A grind setting is only meaningful relative to a zero point and a scale. This page covers how Lance Hedrick defines zero, why microns-per-click figures are slippery, and how dial designs affect dialling in. It maps directly onto Notchbook's four scale types (Numbered, Clicks, Stepless, Rotation).
Defining zero
- Three common definitions: burr lock (burrs fully closed), first touch, and chirp (the sound when the burrs just kiss while running). Reports that a grinder is "miscalibrated" may just reflect different definitions 13:17.
- Always say which one you use when sharing a setting, because otherwise the same number means a different grind 13:43. Micron dials only let owners share numbers if everyone zeroes the same way 6:10. On a Vario he quotes settings as micro steps from chirp 22:28.
- Lance Hedrick's preference has varied. On the Zerno (2023) he zeroed at burr lock while others used chirp 1:31. By 2025 he prefers to set chirp as 0 and count microns of travel from there 15:52.
Finding zero safely
- With the motor running, turn finer until the burrs chirp, then set the dial or knob reference there and lock it 30:52 6:42.
- On a Ditting 807 he located chirp by tapping down the dial and started espresso about one number above it 9:24.
- On an EG-1, rubbing noises near zero come from carrier pads, not necessarily the burrs. Go to low RPM and treat the point where the carrier starts resisting as true zero 28:14.
- On a ZP6, wind to zero then click coarser until the rub stops 6:37. On 1Zpresso external dials, push the burr up and set the ring so burr lock lands exactly on zero 31:24.
- On a DF64 in 2025 he ran the burrs slowly closed until they rubbed and started a few numbers coarser 2:04.
- Only touch the burrs lightly during alignment checks. Going past the first chirp wipes the marker and gives a false reading 11:12.
Zero moves
- After swapping burrs, recalibrate. Sets differ in thickness (8.3 mm against 8.88 mm in his example), so the old zero could leave you far past contact 25:32.
- Manufacturers often set the fine end deliberately too fine so worn burrs can still reach espresso without shims 20:20. Niche sets zero about 10 clicks short of burr lock 3:32.
- Seasoning moves the effective grind coarser at a given number 8:45 (see seasoning).
Espresso near zero
- With 58 mm baskets, espresso often needs grinding right at or past chirp, whereas small 49 mm lever baskets tolerate coarser grounds 49:02.
- With the clearest filter burrs on a well-aligned EK43, espresso may need chirp 17:14. Ultra-low-fines burrs on an EG-1 need a much finer setting for espresso than other burrs 28:14.
Microns per step: movement vs gap
- Burr travel and burr gap are different numbers. Comandante's 30 µm per click is a gap figure, roughly two-thirds of the vertical movement (30 µm gap ≈ 45 µm travel), and gap depends on burr shape and alignment 8:54. In 2025 he worked the Comandante out at about 42 µm of travel per click 6:07. On cone designs like the Femobook A2, 18 µm of travel is about 10 µm of gap 16:44.
- So a 30 µm-per-click C40 is much coarser per step than a J-Max quoted at about 8 µm of travel 3:04, and settings can't be converted between brands by arithmetic 6:12.
- Gap figures assume perfect alignment, which no grinder has, so travel is more objective 9:27. The Orphan Espresso Leo's dial reads actual burr travel 38:52.
- Burr gap isn't particle size either. A 500 µm gap yields particles around 600 to 650 µm 6:06.
