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Post by cheebs on Aug 5, 2009 16:51:48 GMT -5
Over the past year of severely abusing the Santha, and 8 months of doing the same to the Ultra, some of the parts have not stood up to the chocolate test. Having a very accomplished machinist available helps a lot! These are some of the modifications I have done, out of necessity and to increase the durability of the machines. For the Santha, I've replaced the plastic paddle with a stainless steel version. No more cracks! Also replaced were the roller bushings, cheap molded plastic in the stock version, with Teflon bushings machined from a single rod. The stock plastic block and cap were substituted by solid stainless steel beauties, copied from John's aluminum version. Finally, not in the photo I replaced the seized bearing in the bowl hub with a ceramic bearing that should be impervious to water. For the Ultra, first to go was once again the crack-prone plastic paddle, replaced by a stainless steel paddle. Then the roller bushings were replaced by their solid Teflon counterparts Reverse view Cheapo plastic bushing in the roller holder, also replaced with solid Teflon Finally, all 3 motor mounts broke on my Ultra, so I was forced to rebuild them with heat shrink tubing and high strength epoxy. In the grinder now so no pics of the rebuilt mounts. I am having a proper bracket made to replace the silly plastic posts. Will post photos of the rebuilt posts once I open up the grinder again.
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Post by itsallaroundyou on Aug 5, 2009 21:46:32 GMT -5
way cool! so should i send you my santha to be retrofitted? just kidding, but seriously, the stainless work looks top notch, i wish i had some of those skills for my coffee roaster project thanks for sharing the pics -mike
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Post by benvt on Nov 14, 2009 17:47:29 GMT -5
Nice Cheebs! We just broke our 3rd paddle and wanted to replace it with a metal one. We want to get a metal hub assembly also. We're off to find a machinist! Hopefully Santha will take notes on your improvements. They already have begun to make metal hub assemblies. Thank you!
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Post by vtrawchef on Mar 8, 2010 19:47:21 GMT -5
How would you rate the Santha against the Ultra? I have an Ultra and I am not satisfied with the refining. After 48 hours I still have fine sugar grit. Not sure how to fix this. Would appreciate any suggestions.
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Post by redstar on Mar 11, 2010 5:50:41 GMT -5
Are you pre-grinding the sugar? You can't really do this in the Ultra as it bulks up under the roller mech and lifts it up - everything goes a bit mad. Try pre-grinding in a Magimix or similar first.
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Post by cheebs on Mar 11, 2010 17:14:13 GMT -5
I've always used powdered sugar with the stone grinders, because it really does help with the refining time.
It has to be pure powdered sugar though, not confectioner's, as that contains starch or flour to keep it dry.
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