I don't have enough space to make it practical to have two machines going at once, so I swapped out the Pasquini for the Laurentis to get some quality time getting acquainted with it. I will need to sell one of them in order to continue rebuilding as a hobby and maintain marital harmony. The Pasquini is a 220v machine, so now I've got to run a 110v line under the cabinet to power the Laurentis. Right now, I've got the power cable plugged into an extension cord. Still need to attach the Laurentis badges to the front and back.

Ross,

Excellent work. I really like the color choice and the SS treatment. Making me rethink the color choice on the M30 I'm restoring.

Mike

Mike,
I've been tracking your M30 project - it's looking great! I like the interspersed before/after photos. Your powder coated frame has a similar texture as the silver vein panels on mine. I definitely like the looks of that.

I stopped at the auto parts store and picked up a tube of 3M Plastic and Emblem Adhesive. It's clear and you only need to apply it to one of the surfaces. It took just a few minutes to get the aluminum labels glued in place. That just about wraps it up with the restore. Here are a couple before/after pictures.

Back:




Front:

What happened to the auto frother? I got one on a Futurmat machine and was in the process of grabbing it with a pair of Channel-Lock pliers to break it off when I remembered they might be kind of expensive.

So I looked mine up and realized it would cost $260 to buy it. (http://tinyurl.com/yb77qbr) So I unscrewed and put it in a drawer when I replaced the steam wand. Then I realized I couldn't sell it and that no one really likes them except for a bored 8 year old with 1/2 gallon of milk to burn. (He filled a bowl and made his Lego Luke Skywalker pretend it was some snow covered planet. Wife was not home.) So now I move it around when I need to put something else in the drawer. Is yours living as glamorous a life?

The machine looks good. I like the Cadmium plated frames on that generation. It totally prevents the moonscape that you can traditionally find on older CMA machines under the grouphead.

WES

Boy, that looks great! I'm missing mine right now...which is languishing in a basement in a country far away...

I love looking at the boiler pressure gauge in the before pic

Regards, Henry

djmonkeyhater wrote:What happened to the auto frother?

It's still sitting in a box with the other detritus left over from the restore. I would never have thought it was worth that price. It's not a very complicated gizmo. It must be Italian.

hbuchtel wrote:I love looking at the boiler pressure gauge in the before pic

Yeah - slightly over-pressurized boiler.

I finally installed a PID to monitor the brew water temperature in the group and help me fine-tune my cooling flush. The results were quite illuminating. Having read so many of the posts on HX temp surfing, I had been flushing a few seconds past the flash boil, which always seemed to yield a bitter extraction. The PID with a group themocouple indicated that I had been stopping the flush *way* too early. With the PS set for 1.2 bar and the group idling at 207, it took about 30 seconds to flush the HX and drop the brew water temp down to around 200. That was probably 3 times as long as I had been flushing, and wow, what a difference in the cup! I had the machine running all weekend experimenting with my new digital helper. My wife noticed a difference in the cappas immediately. What a great little tool.

I think I'll drop the boiler pressure a bit to trim some time off that flush. The 6 liter boiler still ought to be able to generate sufficient steam down around .9 - 1.0 bar.

Check out the long flush. Hopefully, the digits on the PID aren't too small to read.

Ross did you put your thermocouple in the same place as mine?

How long do you leave it idling before it shows 207?

My grouphead usually idles around 180 or so after about an hr of being on... then when I flush it, the temp goes up past 200 and then back down

Ilya,
Yes, I mounted a type T TC in the same location as you - using the Beswick bored-through fitting installed at the front of the group head. I did neglect to calibrate the TC with boiling water ahead of time, but I was more concerned with consistency then absolutely accurate temperature readings. However, I didn't expect it to be off too much out-of-the-box. What pressure are you running your boiler? 180 degrees seems awfully low.