Zassenhaus Grinder Mod - New Becomes Improved

The newer top adjustment Zassenhaus grinders do not get (or earn) much love for anything beyond espresso. The plastic ring holding the burr in place wears and the centering is history with the chaos of burr wobble replacing the perfect 360 degrees of harmonious arc. This is a shame too because the burrs are very nice on these grinders. 

What to do then? Fix it. Same mod as on the Skerton but simpler to implement. The outer burr is pressed into a thick plastic holder that is secured to the bottom of the metal hopper by two screws. I traced an outline of the plastic burr carrier and then cut (with my child's safety scissors) the shape out of a metal pull off top from a peanut can. 

Next I punched the two outer screw holes and mounted this cut out and the plastic outer burr holder to the bean hopper. The center hole for the inner burr shaft is created by first inverting the shaft so the threaded end goes through the upper bearing of the bean hopper first. I applied pressure to create a circle which would be my target for my punch (the sharp end of an analog dial thermometer). Once the center hole was created I widened it with a screw driver and finished it by forcefully screwing the inner burr shaft though the hole.

After I finished the three holes I removed the plastic burr carrier and my newly created bottom bearing and trimmed as much excess metal around the center hole as I could without jeopardizing the strength of the bearing. The metal is very thin but should work fine since the upper bearing is larger than usual and the shaft is shorter than usual on this grinder.

The result? no burr wobble whether the adjustment is set wide open (a much coarser setting than is needed for French press) or all the way down until the burrs no longer turn at all. Pretty nice... 

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