Does Astra Super Giant Godzilla Macchina live? Does it keep your milk cold ?

Does Astra Super Giant Godzilla Macchina live?

I'm still waiting on Sparky to "put 220 on the money"

Does it keep your milk cold ?

The first picture I'm going to take if Astra Super Giant Godzilla Macchina works is of a thermometer in the fridge next to the boiler pressure gauge. Fire and Ice Baby.

I gave up on moving the beast into my basement for rebuilding and brought it to my shop where I used an overhead hoist to get it onto a work cart, It's a really heavy "157 Lbs." .

I got the parts list, manual and some new bits from Astra, stripped it down, touched up the frame, cleaned the brew group, grinder, etc. The easy stuff is done, I assume tuning will be a treat.

I still am very impressed with the quality and design e.g. the entire brewing and grinder assembly comes out with 2 bolts and one quick release wiring harness.

So now it sits in the corner waiting for power to answer my question, "Did I just spent a week 'polishing a chrome turd'? (it would be a stainless turd actually )".

Here it is is cleaned and re-assembled waiting for our QA guy Kevin to sign off.




PS. Always have more than two coffee cups handy when checking if a boiler is empty.

I think this is pretty cool myself! hehe and I don't know much of anything at all! So please keep us posted, I love reading about an adventure like this!

One new thing I have learned is, the clear tube and it's fittings (at the top of the picture) are a one time use item. I could not figure out why Astra sent me a new one until I tried disconnecting it.
There are little teeth that hold the tube into the fitting and once you push the red locking ring in it's permanent.
So to future cleaners of Astra Super Giant Godzilla Macchinas and other tinkerers I say "Leave this style of little tube alone" or call Astra, the complete assembly was around $10.




Something else I need to mention, using Standard tools to work on an espresso machine is weird.
Unless you; service domestic farm equipment, ride a Harley, drive a Dodge Dart or work on aircraft, your tool box may be lacking sizes.
I forget sometimes the US is still not Metric, good thing I own an International Harvester.

bishopthirteen wrote:Something else I need to mention, using Standard tools to work on an espresso machine is weird. Unless you; service domestic farm equipment, ride a Harley, drive a Dodge Dart or work on aircraft, your tool box may be lacking sizes.
I forget sometimes the US is still not Metric, good thing I own an International Harvester.

I used to mess with American cars - like fun 1970s cars - so I have these things, sockets and wrenches - and haven't touched them in years...

I'm really curious about the grinder in something like this - is it at all adjustable?

Ann

It is adjustable. After you unlock and open the front panel the top burr holder is accessible. No keys no adjustment.


Here are the burrs uncleaned. You can see the spring that holds one of two indexing ball bearings on the grinder body.


This is the grinder detached from the brewing assembly

Does it have two bean hoppers (for decaf and regular)? If so, how is that gated?

It has two hoppers, but really more like one hopper and one funnel. A large regular size hopper for whole beans (Regular) and a small hopper which is more like a funnel that bypasses the grinder for using measured pre ground coffee (decaf).

Some Super Autos have two grinders, (Like the one pictured above, Astra Super Mega II) would that make them Super Duper Automatics? That would be Super Sweet.





(In the background you can see various La Pavoni parts. The frame is at the powder coaters, reassembly imminent!)

It lives! This is a picture of why Sparky has been dragging his feet to come over and wire my "Espresso Machine Station". I wanted dedicated 220V for 30 and 20 amps with the correct outlets and 110V for grinders and such. Then I needed an overhead light which would work for the; espresso machine, the shop sink and the tire changing machine, it swings between the three, about 45*.






It took Three days longer to put in the wiring than I budgeted for so I had very little time to tune the Astra before I had to leave.


Mmmm coffee and cigarettes



Robotic Barista



I'm hoping to get a better shot with tuning. The puck is really wet and the grinder dosing seems light. Next trip to the shop I'll work on it some more and post results. The first shot with really oily french roasted beans tasted just like Starbucks! (we did a taste test, a worst of the worst scenario, double yuck.)

I calling out again for any techs who have logged hours with these, I have a few tuning/programing questions.

Thanks

What?!.... you don't like 6 second single shots?

Thanks for the update.