Spoon Length
The stock spoon length is a bit longer than the inside length of most king size tubes and significantly longer than the inside length of the Rizla 'cigarette size' tubes.
If the spoon is longer than the inside length of the tube, you will always have a bit of tobacco protruding from the end of the finished smoke. It doesn't matter how good your gripper grips, or how late your release timing is, when the spoon bumps/digs into the filter it will push the smoke off of the machine.
If the spoon is shorter than the inside length of the tube, its the tobacco (not the spoon) pushing/compressing against the filter that will force the tube of the machine. Without the spoon as a limiting factor, its the volume of tobacco - how much tobacco you pack into the slot/chamber (particularly on the left side) - that determines weather or not you have tobacco protruding from the end of the finished smoke.
My rule of thumb is to have my spoon length be a tad shorter than the inside length of my tubes and my tube release timing a tad later than the inside length of my tubes.
I use the same shortened spoon for standard (15-17mm filter) and 'cigarette size' (22mm) tubes. I cannot tell the difference (between stock and shortened spoon) when using standard tubes.
Comments [ new ]
- Shortening the Spoon
- Posted by Chuck W on Sunday, 04-Mar-2007
Did you guys actually shorten the stock spoon yourselves or did you just buy a replacement spoon, [link] part S39, for $3 USD and then shorten the new spoon?
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- Re: Shortening the Spoon
- Posted by scott johnson on Sunday, 04-Mar-2007
I shortened the stock spoon. I didn't even remove it. I took the machine to the garage, cranked the handle, and used a bench grinder on it. I then used the wire wheel on the grinder to remove any burrs.
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sj
- Spoon Length
- Posted by Stan on Saturday, 26-Aug-2006
If you file more teeth on the spoon it works much better also.
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I made them a mite deeper also.
- Re: Spoon Length
- Posted by Dave L on Sunday, 27-Aug-2006
Why? The stock spoon grips the tobacco fine. With moist tobacco the spoon can actually pull the tobacco plug back out of the tube a bit (too good a grip).
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The only reason to shorten the spoon is to reduce the amount of tobacco protruding from the tip of the finished smoke... (Dec '07) and to prevent the machine from pushing the tube off too early when using long filtered tubes.