# Current Setup



## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

Heres a pic of my current setup with the new arrival to the left of centre. Thats me done for significant upgrades for the time being. I am now going to work at getting the best out of this stuff.


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## Spukey (Nov 4, 2012)

Must admit them Quamar grinders really match the black sided Cherub. Looks like they were made for each other!

Nice looking setup there!

Spukey


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

Nice set up.....let us know how you get on with the m80e


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

very nice setup


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

Did you get it from Casa?


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

glevum said:


> Did you get it from Casa?


Yes. Ordered it last Thursday and it arrived yesterday. Very good service from them


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

nice work







let us know how you get on


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

First impressions.

I managed to work my way through the menu and set up the dose times in Italian. I then found the language item on the menu and set it for English - far easier for me !

First grind was too fine and extraction took far too long so I adjusted slightly - still too long. I then made a big adjustment and ended up with a mountain of filter-ground coffee. I then took the adjustment back to slightly coarser than factory set and got 28g of coffee from 17g of beans in 33 seconds.

I'm not going to move from this setting until the burrs have settled down as I have just about used up a bag of Icatu from dialling in.

Coffee is a lot smoother and less harsh compared to grinding with the MC2. Theres a lot more coffee flavour lingering in the mouth and the sweetness of the Icatu is really pronounced.

The noise is a lot quieter, as was expected and the ground coffee is fed into the PF rather than being flung about so less mess.

As I only pull double shots I have set the three timers to 7 and a bit seconds, 8 seconds and 9 seconds which I will fine tune in a week or so when I've got a better feel for the grinder.

First impressions are very positive which is good as I wanted to see an improvement with the upgrade


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

A week or so in and I'm getting to grips with the grinder. Ive seen some inconsistency in shot timings but I put this down to my tamping technique rather than the grind. That said, every shot has been an improvement on my previous grinder.

Ive worked my way through a bag of HasBean Icatu, Peaberry and am currently drinking far too much of their espresso blend. I needed a small grind adjustment between the beans and this reminded me of the adjustment mechanism action. It is silky smooth and needs no effort to adjust, so much so that when I pressed the release catch and inadvertently pressed the manual button, the collar rotated about a quarter of a turn (under the rotation of the beans I'm guessing). I now remember to keep my hands away from the buttons when adjusting the grind.

Its a great bit of kit and has brought a step improvement in the flavour my coffee. A few months ago, before joining this forum and starting on my espresso journey, I would not have believed the difference that a reasonable grinder can make to espresso based drinks. Even Mrs WD now notices the difference between beans in her flat whites without any prompting from me.

I'm now more than happy with my setup. It is far more capable than my current technique so the only thing I'll be changing for some time will be the input from the operator.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

good to hear you are happy with your setup and what it gives you.


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks coffeechap I'm really happy but I am certain that there are better combinations out there and I could probably make better coffee with said equipment.

However, when I taste my coffee I end up giving the contents an admiring glance and think ' damn !! thats a good drink' and I can rest easy, knowing that my bank balance wont take a beating for a while


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

great stuff, glad you're enjoying it!

One thing to bear in mind is that the quamar (as with many large grinders) really works at its best with a relative load of beans in the hopper. As you approach the throat of the grinder, the lack of weight pushing done will change your grind time slightly and as such, change the quantity of grinds that come out the machine. You could find that you're 1-2grams light when theres hardly any coffee in the hopper.

I keep mine topped up to about the level of the conical plastic bit inside the hopper.


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## nekromantik (Nov 13, 2011)

Nice!

bet you pull lush shots with those!


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Alternative you can make a weight that goes into the throat of the grinder which effectively does the job of the weight from the beans!


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## 4515 (Jan 30, 2013)

Up to now I've been using either filled the hopper with the next bag of beans or used the manual button to top the dose up


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## shrink (Nov 12, 2012)

mine settled down eventually, and now dosage is pretty consistent, until i get to the last few beans.

I just set the timer a little bit short, as its easier to top up if need be.


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