion about robur burrs: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/grinders/31284-mazzer-burr-finish-quality.html it's not HG1's fault on the quality, it appears it's very hard to get a precision burr set without this kind of issue, maybe theres a market for it?

I guess it is a good thing I ordered the genuine Mazzer burrs then. Looks like I will need to get some rice and do some more cranking, coffee beans are too soft to get all that metal off quickly. thanks for all the input guys.

UNM · February 2014

on 1392066291:

Looks like I will need to get some rice and do some more cranking, coffee beans are too soft to get all that metal off quickly.

Pumice stone is even harder and more abrasive, should wear them in quickly.

sctsprin · February 2014

http://blog.coffeehit.co.uk/2011/10/28/breaking-in-robur-burrs-a-solution/ http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/expanded-clay

steve82 · February 2014

on 1392082080:

http://blog.coffeehit.co.uk/2011/10/28/breaking-in-robur-burrs-a-solution/ http://www.ebay.com.au/bhp/expanded-clay

Very interesting, certainly would beat grinding heaps of rice / wasting lots of coffee beans. I would think picking out /using only the smallest clay balls would be a better idea. I don't know whether I would have the balls to actually do this to a brand new large conical though....

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