MAKING the Fellow Opus BETTER (Stepless MOD)
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- Опубликовано: 28 фев 2023
- The Fellow opus might just be one of the best entry level all purpose grinders that claims to be able to give ranges for espresso. And while that is true the micro adjustment ring can be simply too confusing to bother with.
So today we are performing a step-ectomy!
Warning this will void your warranty and is not recommended. Proceed with caution.
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THIS WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Warranties were meant to be voided. 🥸
Some post fix test would be nice. Is it still working? :D
This video helped me fixing my Opus, I was pulling shots at the 1 mark and -4 micro adjustments (almost a the very end of the rope), but I "miss aligned" the gears 4 notches to the left and now I'm getting great shots at the 2 mark (-1 micro).
Thanks a lot!
I will never do this but kudos to you for solving the problem most people don't like about this grinder. 😄
This is 🔥. Straight to the point, but not dry. Thank you
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed 🎉:)
"Screw, screw, screw." I don't know why but I found it cute. 😄
Holy crap, so many steps! Nice, clear explanation, thank you. I know they're trying to keep costs down but having all those plastic screw holes will probably mean easily stripped holes (if they weren't when it was manufactured).
We appreciate your sacrifice. :)
I think the actual acre hole is still metal inside.(I could be wrong) if that’s what you meant.
But the shell and gears are all plastic for sure.
I wish it was all metal though, it’s fairly cheap and the burrs are solid.
The sacrifices will continue until I’m just an arm and a hat 🧢
A+ staight to the point video. Thanks for this detailed explaination.
Impressive, fun and informative video, nicely done.
Excellent guide. 👍🏻
Thank you. 🙏🏻
Thank you so much!
Being called scum during a mod video scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. More mod videos please!
Thank you so much for demonstrating this mod. Great content!
I just bought this grinder, but am having some buyers remorse after Baratza announced the ESP version of the Encore. Which grinder would you recommend between the two?
Thanks a lot ! This trick is very helpful!
Makes it actually usable haha 😂
Hey Emilee, just got my Opus today and I'm thinking of going stepless once my warranty is up. How does this stepless mod hold up 9 months later? Any weird changes to grounds distribution, dialing in, etc.?
Nice work! You made it look easy Did you notice any drift post-modification? I think we need a follow-up video on how it grinds and pull a few shots, plus you know... a few swans (just for good measure).
I’ve noticed no drift. It’s not easy to turn in general so it stays in place (for me) I will for sure follow up haha. I can flex a swan or two 😂
Great video! Honestly doesn't look super complicated. You explained everything really well and the video has every step from start to finish. I feel anyone that's put together a piece of furniture can do this mod.
Thank you!
I agree. You can do this mod with simply a screwdriver so very low key. It’s tedious but so are legos 😅😁
Fantastic video ❤
I love your voice❤
Also your Instagram post is great!
So happy to have found this! Your disassembly confirmed what I'd pieced together on how the micro ring works (not moving the burr but just shifting the range a tiny bit) based on some testing. For those keeping it "stepped", the trick to using the micro is to move the macro back and forth a bit then to re-sync everything. You're no longer showing between steps once you do this and you have shifted by 0.66 clicks. This is why Fellow now says to do the adjustment way up on 6 on the macro ring. It forces you to move the outer macro a decent bit to re-sync things. ruclips.net/user/shortsgM5ZYrSRuFA?feature=share
Exactly. So many people got the dial in mechanism wrong in videos. But it’s an illusion of change. Then math and then it resets.
It’s imo considerably better to just go stepless
Gees, Emily! I thought you could only do and teach really good late art... I'm in AWE, please give us more deconstructionist tutorials with the screwdriver. This is a huge V-prop. Thank YOU!!
This is so sweet to hear!
I did kinda box myself in the latte art genre but I’ve been in coffee 8 years and work as an educator for counter culture in nyc, am certified to teach sca courses, I do tons of consulting on gear and projects, and also compete in latte art.
