I thought I'd post a quick update to my Elektra progress. On Tuesday, the first Swagelok fitting came in, and I was finally ready to install PID control on the machine. For now, the project box is next to the machine, because my tall legs are still under construction--they need to be cut to length and polished.
Boiler on the left, group on the right.The installation was reasonably easy. The fitting I used was the stainless one, with a 6" probe that's curved down slightly so that it's below the water level in the boiler:

I thought about where to put the SSR for awhile, and I am not entirely sure I am happy with where it is. I was originally going to put it in the "lion's den," i.e. the inside of the machine, but it gets darn hot in there, and I couldn't find a spot to mount it that I liked. Putting the heat sink under the machine would be a good idea, but I don't think that the steel frame would transfer heat well, being extremely thick and powdercoated.
So I put the heat sink on the back of the large project box like so:
It's attached to the heat sink through the aluminum backplate.My initial impression is that this works fairly well. You can see I've kept my eye on it in the picture above, with the probe set against the backplate of the sink. It gets to about 52C on the plate in the morning when it warms up, which bothers me a bit. On the other hand, it idles at about 30C, which seems alright to me. I am getting a "nicer" Omron SSR (currently using a 25A SSR from Auber) to see if it will work any better. If not, then I'll probably just look into ventilating the box. The box itself seems to be reasonably cool, and I assume the inside temperature is good--it's not cramped at all, and I understand the SSR radiates most of its heat through the bottom.
I've found that a setpoint of 242F on the PID gets me right in the neighborhood of 0.8-0.85 bar on my meter. I am not sure if that's an indicator that the meter is inaccurate or not.
Grouphead idles right around brew temperature at this setting--201-205, depending on the weather (it drops when you blow on it, hah!)
I like the steaming power here alright, and the flushing is tolerable. Speaking of flushing, this thing is certainly handy:
I have a source for a Scace device, so I should be able to figure the rough offset soon.I think it looks pretty good. Not near as obtrusive on the design as the E61 version. I also routed it to the right immediately out of the fitting, so that I can pull the bell without it getting in my way.
Finally, I got a new steam tip to try out, the "custom" EPNW tip for La Marzoccos. I was curious to try a tip that could slow heating of about 3 oz. of milk to greater than 13-15s, and also something easier to keep clean (I hate the stupid slots in the stock tip). I am not sure if this is the tip I am looking for, but it's alright:

Sorry for the lack of action shots. I've been enjoying it a bit too much to interrupt the zen of it all to take pictures...