Stated step sizes
| Grinder | Step | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Baratza Encore ESP Pro (espresso range) | about 2.2 µm per half step, about 10 µm above 40 | 0:00 |
| Timemore 078 / 078S fine adjustment | about 5 µm / 3 µm | 0:00 |
| Weber EG-1 | 5 µm per division | 1:37 |
| Orphan Espresso Leo (fine ring) | 5 µm per click | 37:50 |
| Wug2 83A (later thread) | about 5 µm per tick | 0:00 |
| Mazzer Philos | about 6 µm per click | 1:34 |
| 1Zpresso J-Max | 8.8 µm per click | 12:05 |
| Femobook A4Z | 8 µm per click | 0:00 |
| Kinu M47 | about 10 µm per mark | 15:52 |
| 1Zpresso X-Pro / JX-Pro | 12.5 µm per click | 5:39 12:05 |
| Comandante C40 (Red Clix) | 15 µm per click | 29:38 |
| Timemore Chestnut X (micro / macro) | 16 / 83 µm per click | 12:17 |
| Femobook A2 | about 18 µm per click | 12:43 |
| Baratza Encore ESP (1 to 20 / above 20) | about 18.8 µm / about 90 µm per step | 0:00 |
| 1Zpresso K-Plus / K-Ultra | 22 / 20 µm (2022), about 15 µm (2024) | 18:47 4:04 |
| 1Zpresso ZP6 | 22 µm per click | 6:37 |
| 1Zpresso Q2, JX, JE | 25 µm per click | 1:34 12:05 |
| Comandante C40 (stock) | 30 µm per click (gap) | 29:38 |
| Mazzer Omega | 33 µm per step | 11:40 |
| Fellow Opus | 50 µm per macro step, 33 µm micro offsets | 30:07 |
Dial design and dialling
- Thread pitch sets granularity 5:36. Very fine steps matter at espresso and much less at filter sizes 12:49. 33 µm steps leave little room to fine-tune espresso 2:33, and 22 µm on a ZP6 is too coarse for it 13:44.
- Dual-pitch dials (Baratza Encore ESP and ESP Pro) give fine steps in the espresso zone and big steps above it 0:00 15:10. A constant-pitch stepless thread such as the Niche's changes the same amount everywhere, so filter needs a lot of turning 7:09.
- Very fine dials need big moves. On the ESP Pro, half steps are about 2.2 µm, so he jumps several whole numbers 22:37. On small-range dials it's the other way round. On the Timemore 064, where espresso spans roughly 0 to 3, moves must be tiny 22:22, and on the X64 SD going from 1.4 to 1.0 took a shot from 49 s to about 17 s 0:00.
- Stepless is easier to dial for espresso than stepped 7:16. Stepped dials can often be modded stepless (Fellow Ode Gen 1, Akira Koki, Timemore 078, Turin SD40) 15:58 36:27 3:04 25:30.
- Two-level dials (Fellow Opus micro wheel) make printed numbers unreliable once used, so write settings down instead 14:41.
- Rotation dials. On 1Zpresso external dials each number is 10 clicks 31:24. The Femobook A2 has three turns with four clicks per number 12:43, and internal-click grinders (Comandante, Q2, Kingrinder P series) require counting 29:38 5:00 7:09.
James Hoffmann's view
- Dial numbers don't transfer between units, and a printed zero may not be true burr contact 1:43. A dial with a true zero and micron offsets (Zerno) is more meaningful than arbitrary numbers, though it shows burr gap rather than particle size 3:05 2:35.
- Niche Zero: calibrating at the finest point gives a better shared reference 6:08, but the mark never lined up for him and units varied. The Niche Duo is factory-calibrated to fix that 5:35 4:04.
- The original Fellow Ode's front burr can be re-zeroed if it stops going as fine as it used to 16:25. Stiff stepless collars make it easy to end up a whole turn off after removing burrs 33:54.
- Stepped vs stepless. Stepped dials are repeatable and fine for most brewing, but espresso needs tiny changes, which stepless gives 9:46. Large steps make espresso dialling a matter of luck 14:45 13:21. Pick the finer step and adjust the dose 6:35. A stepless collar driven by burr friction can drift while grinding, which he calls a fundamental flaw 29:49.
Daddy Got Coffee's view
- Zero is often user-defined (Femobook A4Z, J-Ultra, Kinu, Mavo), so treat shared settings as approximate 14:19 11:23 15:49 8:47.