So though the channel doesn’t show it much yet, there will be tons of non latte art content to come.
call me crazy, this video actually makes me want to the Opus. Plastic quality had a nice knock sound, didnt see cheap to me.
Thanks for the vid. I’m a newby and thought I would venture into a latte made with oily dark roast beans. (Not a good latte. Lesson learned.) Unfortunately made a few with the dark roast beans. Resulted in too much build up. So to clean it, I followed manual instructions. Unfortunately, when you remove the nut holding the inner burr, the bolt drops down. To get the bolt back in place, you have to disassemble the machine and carefully feed it in with needle nose pliers. (The official Opus video for changing burrs has you lay the machine on its side and holding the bolt in with a metal rod.) Could not have done it without your video. They could have used some kind of retainer for the bolt. But that is my only complaint so far after about 250 uses. Subscribing for your other content.
Next week, Emilee will show us how to diffuse bombs 😂
😂 At our wedding no less too! 😂
*defuse
Now i understand the inner ring - just like the breville smart grinder pro. The micro ring wasn't doing anything with the adjustment so you need to turn it with the macro.
This stepless mod completely takes care of the adjustment calculus
Yes it makes the process seamless.
What was unfortunate is many people never show that you MUST move the macro ring and then just the micro does nothing.
Also you will only ever need the first two micro adjustments on either side. The rest are simply for extra range on the grinder.
@@EmileeBryant you are the very first and only one to mention. we all had the impression the inner ring was moving the burr. Thank you so much for the work
I am very confused by what this is saying
@@BloodyTaco4459 a lot of people said that when you move the blue ring, that is moves the burrs. But it does not do that.
It instead detached the outer ring and displaces it off its number just a bit (but again no burrs have moved)
So then once your ring is adjusted, you must move the outer ring back one click for the change to happen.
Basically you are determining how much the put ring can move by offsetting it a bit in either direction.
Awesome 😎 vid stepless is the only way to win with this grinder.
Thanks for the video! Just a question at 7:48 it still seems stepped, is this make only the inner ring stepples?
thank you!
It is Step-less at that point. The outer ring just ins't very smooth in general so it looks choppy
Thanks again! I will give a try! But for everyone who are not able to do it the beanie opus app can help to dial in.
Seeing as i just purchased a used opus for $85 I'm immediately modding it once it shows up. Voided warranty? What warranty?! 🤣
I repaired servers for Google for 4.5 years, but I will not be taking apart my Opus. Lol. However, you are very fun to watch, "Gadgety Girl".
Interesting...but looking at how easily it's rotating now, doesn't it cause the grind settings to be changed during the grinding itself? I mean vibration and whatnot...
I actully find it a bit grippy. As in it’s hard to move in general so it stays put (also the actual burr gear deep in the grinder has very subtle wide rounded bumps so they don’t slide back and forth on a flat plane.
That being said my grinder has not drifted but yours totally might. Idk.
Though some electric tape to add frost ion could be applied!
That’s pretty slick! How much more dialed in does this make it? Would it be worth it for pour overs?
I would say it’s ideal because the way the dial works now is arguably the most confusing system I’ve seen in coffee grinders. Why they added two wheels I’ll never know but making it just one makes life easier and you can get the inbetween dial a bit easier
The two wheels aspect isn’t a problem for me, but the clumsy nature of the steps is quite annoying. I’m very much considering making the mod you’ve made, but using a dremel tool to cut out a small section, remove the spring, and close said section. The biggest obstacle to this is localizing the spring without being able to see it. It seems it’s about in the middle on the left side of the grinder, but I could be wrong. What do you think?
Could one just use some wire snips and cut the spring out of the slide rather than open up the gearbox and risk contamination?
Obviously, to get the steps back, you'd have to find a replacement spring that fits, but that process wouldn't require opening the gear box either?
I can't tell if the plastic slide can be taken out after the spring is out of the way, but if it's an issue, maybe it could just be taped into place on the housing.
Beyond that curiosity, this is amazing. It's like a perfect upgrade.
