Video Overview | Titus Grinding Burr Alignment Tool for EK43
While the grind uniformity of the EK43 is pretty impressive straight out of the box, over time the burrs may shift or become misaligned. Re-aligning them is an important part of regular maintenance, but it can be a hassle without the right tools. That's where Titus Grinding's EK43 alignment tool steps in. This unique kit includes everything you need to check and correct burr alignment, so you can have the best performance out of your EK43. To see it in action, watch along as Steve demonstrates this remarkable realignment tool from Titus.
Transcript
Hey, folks, it's Steve with Prima Coffee here. Today we're taking a look at Titus's EK43 alignment kit. Now this is a set of tools that's used to align the burrs in your EK43. So that's going to appeal to pretty much every EK43 owner out there. Basically, the benefit is, using a kit like this you're able to determine how out of true your burrs might be. And they may not be out of true, but through use and abuse and your taking the grinder apart to clean it and service it as you might do, there's a pretty good chance that your burrs might come out of alignment, and that means that the EK43 will lose the edge that it has, which is the production of that very uniform grind that it's known for. So what's included in this kit is a couple of different things. First, you get this machined mounting bracket that has a couple of thumb screws on it, we'll get to those later. But essentially this is the main kind of unique edge to this kit. The other piece that you get is a deflection gauge, it's a fairly standard deflection gauge. You also get a set of shims of varying thicknesses, and you get a little mounting screw for the deflection gauge. So setting this up is really easy, of course, you need to get your grinder out, you need to open it up, you need to clean it a bit. So you're going to need a slotted screwdriver for that, as well as maybe a vacuum or what have you to clean it out, and maybe some fresh grease if you need to reapply. I haven't totally cleaned this out. Generally you would take out the burrs themselves, give them a nice scrubbing, get all the grounds out of here, especially if you need to shim. But we'll get to that in a little bit.
Titus Grinding Burr Alignment Tool for EK43
Check burr alignment and burr deflection and shim low spots
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Now the first step is going to be mounting the bracket on to the drive shaft. This slim part in the opening of the bracket here is basically designed to fit where the sheer plate would normally go in your EK43. So all you really have to do is slide it in place, and it is going to take a little bit of effort. We're going to push basically until it will not go any further, which is about there. It's not totally crucial to try and seat the drive shaft as high up as possible, that doesn't really matter, because you do have some leeway in adjusting the other parts. The next step we're going to do is we're going take this butterfly screw and just screw it down just a little bit, just until it's slightly snug. Now we're going to take this thumb screw, and just open it up. You see this circular opening here, and that is made to fit this little mounting bracket. So this matches up with sort of a channel on the back of the deflection gauge. So we're going to get this in here and prepare to add the deflection gauge. Next step, of course, is to slide this little channel into the corresponding slot on that mounting bracket. And this is where things require a little finesse. So the first thing that I'm going to do is I'm going to slide it into place, and then I'm going to slightly lower my deflection gauge until I can see where...just where the tip of the probe is going to meet the burrs. I'm going to slide back just a little bit, and I'm going to actually pull out this whole piece. And then I'm going to take this part, I'm just going to screw it in, and that's going to lock that position on the deflection gauge.
I'll put that back in, and then I'll let the deflection gauge screw up just until it's touching the burrs. I've changed the position slightly, but I'm still on those fine teeth, so that's good. And now what I'm doing is I'm tightening this thumb screw to set the position of the gauge. Okay, almost there, just making very small adjustments. I want the tip of that deflection probe to just graze the burrs. Okay, I think we're in a good spot here. Now, as I spin this you'll hear that it's making contact, it's making clicky noises. And the important thing to look at here is the actual deflection of the needle as I spin it. It's a very precise gauge, it's measuring very small changes. What you're looking for is essentially the peaks, you want to know where the peaks changes as the needle deflects. So if it keeps hitting about 10 microns there, that's a pretty good indication. But as you go around you want to make sure that it's hitting the same spot every time. If it's not, you might find for example, looks like here there's a little bit less deflection, it's going to be hard to show you on camera. There's a little bit less deflection on this side of the burr, so I might either need to shim that side of the burr. I would look at how much the needle is deflecting in difference to how much it deflects on this side of the burr, and pick a piece of shim material to slip underneath the burr by unscrewing it and actually forcing it under. Or I might actually be able to loosen the two screws on this side just slightly, because they might be causing the burr to slightly warp if they're over tightened. So there's a couple of different ways that you might be able to address a slight change in the actual alignment of the burr.
But basically, this tool is a diagnostic tool, it's going to tell you how much deflection is happening and how even it is throughout the whole radius of the burr, and that's a great set of information to have, because it means you can diagnose problems, and of course, just a few microns...here's just a few microns in terms of coffee, and I think most of us know that that actually does have an impact in the cup. You might be producing too many fines because your burrs are just out of alignment. So this is a great little diagnostic tool that comes with everything you need to address burr issues with your EK43. We're super excited to have it onboard because it's a...it's... you know, it's a nerdy thing for sure, but it's something that we're very into. And especially with how popular the EK43 is, it's nice to have a tool that will allow us to diagnose those uniformity issues that might come up after again maintenance or cleaning or something like that. So cafés, technicians, roasteries, labs, that kind of thing, those professional settings where uniformity is crucial, and really makes an impact in the work that you do, this is going to be a tool that's going to save you a lot headache and really make your life a lot better. So that is it, that's the EK43 alignment tool by Titus. Thanks for watching.