- After cleaning, check zero. Some burrs or plates mount two ways and shift zero by half a turn (1Zpresso Q/Q Air) 12:59 6:44.
- Fidelity in shot-time terms. Daddy Got Coffee judges espresso step size by how much one step moves the shot time. About 1 to 3 s is ideal, 4 to 6 s is workable and 8 to 12 s is too coarse 5:42 9:21.
- Approach from one side. Always come to your setting from the same direction, coarse then finer, so it repeats 6:10 15:13 11:12.
Kyle Rowsell's view
- Espresso needs fine steps because a small change can move a shot from 20 to 30 s 3:03. The J-Max's tiny clicks help between espresso settings but are too small to taste in filter 6:07. He prefers stepless for espresso when a stepped dial falls between two good settings 2:02.
- On the Lagom 01 the zero can be set and locked so the burrs never reach chirp, avoiding the drift he saw with the P100's sliding stop 4:39.
The Coffee Chronicler's view
- After stripping a burr, the dial's zero can end up on another number, but settings stay valid if you count turns from fully closed 16:49.
- The Coffee Chronicler judges steps by how much they change the shot time, as Daddy Got Coffee does. On most grinders one click moves a shot about 4 to 8 s, much less on a 1Zpresso J-Ultra 4:03, about 10 s on a Comandante C40 MK3 8:44 and about 15 s on a Timemore C3 26:10.
Sprometheus's view
- Burr sets aren't all the same thickness, so a swap shifts zero. Reposition the collar to follow it 5:34. An adjustable-zero dial lets you reset after a swap by finding the chirp 6:01. His Lagom P64's zero moved coarser over time, the opposite of expected burr wear, though harmlessly 4:34.
- Play in the Varia VS3's adjuster lets it slip past a 20 µm notch, so re-check the setting after a batch or two, above all for espresso 3:57. Stepless dials let you land exactly where you want, while steps can skip the sweet spot 3:09.
European Coffee Trip's view
- Locating the first click after cleaning a Comandante makes settings repeatable between grinders 5:09. If a grinder won't reach espresso fineness, it may need recalibrating by turning the ring until the burrs almost touch 6:09. In a café, the Mythos MYG75's ring lets the barista set a zero reference when a shift begins 2:04.
Brian Quan's view
- On a JT64 the zero and the grind are set by two separate rings, so turning the wrong one loses your zero. Chirp is how you find it again 2:03. The Lagom P100's movable zero stop can be marked or taped to give one reference for espresso and another for filter 25:54.
- Large steps make espresso hard. On an Ode with SSP burrs a third of a click could ruin pressure 5:37, and a dial without numbers costs a shot or two to find the setting after each change 4:03. That agrees with Hoffmann on stepped dials for espresso.
Bluebird Coffee Roastery's view
- On a DF64 the factory mark isn't true zero, which depends on each unit's alignment. Find it and mark it on the burr carrier before first use 6:13 5:42.
- Because wear and calibration differ even between units of one model, the roastery avoids dial numbers and gives particle size in microns with a conversion guide instead 4:04 5:06.
For Notchbook
- Store a zero definition with each grinder (lock, touch or chirp) and prompt for it when a user shares or imports settings.
- After a burr swap or re-shim, treat the grinder's zero as unknown until it's found again.
- For Rotation scales, the knowledge base has stated clicks-per-number for 1Zpresso external dials (10) and the Femobook A2 (4). Numbers per rotation are rarely given in the sources.
Summarised in our own words from the creators' videos, with every point linked to the moment it comes from. Notchbook isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of these creators, so please watch the originals for full context. Sources
Keep reading
- Burr alignment
- Astringency
- Conical vs flat, and burr geometry
- Grind size and extraction
- Particle size distribution and fines
- Retention, static and RDT
- Seasoning new burrs
- Slow feeding and RPM
- Grinder workflow: single dosing, WDT, RDT, purging and storing beans
- Troubleshooting: what to change when a cup tastes wrong
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