Ok, so I was trying to follow these instructions here to get my Virtuoso to grind finer. Where things went wrong, in chronological order:
I didn't do the adjustment (the rotation of the calibration ring) with the grinder running. I'm still not sure why this was important.
I accidentally let the little hole on the right go too far to the right, past the right edge of the right slot. Yep, just like the instructions say NOT TO DO. I can't get it to turn back the other way, and I've tried taking out the upper burr carrier and putting it back in.
While the upper burr carrier was off, I decided to brush off the little bit of coffee dust that's there. Carefully, I swear. Next thing I know there's a tiny piece of black plastic in my hand, and I have no idea where it came from.
(I did a search and luckily came across something on coffeecrew.com which has me thinking that #3 was just an unintentional stepless mod, and I *think* it's fixed. Depends on which way the plastic piece is supposed to go back in.)
#2 has me worried, though. I replaced the teeny screw in the one visible hole and put the case back on, but I can't really tell if it's grinding finer. Honestly I don't know what it's doing anymore... at first the sound (sans beans) was a little different, slightly more metallic, but not the grating metal-on-metal I was expecting to hear if the burrs were touching.
I put a few (decaf) beans through it and they looked pretty good, fine and even, so I went ahead and ground my regular beans for a shot... Suddenly the grind doesn't seem so even anymore, and there's a ton of chaff. I mean really, A LOT of chaff. Where is it all coming from?
Has anybody else tried Baratza's recalibration and screwed it up? Failing that, can anybody tell me exactly what kind of irreparable harm I've done my grinder by turning that #$%^ little plastic ring a microt too far? :(
I attempted to find the zero point on my Virtuoso when I opened her up to convert her to stepless and had no luck zeroing the grinder. It was close to as tight as it would go.
The little black plastic was the stepper and it should have been pointy end up when you replaced it, though it might work backwards too. If you haven't noticed any different feel in rotation, you're probably good.
If you take the entire upper burr carrier off by prying on the three tabs (carefully!) as shown here, you should be able to remove the calibration ring completely from the burr carrier (with the little black screw removed) and then screw it back onto the burr carrier so the right hand screw isn't past the right side of the third notch.
I didn't notice any particular difference in grind after reassembling mine, so by 'resetting' hopefully you'll be good to go.
Thanks for the reply! I've figured one or two things out on my own, and Baratza finally emailed me back with another set of detailed instructions for getting the calibration ring off.
So I took out the burr carrier, and took another look at the ring, and lo and behold there are suddenly 2 holes there again. GAH. I don't know how I did it. The design of these rings confuses the bejeebus out of me, I swear... I've decided the best thing to do is just twist them back and forth, with maybe a little pressure, and pray. Sooner or later something seems to drop into place.
Next I tried putting the tiny screw (mine's silver, btw, not black) in the hole on the right. Now the problem is that the screw doesn't fit the hole!! The instructions say "tighten the screw but not too tight!" - yet here I am cranking away on my bitty screwdriver, and there is no progress being made. If anything I'm starting to see teeny little shavings of plastic emerge. The screw is TOO BIG for the hole, and has a blunt end on top of that. I try it in the other hole, the one it was in originally, and it still goes in fine there.
Okay, off comes the calibration ring, both parts. Now I see the hole it used to be in (the left one) has made a radial crack or stress line in the plastic of the ring, which is visible on the underside of the ring. Unfortunately I don't have pics, maybe I can put some up later. And looking at the ring edge-on, the plastic has bulged out (i.e., up & downwards) a little to make room for the screw. Something seems really off here. (Emailed Baratza again, obviously.)
I put the ring back on and played with it for awhile - succeeded in getting both holes to show up, then (purposely) repeated my initial mistake and rotated the right hole out of view, then removed the ring, put it back on and got both holes to show up again. Then I put the screw in the right hole, tightened it as much as possible (that is, not at all - I can remove it with my fingers) and put the case back on.
Results: The grind is back to its former consistency, but also back to its former level of fineness (or lack thereof). I don't know how Baratza decides where to put these holes, or what they're supposed to signify, but IMHO the right hole ISN'T the zero point of the grinder. (BTW, what setting do you use for espresso?) (EDIT: Never mind, I saw it in the other thread)
A few other notes - those few decaf beans I mentioned in my first post, that I thought came out looking okay, I think were actually retained grounds from a previous session. As for the chaff that followed, the beans I used for my shot did have a lot more chaff than I'm used to.
The little black step-wedge, even when replaced pointy-end up, had an annoying habit of popping out and flying across the room while I was messing with the calibration ring. So I'm going stepless for the time being. (And no, it doesn't work if you put it in backwards - I tried.)
Sorry for the delay. I really wish that there was some sort of 'alerter' as opposed to me just trolling the forums trying to remember what I posted to... ^_^
Anyway. The screw for mine was able to go into either hole without any issues, but I did see the plastic distortion in the ring that you mention. Hasn't effected the working of the grinder that I can determine, but I would be hesitant to take it in and out too many times from the stress on the plastic.
I was absolutely unable to zero this grinder, no matter what instructions I used. I get quite a bit of chaff with drip grind, but very little for espresso settings.
Sorry for the delay. I really wish that there was some sort of 'alerter' as opposed to me just trolling the forums trying to remember what I posted to... ^_^
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