Saturday, January 3, 2015

Grind adjustment...

...with the Skerton made easy:

Easy Way to Set the Grind on a Hario Skerton

Actually, pretty good instructions. I set mine to 5 notches from (slightly) locked burrs for use in my Braun (brewing through a gold mesh filter). I got a good, consistent grind with less sediment than I was getting with the Zassenhaus, and made a good cup. The sun's up now, so I'm gonna strip it down, clean it up, and head to Home Depot to see what I can come up with in the way of a "bottom bearing". Stay tuned... 

Okay, so I picked up an 8mm lock nut, 8mm flat washer, and a 3/8 x .257 x 1" nylon spacer (I'd seen another mod that used the same spacer but with a .328 hole, but I opted to go smaller and drill it out to fit with less slop). The lock nut will convert the Skerton to stepless adjustment for finer tuning. Off to the garage! 


Since the spacer was slightly undersized for the grinder's shaft (and the closest drill bit I had was the same diameter as the spacer's hole), I had to enlarge it a bit with a small rat-tail file. Took a bit of doin', but it'll just slide over the burr end of the shaft and butt up to the adjustment threads.


The piece of rubber mat was used to roll the spacer as I filed, keeping it from slipping. Worked quite well, too. Once the spacer was filed out to where the shaft *just* turns easily, I scuffed the spacer's surface with some 100 grit sandpaper, replaced the burr, and coated the spacer with adhesive (Liquid Nails). I used the notched adjustment nut to snug up the shaft, and it's setting up to dry (24 hours for the adhesive to fully set).


So, for now, it's back to the Zassenhaus. I've only had one cup and *no* breakfast.

Day 2: The Liquid Nails was useless...didn't set, even after all night. So, I cleaned everything up, and found some quick-setting silicone adhesive. I should know how it's going to work in a few hours. 

Edit: Success! Zero slop at the top, but still some wobble at the bottom. Looks like I'll be ordering the Orphanespresso lower bearing kit after all. I'm looking for *no* slop, anywhere. At least with the spacer, I won't have to worry about the adjustment threads wallowing out the upper support hole as some folks have found out...




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