How to Align an EK43 Grinder
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- You won't believe this one simple trick for luscious espressos!
All you need is aluminium foil, whiteboard marker, allen keys, a screwdriver, and less than an hour of time.
Your coffees will be much sweeter, riper, and richer.
If you were struggling to get longer shot times, this should help a lot!
Pro tip: Shims should be placed at the screw locations, not in between. If you need to raise an area that is in between two screws, you want to shim both adjacent screws. Believe it or not, by shimming between screws, you're flexing the burr when you tighten it. Source: I do a lot of precision machinist work.
At last someone said that.
absolutely, and be cautious of the hole, do it with a tool if possible, to cut a round aperture in the foil. When putting the bolts back, a good trick is always to turn counter clockwise with the screwdriver, until you feel the tick that teels you you are at the entry of the thread
This should be pinned!
Would you always want to put two shims near the screw, one to the left and one to the right of the screw, if you needed to raise the location around the screw?
And what if you want to raise the area between two screws, as in the video, would you then want to use four shims in total (two for each screw placed to the left and right of each), or would it be OK to use two shims placed at the two screws on the side to raise?
Great guide, I aligned my EK43 earlier today. It's amazing how much 6 bits of foil can make, grinds look more a more consistent size and even the sound of grinding as changed completely. Next up is to dial in a Kenyan filter coffee which has a bitter/roasty note masking some nice fruity flavours on 60g/l.
I did this on my ceado. It works pretty good. Needed to shim both burrs and it seems a little better, but not hugely on mine, but can't really know until you do it. No reason not to do it really.
Legend! Thank you for this
I’m actually confused about this, if both burrs are misaligned how can you test the alignment of one against the other?
As a laser engineer, used to do some serious alignment on precision gear, I'm not a huge fan of this kind of grinders because of the alignment.
thank you!
great video, my lazy alignment would be just to let it run for sometime with touching burs so it evens out on its own ;)...well i fear that would not really be a pros choice tough...
The surfaces need to be polished so the grain flow well, I did as you sya because I was obliged to have thin enough grain, and the burrs did get huge streaks on their perimeter.
ANd it did not work really well
Perfect explanations . Just did that on a MDF Gaggia (where the threaded mobile part does not help parallelism) visible results, audible results , thanks ;) IS it in a maintenance center it was filmed ?
Awesome. Thanks.
Is it necassary to align the burrs if you're just using the EK for filter? (Assuming they aren't way off) Or do you only need this level of precision for espresso?
Matthew Clark same applies for filter coffee as you want to get the most even extraction from the coffee as possible, if your burrs aren't aligned then you can't achieve it
is there a limit of how many layers of shim we can add ?
I did this on compak k6. first on the non-moving burr and then moved on to the moving burr. it finally rubs the marker off evenly.
it took me 14 layers and 9 layers of aluminium foil on non-moving and moving burr respectively to align. this grinder was a second hand and its alignment was really bad at first.
Is this the same one you used in the 2013 WBC??
What a G
If necessary, this is the ONLY way burrs should be aligned. Do NOT use the indicator method!
gg
this should have been sorted out at the factory and not messing around with some pen and foil....
For the price you would expect perfection from the factory.
@@AlabamaTree Any mechanical apparatus may need some adjustment in time. I guess a new model will be perfectly fitted.or anyway within tolerances.
What I understand is that having an even spacing all around does a lot for grain size eveness, and that on any grinder. I did a similar job, with the same logical that I find by myself, on a 1980 Gaggia MDF, and it does a very different job and noise now
@@IsaacOLEG still alignment problem with the new EK47s...
yeah if the alignment miss so much, one could not image that a good distribution would be achieved finally. All other mechanics would be just wasted.
Imagine getting a 3-4K grinder and it didn’t come with perfect alignment. Ek43 is a good grinder produced by lazy manufacturer, they didn’t even have faith in this model and almost discontinue it in 2013, luckily it shines in the world Batista competition before they done it
How important is it to have excellent alignment when you're only making pour over?
For pourover not that much. Tho it will improve it
It is a shame that even such an expensive grinder has no better solution for calibration. They could have foreseen some counter screws so that no shims have to be used, or at least provided some shims of different thickness with the machine, that would fit in some small pockets so calibration is not so DIY...
It would be much more costly to produce precision equipment like that though. Worked for an supplier that did parts for major vehicle manufacturers/brands. More precise tolerance demand = more tooling + more machines, more hands-on work, more QC, more rejects= big bucks. That's why Corvettes cost more.
No need to place a little amount of glue on the foil to keep it firm?
So we adjust the stationary burr against moving burr that's not yet adjusted/balanced?
Yes. Remember the burr is spinning at 1500rpm. So wherever the highest point is, that point erases all the markings.
Does it help with slower extraction of espresso as my ek 43 already make chirping sounds but the grind results still very coarse? Or shall i change my burrs to turkish one?