You could probably cut or just pull it out since springs are so weak. And you’d likely be able to replace with any spring the same size!
Glad you enjoyed this!
I will say if you don’t open the gear box all the way, you probably won’t contaminate but I can definitely understand wanting to snip it away. Like an appendix
So do you still have to use the inner blue dial for fine adjustments or can you do it all with the big outer ring now?
Great q!
You don’t need the blue dial to get fine adjustments. But it’s still needed in the grinder to help move the burr.
If you were to master the original dial in fine tuning method, you will have more technical consistency when you apply the proper math every time you dial in. I like this because I can simply use my hands intuitively vs doing math to maybe get close.
@@EmileeBryant Am I correct in assuming that the blue ring could still be used to adjust the range of the grinder (as in, going 0-10 instead of 1-11)?
@@Alnakar yes! That still functions normally as a range extender. But the micro adjustments no longer do anything.
@@EmileeBryant Thanks! The more I think about this, the more it seems like your mod is truly necessary for getting grind sizes in-between the macro adjustment clicks, not just for ease of use.
(sorry for the incoming wall of text...)
If I move the inner ring all the way to the "-" side, I'm essentially moving the outer ring from 6 to 7 without moving the burr, right? So it's set at 7-1, which is still equal to 6. That way, when I set it at 1, it's really at 1-1, to give me access to a grind size 0. That all makes sense.
Then, if I want a grind size in-between 2 and 2 1/4, I would want to be able to set it to, say, 1 3/4 on the outer ring, and +2 steps (+1/3) on the blue ring, to get to 2 1/12 total. The problem is, when I make the micro adjustment, the clicks don't stay aligned to the 1/4 adjustments. I'm moving the outer ring to 1 2/3, so I'm really at 1 2/3 + 1/3, which is still 2. That makes sense, since I haven't moved the outer ring yet. Then I'm moving one click on the outer ring, and it's clicking in at 1 11/12 + 1/3, which is still just 2 1/4. I'm shifting what my grind size "reads as", with the micro adjustments, but I don't think I'm actually getting access to any "in-between" sizes with the un-modded grinder.
Either way, I'm definitely making my grinder stepless this weekend! That just seems like a much better solution, lol!
Hey, how would they know youve opened it to void the warranty ?
Are there service stickers and such ?
Just wondering if you could put the spring back on if it ever needed to be serviced
Thanks :)
No stickers that I saw! So they shouldn’t be able to tell really but open at your own risk (worth it for sure)
@@EmileeBryant Thats brilliant ! Thank you. Loved the mod, mines on its way !
i know that this vid is a bit old but now that it has been some time after the mod did you see your grind setting change for espresso or any drift?
YES! It drifts quite a bit for me.
By the time I'm done grinding 30 grams for filter, I'm a full click away from the setting I started at.
Wow, I'm just about to post my video and saw this, and kinda wanna go back and do this crazy mod so I can see if the Opus can pull a better shot with more options. Hmm, what to do...
Why not both! 😁😁
I heard this thing clogs up, and is nearly impossible to clean. Is that true?
Do you still use this grinder as a stepless? Just curious if any issues or drifting have been noticed with longer use.
Also, does the blue ring do anything after the mod? If it still affects how far you can turn the ring, I guess you'd just turn it all of the way down (if mostly used for espresso) and leave it there?
I don't use it day to day enough to validate if it drifts over time, but i do sometimes use it and so far its still solid.
Can someone confirm that this grinder can go fine enough for espresso and coarse enough for cold brew after going stepless? Lance mentioned that the grinder loses some range when going stepless, and I"m not understanding how that could be the case.
I’ll say this… no one has explained the dial system properly online (I had to open it to fully understand it) so I don’t think it’s even worth keeping as a stepped grinder cuz you’ll always struggle with the dial mechanism.
Making it stepless won’t reduce your range it will just make it less precise when you go for in between numbers (as opposed to slightly more precise with the steps but Impossible to actually navigate like a magnet on a compass) so imo just make it stepless and enjoy the grinder.
