# FELD 47 axe wobbles a lot :( HELP PLEASE



## frinlondon (May 8, 2020)

Hi all,

i purchased a FELD47 beginning of March 2020 and it has a pretty bad wobble issue as you can see in the video.

that causes the burrs to slightly rub/touch one another and I guess it makes the grind uneven

also the 0 position is not on 0 but closer to 1

not 100% whether it arrived like that or not to be honest

it never fell or anything and I use it no more than once a day.

has anyone experienced something similar?

do you think this can be fixed or it is a manufacturing issue?

i haven't tried to take it apart of fear of not being able to piece it back together...

i am gutted I put £168 into this 

i hesitated with a commandante and decided to go with a this because it was all metal and would last supposedly a lifetime... Now regretting my choice...

Any help/advice/thoughts welcome

cheers


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

There's no video, or photo?

I take it that you mean that the burrs bind at "1" and you can't set the grinder to "0"?

Don't take it apart yet.


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## frinlondon (May 8, 2020)

Thanks for your interest...

Indeed I meant when the burrs are "tight together" the marker is around the second dot instead of 0. And I think it was on 0 when it arrived though.. otherwise I worried have picked that up instantly.

Trying the video upload again.

/monthly_2020_05/889436673_Burrwobble_1.mp4.267209e80f269bbd03503ca9cd2974ac.mp4" type="video/mp4">
View attachment Burr wobble_1.mp4


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Unless there is provision for centring the burr, the shaft appears to be bent.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

the whole thing disassembles quite easily. Unscrew the top part of the shaft and it should all come out, then you can see which bit is bent.

I'm sure Peter would send you a replacement part if necessary.


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## L&R (Mar 8, 2018)

You will need a new shaft


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

"

*"Thanks for your interest...*

*Indeed I meant when the burrs are "tight together" the marker is around the second dot instead of 0. And I think it was on 0 when it arrived though.. otherwise I worried have picked that up instantly."*

Your burrs seem to be set at a very large gap in the video, what does it look like at more typical settings?


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## frinlondon (May 8, 2020)

(first, thanks everyone for your replies)

Oh no. Changing shaft seems very serious.

How could that happen though? I only have light use of it, grinding 30g/day for the last month and a half. And as you can imagine I take good care of it.

MWJB, I am a total newbie and this is the setting I have been using for V60. It's 3 turns and a half. Are wider settings bad for the grinder ? Happy to get info on grind settings too, for V60 and for moka pot!

Do you think I should take it apart to see if something is bent? Is there a video showing how the o do it ? I have seen a_aa's posts with pictures but would feel more comfy if I could see a video of disassembly & re-assembly.

Cheers


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

frinlondon said:


> (first, thanks everyone for your replies)
> 
> Oh no. Changing shaft seems very serious.
> 
> ...


 First off the wobble doesn't look to be a lot, there only appears to be one bearing, without the end cap, there might legitimately be some axial play.

Three and a half turns sounds very coarse,unless you are pouring lots of little pulses. You have been brewing for a month, what is the issue with the V60s (what is your brew regime)?

The shaft is quite a substantial thing, how could it have bent.

I wouldn't take it apart unless you are sure there is a problem (I'm not sure there is yet).


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## a_aa (Feb 27, 2020)

I agree with @MWJB, Im not sure there is a real problem there. I've made this short clip starring my Feld 47, set one turn from zero:

View attachment VID_20200509_174046468.mp4


The screw head seems to move out of centre quite a bit, but if you focus on the rim of the cone, there is much less sideways movement - some of it can probably be explained with slight uneven rims instead of misalignment. And when there are beans pushing on the burrs when you're actually grinding, this can also help stabilize and align the burrs. My conclusion is that this is good enough for me, and I ignore that weird screw head 😉

Or maybe I've got my standards too low? Anyways, I do like my coffee 👍


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## catpuccino (Jan 5, 2019)

I agree there's not necessarily a problem here.

My Aerspeed has a small "wobble", but the grind distribution is very good. I believe that it centralises under load of the beans when grinding. My 0 point is also not exact, it's closer to 12, aside from Kinu I don't know a hand grinder that precisely calibrates this out the factory.

You can always email Peter if you want to check.

Don't be afraid to take it apart though...they're straightforward to "service" and you'd want to do it every so often to deep clean anyway.



frinlondon said:


> I am a total newbie and this is the setting I have been using for V60. It's 3 turns and a half. Are wider settings bad for the grinder ? Happy to get info on grind settings too, for V60 and for moka pot!


