I was in the kitchen and looked into the Rocky doser and decided that this was the time. I was tired of having to brush the doser out after every session and I was going to do something about it. Here's what to do- this works:

YOU WILL NEED:
- Quality electrical tape- about six or eight inches long (Two four inch pieces will work. If you don't have any, stop and talk to the local phone repair person. They carry the good stuff!)
- Sharp scissors to cut the electrical tape
- Possibly a small wrench to loosen the nut on the doser blades
- Two lengths of strong ribbon or fiber-reinforced packing tape (and/or strong fingers) to work the lower doser blade off the shaft
- About thirty minutes of time

1) Remove the doser chamber lid

2) Unscrew the nut on top of the dosing blades. It might even be finger tight, but it is not on very tight unless you gorilla-gripped it last time you took it off. DOn't lose the nut down the sink!

3) You may not know this, but the dosing blade is actually two parts- an upper and a lower separated by the shiny metal divider. Pull off the upper blade. This comes off easily by hand.

4) Remove the shiny, chrome looking divider.

5) Now the challenge. You should now be looking at the lower dosing blade with a shiny chrome shaft sticking up out of it. The shaft stays but the blade comes out by hand. The lower blade is a press fit over a hex protrusion of the shaft that looks like a nut. You have to lift the blade straight up to get it to come off. David G., one of our readers, sent me this tip to assist in removing the lower blade:

A) Rotate the lower blade until one vane is over the dosing opening.
B) Take a length of strong ribbon or reinforced packing tape and double it over.
C) Wrap it around the exposed blade so the ends of the tape are directed upwards, out of the top of the doser.
D) Rotate the blade around and repeat this on another blade opposite this one.
E) Slide these two lengths of ribbon so that they are located as close to the center of the blade as possible. You don’t want to pull on the ends of the blades as they can break.
F) Now, by grasping these two lengths of ribbon or tape, you have two handles that can be used to easily remove the blade.

If that doesn't work, Try pushing up hard on one blade by putting your fingers up through the dosing hole. Then turn the doser 180 degrees and push up on the opposite blade while holding its opposite twin upwards. Keep working at it, attempting to pull up as straight as possible (without cocking the blade). Using this method with the one above should get the balde off without too much effort.

6) Once you have the lower blade out, wash it off thoroughly and dry it completely.

7) You are going to make two wipers to attach to opposite blades. You can place them on all the baldes, but it is not necessary. To make the wipers:

a) Cut a piece of electrical tape about twice as long as a blade. Looking at a blade, press the tape on the FRONT face of a blade, the front being the face that pushes the coffee along. Align it so that the tape's length is parallel to the blade and so that it is aligned just a bit lower than the top edge of the blade. The excess length is extended well out from the blade's length, and the excess width of tape is extending below the bottom edge of the blade:

	-In this picture the blade's movement in the doser would be from right to left. -The black part is the blade -The grey is the tape -Notice how the tape goes well up the blade as well as extending well past the bottom of the blade.
Point of view from outside of doser looking inwards along a vane of the doser blade.

	-In this picture the blade's movement in the doser would be from right to left. -The black part is the blade -The grey is the tape -Notice how the tape has been folded up to just past the bottom edge of the dosing blade. This is to keep any of the sticky pasrt of the tape from being exposed to the coffee grounds.
Point of view from outside of doser looking inwards along a vane of the doser blade.

	-In this image we are looking at the face of one of the doser blades -Notice how the part of the tape that was extending off the end of the blade has been trimmed -Be sure that there is none of the sticky surface of the tape exposed
Looking at the face of a single blade

e) Press the tape onto the blade trying to avoid air bubbles and using a finger nail be sure to thoroughly crease the edge of the tape to keep it from coming apart. Press the folded tpae faces together well at this time also.

8) Replace the lower wiper into the dosing chamber, turning it clockwise as it is seating on the shaft. This will fold the wipers UNDER the doser arm. This makes a good seal between the doser arm and the bottom of the dosing chamber. It also acts to push the tape towards the arm when in actual use to lessen the chance of the tape coming off.

9) As I only grind and dose a single pull at a time I don't use the chrome separator. If you grind more than that at one time, then it should be replaced as without it way too much coffee will be dispensed. If you use it, place it in now.

10) Replace the upper dosing blade. Look under it and you will see that there are two slots along the center hole. These align to two tabs on the lower dosing blade. Align them and press into position.

11) Replace the nut and tighten by hand.

You won't believe how well this simple fix works and how little ground coffee is left behind after a session. Brushing out the Rocky is virtually eliminated.

ADDENDUM- The electrical tape method as outlined above works well, but the same basic procedure can be done using self-stick Velcro. Use the "loop" side (the fuzzy part) and attach and trim in much the same way. The major difference is that the bottom edge does not have to be folded over. The "industrial' strength Velcro works quite well.