It can do espresso and it can do cold brew. Also also you can alllllways change the range by zeroing it out at a different spot (but I doubt you’ll need to)
Please explain the non modded micro steps to me like I’m a 5 year old lol
Say setting number 2 is my base:
If I move it 1 micro click finer then move it 1 macro click finer, will it result it 17 microns finer grinds?
And if I move it 2 micro clicks finer then move it 2 macro clicks finer, will it result in 33 micron finer?
I don’t know why this has me so confused lol plz help
I love you and your content. Please keep up the great work. I've learned so much from you. But sadly, while I'm the target audience for this grinder, I just can't buy it.
Plastic build is not the investment that I'm looking for, drip focused instead of espresso (pulling the trigger on the GCP today at WLL), need to know advanced calculus to dial it in for espresso, limited range for espresso, and now you have to totally take it apart if you want step less. I just can't pull the trigger. I'd rather pay more for the vs3 or sd40 if I want to go conical burr. But I already have a conical hand grinder so I might spend the extra hundo on a EM Notte as it has a nice begginer 50mm flat burr made for espresso with a nice stepless design during Christmas. But if I didn't have my hand grinder, I'd jump all over the ESP instead of the Fellow if plastic didn't bother me so much
I totally get it!
Honestly wish I could replace the shell and dial with a metal version. It would beaf this baby up. And maybe just leave the filter setting for the ode and keep this espresso specific (which I’m suuuure they will do since the feedback on this model half answering the call for spro) would love to see an opus that is as high q as the ode. The esp definitely touched on some great innovation for a cheap all purpose!
Thank you for the kind words!
@@EmileeBryant that’d be “The Magnum Opus”.
One thing I have never understood, is why step-less adjustment is typically (with exceptions) a feature of higher priced grinders. Every step-less mod I’ve ever seen is usually just a matter of removing some kind of pin. So why bother with the pin in the first place? I get that for beginners (like me), it’s probably easier to remember multiple grind settings for multiple situations with stepped adjustment, but still…
…and it’s not like the Opus’ weird, fiddly, unintuitive and (based on what I’ve read) difficult to understand adjustment system is very beginner friendly. Frankly, the new Baratza’s makes WAAAAY more sense. Especially for beginners.
Is the micro adjustment of this thing actually doing anything? Like if all the micro adjustment is doing is offsetting the outer ring by 2/3 of a mark, but the step graduation and the actual burr movement are independent of the outer ring you could offset the outer ring any arbitrary amount you wanted but your next click is still going to be the exact same adjustment as if you hadn't offset it... right? If the stoppers are applied on the outer ring you gain some extra range on the grinder by offsetting it, which is what Fellow also say it's for, but adjustment?
It's hard for me to to tell for sure because this video didn't go into detail about the interactions between the various rings and the step mechanism. It's possible there's something going on with the rings that's not really visible in the video. But I've been frustrated by what seems to be conflicting explanations about the micro adjustment of this thing, and there's enough play throughout the adjustment mechanism of my Opus that I can't really get a good read on whether it's doing what it's supposed to. The "zip it back and forth to sync" thing seems like nonsense, mine goes right back to its offset position no matter how much I do it. But there's enough play in everything I'm sure it's easily possible for someone to have the marks line up if they're not as pedantic as me.
I really don't want to disassemble mine after only a week of ownership but this is going to drive me crazy.
No no you nailed it on the first paragraph.
I’ve been trying to explain that to my pals that own these that the rings don’t really connect. When you move the micro adjustments you are (like you said) NOT moving the burr. Just offsetting them for the next click to be 1/3rd or 2/3rds off.
Wedding invite has been sent out.
Nice!!!!
Thank you!
Yay!
Thanks, this was incredibly helpful! I completed the mod earlier this evening, and it went quite smoothly!
I decided to leave the gear casing sealed, and just destroy the spring to get it out. I didn't care about being able to reverse the change later, so that seemed like the lowest risk option for me.
