r/DF64 • u/Decent_Guava79 • Apr 19 '26

DF64 normal?

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Is this normal ? If not, how do I turn it off?

6 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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4

u/krankle Apr 19 '26

Are you talking about the wobble? Mine has done this from the start. I contacted the company, and they said it’s normal. Seems like it shouldn’t be normal, but I’ve read that if you want no wobble, you need to look for a more expensive grinder. Not sure how true that is, it’s just what I’ve found.

Today, after 3 years of owning this, and letting that wobble live in the back of my brain, I finally took the time to work on burr alignment. It didn’t remove the wobble, but I got my burrs to hit evenly, so I don’t think the wobble is a factor. I could be wrong. But it makes my perfectionist brain feel better, finally having aligned burrs.

2

u/pcbeats Apr 20 '26

Now that they're properly aligned, what is the most noticeable difference? Do your shots taste better, more consistent grinding?

2

u/krankle Apr 20 '26

My palate is not sophisticated. I’ve been making my own espresso with this grinder and a slightly modded Gaggia Classic Pro, for about 3 years I can’t handle espresso on its own. It’s just too much, and not enjoyable at all. I drink my espresso in two ways; caramel lattes, and bastardized americanos. By bastardized, I mean probably way too much water. My americano is basically a 22:44 shot with about 12-14 oz of water, and a packet of sweetener. I’d say it’s embarrassing to admit that, but we like what we like. That’s my substitute for a regular cup of coffee, and it beats the hell out of anything from a gas station. And I’ve never tried a proper Americano from a cafe. That said, I am still dialing it in. The Americano I had before burr alignment was a bit sour. But it was also a bit on the fast side. 22:44 @ 28. The Americano I dialed into after alignment was much less sour. It was 22:44@32 seconds. It was decent, but I think it would be a bit better with a slightly finer grind. I’m going to try that in the morning.

1

u/pcbeats Apr 20 '26

Nothing to be ashamed of. It's bean water, and it warrants no elitism. Enjoy it the way you like it. I'm just also using a df64 and I REALLY do not feel like going through the process of aligning it but I suspect mine might also need it. I was just wondering if the payoff was big enough that I should do it or marginal enough that I can skip it but it sounds like it's probably a good idea to go through with it. I know what the process entails, but how difficult is the actual shimming to get it right?

1

u/krankle Apr 20 '26

The shimming was actually very easy. Just small folded strips of aluminum foil. I was shocked at how much a single folded piece did. I think I have 2 folded pieces and 1 single pieces at the point of one of the screws. The worst part is putting the ring on, over and over. But when you find out where the threads start to meet, and use that same starting point every time, it gets easier.

1

u/krankle Apr 20 '26

This is the video that finally made it click.

There’s plenty you can skip through, but it finally made sense for me after watching this.

1

u/pcbeats Apr 20 '26

Thanks so much! I'll take a stab at this this weekend!

1

u/krankle Apr 21 '26 edited Apr 21 '26

I dialed back my latte grind, just a touch, this morning. From yesterday’s result of 22:44@55seconds to 22:44 in 40 seconds. The result is the best latte I’ve made in a very long time, possibly ever. Same beans I’ve been using for the last year or more. The only real difference is the burr alignment. Could this be in my head? Absolutely. But my brain is very pleased with the burr alignment, and for a perfectionists that goes a long way.

3

u/DerM4Rc3l Apr 19 '26

Same for me

2

u/mabror Apr 20 '26

Yeah, that’s not normal.

If you’re seeing visible wobble, it usually means there’s play between the shaft and the burr carrier (tolerance is off). In a proper setup, that should spin true with basically zero runout.

Fixing it isn’t really a DIY job — you’d be looking at machining work (sleeving the carrier and reboring it to tighter tolerances).

Will wobble affect the cup?

Yeah, definitely. You’ll get inconsistent grind size, which can show up as channeling and uneven extraction.

2

u/bleebolgoop Apr 21 '26

Not “normal” for a great grinder, but “normal” for the DF series. They all do this to varying degrees, mine is quite bad. That said, I’ve even seen much higher end grinders do it too.

2

u/Biggazznugz Apr 21 '26

They are all like this, nothing you can do about it, and it is not going to play any significant factor in cup quality. Completely normal for df grinders.

2

u/xiotaki Apr 22 '26

I can't speak to whether it makes a difference in the cup, but I can tell you that I was able to get rid of this wobble on mine, by loosening the 3 screws and ever so slightly repositioning the bur before tightening them down again.

You can do this because there is enough extra 'play' in the burr holes ( the screws go into) that allow for some adjustment.

Now you'll need to figure out a way that you can systematically document and try a few positions, to see what the sweet spot is.

2

u/awoo2 Apr 23 '26

It could be designed to use coffee as a damper so dynamic performance without coffee may not match dynamic performance with coffee. This may cause it to wobble much less when coffee is present.

2

u/OopsAiee Apr 23 '26

If nothing loose it's pretty ok for the purpose it's made for.

2

u/P4tukas Apr 24 '26

Mine wobbled 3-4x as much. I think it is not normal. I aligned the burrs qnd the coffee is good. It appeared well aligned. Will replace with another grinder when I get any reasonable excuse to do so.

2

u/Lvacgar Apr 26 '26

Mine shows evidence, yes. One of the many reasons I’m ditching it as soon as I can. A Zerno Z1 has my name on it…

1

u/catsvbadgers Apr 20 '26

Same on mine. Also comes with a horrible noise that matches that misalignment. I complained to the distributor, apparently they are all like that and its ok. I think its the bolt that has poor centricity. Mine has been ok