I have a question I clean the machine after assembling the grinder but it never came up
Is it necessary to also do the moving burr? If you've correctly aligned the stationary burr, wouldn't that mean the burrs are parallel with eachother so starting to shim the moving burr would change the alignement you've worked hard to create in th first place?
Thanks for the tutorial in any case and also the vidoe showing how different alignments sound!
KP cadnzfin I have same question. Thanks for the video
Yes, it's necessary to align both burrs. When both burrs are misaligned, the lowest point of the top (rotating) burr makes contact with the highest point of the bottom burr and rubs off the marker. Aligning the bottom burr will make it so that the lowest point of the top burr makes contact with the entire bottom burr. This will cause the marker to rub off evenly on the bottom burr, but only the part of the top burr closest to the bottom burr (the lowest point) will do this rubbing. The goal is to make the entire top burr rub against the entire bottom burr, so that's what is done when aligning the top burr after aligning the bottom burr.
You cannot align the moving Burr, this is nonsense.
Frank Terranova Of course you can. What makes you think that?
Frank Terranova Of course you can. What makes you think that?
dont do that anymore
I frankly don't understand the need to align the second burr. What we look for is parallelism between the two burrs. We find the "perfect" position in which one burr is parallel to the other. If parallelism is the problem, then there is only one adjustment to be made, because if burr A is parallel to burr B, then burr B is parallel to burr A. If, on the other hand, one of the two burrs is irregularly consumed, i.e. the teeth do not lie on the same horizontal plane, then that is another problem, and that should probably be solved by replacing the burr set.
Same question!
Should we treat the others grinders with same respect? My Anfims also need to be aligned in order to perform better. :) nice vid Matt, thanks a lot
Thank you for this helpful video ! Might get a used EK43.
Brilliant video, thanks so much for explaining this in a simple to follow manner 👍
I've been leant an Atom 65 (currently using a J-max) by a friend and thought it would be great to check the alignment of the burrs to make sure all is running well before I begin. His was used in his coffee shop but burrs seem in good shape. Performing the marker test everything seems even all around, but the flats aren't completely cleaned of marker. The inner point remains and only the outer edge is rubbed away. On both top and bottom burrs. So I'm not really sure if that's normal or where to go from here haha. Any advice from anyone?
If you are getting the burrs rubbing along all of their external circumference, you've gone as far as you can. The 'flats' may not be completely flat - either by design, or through their machining.
Ga
Just ordered our first EK43, I assume this is something you should do as soon as you get started?
Damn I don't understand anything of this video. Why do I have to do some shit to a world class grinder. Please help me, I really I am really new to coffee.
Great vid. Lots of work.
Question, how does scratching the shearplare make it snug not more looser? shearplare
+crazybiscut sorry for the typo on my mobile
Scratching will create an uneven surface on the shearplate which will "catch" the sides on the slot of the burr carrier. Should make for a tighter fit.
when you making a cut on the metal, some part of the metal gets scratched off but it makes some of the part pops up.
Hi, thank you, have you ever tried to align commercial espresso grinder like fiorenzato F83?
The EK43 IS a commercial espresso grinder...
@@dlevi67 and you making this remark becouse? You do not have a clue :)
@@nagualemituje Neither do you (have a clue). I made this comment because the Fiorenzato F83 is effectively a Mazzer Major (mechanically); it is neither more nor less of a commercial grinder than the AK43, so I really don't understand your initial question. Do you want to try again?
@@dlevi67 no need, the previous statement retains as much value as did before.
@@nagualemituje I.e. nothing, as it doesn't make any sense. You don't even know what a clue is.
or you can buy a Weber!
Right, put the shims on the non-moving burr...thanks Matt.
You cannot align the moving Burr.
why not?
Fixed Burr is adjusted. Why do it again on moving Burr? Or we should play with moving Burr only. Do I get it right?
@@ginee7624 The adjustment of the fixed burr only gives you a setting where the highest point of the moving burr is in contact with all points of the fixed burr. Then you need to bring _the rest_ of the moving burr in the same plane.
And @Frank Durra - of course you can (usually) align the moving burr. You can get it moving in a plane that is parallel to that of the stationary burr no matter the amount of mount run-out - the issue is that doing so will also move its axis, so you may end up with more (or less!) axial misalignment than before.
Frank, even if it's already seven years old. I think you're wrong here.
Think again.
1. The moving burr should be aligned perpendicular to the axis of rotation.
2. The fixed burr should be aligned plane-parallel to the moving burr.
3. Both burrs should be centered around the axis of rotation.
1. can be achieved by shimming the moving burr.
2. can be achieved by shimming the fixed burr.
3. can be achieved by lateral adjustment of the burrs.
Bottom line: BOTH burrs can and should be aligned with shims, if necessary.
@@Martin-i8o8n you cannot compensate a shaft with runout by adding some shims. But if you think you can do it, a placebo effect might do the trick and you are happy at the end which is the most important thing.