Are you still using the opus stepless, how is your experience?
@@TracelessFK yeah, I'm still using it daily. Retention is still annoying, but aside from that I haven't had any issues with it.
@@Alnakar had it been easier to dial in new beans?
May sound stupid… but what is the point of stepless? I’m genuinely curious
So you can get the grind size in between the pre designated steps :)
@@EmileeBryant would it be a easy to get back to a previous setting without the click?
Thanks for making this video. You’ve totally convinced me not to buy this grinder. It has way too much plastic parts in it for my taste.
I much prefer a solid metal frame and adjustment mechanisms that will last a lifetime. (My lifetime, not the grinder’s of course 😉)
Haha welcome!
I actually think knowing what it’s made of is very informative for a buyer so I understand. I’m glad you know what you like! I’m not a huge plastic fan myself.
If you are looking for sturdier grinders the Df line is immaculate and pretty cheap (when on sale)
@@EmileeBryant Thanks!
(We’ll talk more about it on my wedding😂)
@@Conservator. not if I blow up from the dynamite 🧨
Coming back to this video because I’m seriously starting to consider it.
Has this still be a better mod for the opus?
Let's gooooo
also i'm a geek. the wires inside are absolutely gorgeous.
also also. that was some superior skills dangling that screw while implementing the behind the wire technique.
i don't think i'll ever have a wedding but open invite anytime you're in canada lol
Screw screw screw…..screw screw screw 😂😂😂😂
The build quality of that is vile to me, but it hits a price point I guess..
Took me till the end to realize this wasnt Lord of the Rings. Feel cheated.
What I'm left wondering is if Fellow could reliably use a stepless system which would make it more appealing to enthusiasts AND it would cost them less (1 less part), why would they have not manufactured it this way? No offense but something makes me think that with a lot of time and money for R&D, their engineers might have a better understanding of the nuances in the construction of the unit than yourself and may have made the choice to go stepped for a reason. I have to imagine it was a design choice based on the material itself, wear and tear and/or how well friction itself can keep the dial in its place long-term. I could be wrong but it seems haphazard to share this mod without results long-term but I hope it holds up.
Fair points and I agree but thankfully the mod is 100% reversible. I haven’t noticed any drift.
I am actually a fan of steps and using them but this grinder doesn’t produce enough fine tuning to truly dial in, dial in. And the system they made ended up confusing everyone who owns it because you basically have to do math just to remember where to be. Sadly is the opposite of intuitive. Had the micro steps worked the way people assume they should, there would be no need for a video like this. 😔 and for that I would have been also thankful. Since a step will always be more accurate repeatedly but if you can’t get to that dial in point then it’s pointless.
I think also they expect this to be very entry level. At least when asking the designer why the dial is the way it is, they said they never expected people to need to (or want to)dial in that far. But… that’s kinda the point of the grinder.
Another kinda awkward thing is this grinder was not described as an entry level when it dropped. And people who have used fellow before and have come to know their pedigree, we’re pretty disappointed. Kinda felt like this was pushed too soon and a nicer version should have come first (then this)
Like you don’t get the iPod mini before the invention of the iPod haha.
This kinda felt like a space race to the moon with fellow vs the baratza esp. since they came out the same time and do the same thing for the same price.
I’m rambling now. Thank you for the comment!!
ohhh......thats what you meant by stepless MOD.
I was like stepless???? this tutorial is full of steps.
until i hit 730
to be fair, i wasnt listening to the audio if she had explained ab the mod
0:16 0:16 Ahahaha I am doing it right now but I left them a message: cause Emily said so :P JK :)
hacking like a pro :)
7:47 doesn’t sound very stepless…
It is stepless. I show the step peice being extracted like a root canal 🦷
It’s just the sound of my hands on the plastic
This just makes angry to know beacuse it is such a small change that would make the product great if it was stepless out of the box…
Hey Emilee…just balanced my coffeeyoutubebubble…quit lance Hedrick 😂 and subscribed for your channel! Bye