 I don't know about the Feld but this sounds far too course to me. On the Aerspeed, v60 range is closer to 1.7 - 1.9 (so that's around 1.75 full rotations).


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## a_aa (Feb 27, 2020)

When I received my Feld47 in january, I did some comparison (visual, and tactile feel of the grind, nothing rigorous scientific) to my Aergrind (v1) and a bag of preground filter coffee.

The Feld47 grinds finer than the Aergrind (v1) on the same setting, and I think the difference increases with coarser setting. The Feld47 was near the preground at 3:6, the Aergrind (v1) at somewhere near 2:8.

I usually brew V60 with 32:500 at 2:10 (within ± 0:3) on the Feld47. With the aeropress, typically 2:6 for long brews (say 15 minutes), 2:0 for short brews (say 1.5 minutes and stirs) and anything in between.


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## frinlondon (May 8, 2020)

Thanks for your replies.

it's indeed true that the wobble of the screw is much greater than the sideways movement of the burr: I could convince myself by hiding the screw so that my eye wouldn't get mislead by this "optical effect".

Once the screw is hidden from view, i still can see some sideways movement of the burr but, as you will have understood already, I probably have some much more important parameters to correct and adjust in my brew !

I think I have an awful lot of reading and trail and error to do... and your insights/replies/blogs etc. are very valuable resources when you start with 0 reference points like I do.

Tomorrow morning I will start off with a 2.10 grind and check what pour time I get... if my kids let me...


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## Skizz (Feb 10, 2020)

Mine had some lateral play at the inner burr when it arrived. I never got a response from MBK but the guys at Horsham Coffee Roaster had a look and decided it was a floating-burr design, same as the Commandante C40, of which they sell lots. Sure enough, when you pull the inner burr outwards as if it were pulling beans through, it stabilises and the lateral movement disappears.

Regarding grind setting, @a_aas recommendations largely match my own for a given brew style.


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## frinlondon (May 8, 2020)

> when you pull the inner burr outwards as if it were pulling beans through, it stabilises and the lateral movement disappears.


 So what you are saying is that the tension of the beans going through keeps the distance between burrs constant and the only way to verify this would be to look at the burr distance in action... interesting.

This morning I tried a 2-10 setting with 17g for 250ml and 45 sec bloom of 35ml. The total brew time exceeded slightly 4mins... isn't that too fine?


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

frinlondon said:


> So what you are saying is that the tension of the beans going through keeps the distance between burrs constant and the only way to verify this would be to look at the burr distance in action... interesting.
> 
> This morning I tried a 2-10 setting with 17g for 250ml and 45 sec bloom of 35ml. The total brew time exceeded slightly 4mins... isn't that too fine?


 How did it taste? You can't determine grind size on the basis of one brew, or even 15 brews with just one coffee. You need to average it out over several origins & be consistent with pours for it to be meaningful.

You don't say what your pour regime is (when you stop pouring has an effect on total time), nor which filters you use (Dutch filters take longer)


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## frinlondon (May 8, 2020)

Thanks for your guidance... I realise I am miles away from the consistency needed to perfect a brew.

I had not mentioned pour regime because it wasn't precise at all.

It's mimicking Hoffman's V60 technic but (1) my scales are not fast enough so I need to frontrun the measure and don't always end up spot on (2) I haven't got a gooseneck (ordered one yesterday), (3) I only have time to brew once a day so I am improving at snail speed and, last but not least (4) I don't think my taste buds are fine enough to judge the difference between brews as easily as you seem to do it.

At least I like the process of brewing and bettering my technic (or trying to)... My wife can't understand the pleasure


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

frinlondon said:


> Thanks for your guidance... I realise I am miles away from the consistency needed to perfect a brew.
> 
> I had not mentioned pour regime because it wasn't precise at all.
> 
> ...


 Well your taste buds don't need to be outstanding, they just need to tell you whether it tastes good to you, or if not, why it doesn't (sour/tangy/woody/weak/watery/unripe,silty/powdery/mouthfeel/dominating bitterness).

Consistency of pouring leads to consistency of brewing. Getting with a few grams of target overall, will be good enough. If pouring large amounts makes tracking the weight hard, break it down into pulses you can easily replicate. Consistency isn't hard, it just needs a little focus...it'll come with a bit of practice/muscle memory.


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