As many of you know, EricS provides an invaluable tool for E61 machines (especially HX).

The only gripe I had was the price, 48 for the fitting + another 40 or so for thermocouple + more $ for a LCD temperature display or a PID

Don't get me wrong, Eric's price is extremely fair as he has to do quite a bit of physical labor to produce the compression fitting (he changes the thread to M6) and he also tests each and every product he sells (which is great to know!)

However, being a med student on quite a budget, I decided to contact a few places and see where I could find a similar adapter.

I wanted to pass this knowledge on to others who were thinking of replicating Erics adapter on a lower budget.

Beswick makes a compression fitting for a 1/8" thermocouple that has a male M5 (10-32) thread on the end.
This is part # MCB-1018-1

To go to an M6 thread (which is on most E61 machines) there is an adapter that goes from M5->M6
Part# MFA-M610

The total cost is about 4 dollars plus shipping, but you will have to do some work yourself.
The adapter has a bulky part which is thicker than your M6 hex screw so you will have to file it down a bit to make it fit.

Lucky for me, my Astoria SAE Jun used an M5 group head screw so I was able to use the compression fitting without any filing.

If you are interested in ordering, you can contact beswick:
603-433-1188

I spoke to sean (shyatt@beswick.com) and maybe if you mention that Ilya forwarded you from the coffee forums he can give you a discount?

Again I want to stress that for an E61 grouphead, Erics adapter is the best option as it is tested and will fit without any filing!

If you have a grouphead like mine with an M5 allen screw, or an Elektra with an M4 group allen key, then the appropriate beswick adapter fits perfectly without any filing!

I just wanted to make a correction, please make sure you tell sean that your adapter needs to be bored through.

The correct part number for my M5 thread was MCB-1016-FNP-067

And here's a picture of it with a 1/16" type K Thermocouple from Omega:

I also made my own alternative adapter, works like a charm.



(posted the picture somewhere else also)

sversimo wrote:I also made my own alternative adapter, works like a charm.

For sake of completeness, Dave documented his DIY solution in No More Guesswork! Naked Truth of E61 Temperature Revealed (also see this follow-up discussion).