nixter wrote:Looks like a very nice rebuild! The judges may dock points for the Glen Beck back splash though.

~~~Admittedly, I'm a Foxhound

In regards to my Rimini rebuild...I've posted lots of photos and verbiage over on Thompson's new site

http://www.sweetmariascoffee.com/forum/ ... p?f=8&t=94

I've also parked a lot of the same photos over on yahoo BUG (Bunn Users Group) since my Futurmat is a Gaggia cousin, but BUG is a closed group to the public for posting and viewing pics. I wanted a place to post my Rimini rebuild photos so anyone could view them but, it gets kinda hairy trying to keep up more than one location so, I decided to only post one public rebuild thread and at the sake of repeating myself, I'm doing that over on sweetmarias forum

And I should mention my rebuild has stalled somewhat, primarily because this is a busy time of the year for me. I expect to forge ahead within a few months though. I have all the parts but I'm involved in other work which takes preference. Any current free time involving espresso is spent consuming and roasting, and of course, perusing and posting on a list or two= : - )

So please go and take a look at my rebuild pics over at SM's website. I've been told I'll pull a higher quality shot with my Rimini vs. what I'm getting out of the little Salvatore One Black and Red, because of the better group (Rimini is an E-61, the One Black is an E-61 type) and the fact that I'll be able to tune group pressure with the Rimini via the adjustable rotary pump. The One Black/Red uses a 41 watt Ulka w/o benefit of an OPV. Salvatore claims 145 PSI at the group yet when I've attached an accurate liquid-filled gauge to the PF on that machine, static pressure readings are 185 + PSI. How they claim a loss of 40 + PSI through the basket filled with coffee grounds at the group, I don't know how

When I took that reading (185 + PSI), the boiler gauge was at 1.2 bars, and I saw the pressure via the gauge fall as the boiler pressure dropped. IIRC, I saw 165 PSI at 1 bar. That was all of the pressure testing I have done, that one time several months back. And I've witnessed the boiler gauge fall slightly below 1 bar pressuree when pulling a shot and frothing milk simultaneously. So theroetically, it is possible for the One Black to pull shots at 145 PSI as is w/o further mods. I'll say this about the One Black I have been using for almost 5 months...it's truly been a delight to use. I'm more of an espresso common sewer than a connoisseur= : - ) what with my predilection towards milk based coffee drinks, formed drinking cafe con leches in the lower Fla. Keys some 12 to 24 years ago. So I could pull shots on the One Black, the Rimini, a GS3...place each of those shots in separate milk drinks, will I be able to blind taste test and tell them all apart? I don't know but I am quite satisfied with the performance of the One Black

One of the things I like about the One Black and it's 1.5 litre boiler, it gets up to shot pulling temp in 7 minutes from dead cold. I can pull a couple of doubles, make drinks and shut it down til I'm ready for another session. Getting back to the Rimini, the boiler is huge at 7 or 8 litres. It's truly a monster and I know I am going to have fun pulling shots and frothing milk with it. I'll give the Rimini plenty of testing time before making a decision on which machine stays and which goes. But then if I decide I like both, one could run out in the garage. Hey!, I have more than one refrigerator in the house, why not two espresso machines?= : - )


Jake
Reddick Fla.

Very nice job on your rebuild so far Jake. Keep up the great work. Pictorial rebuilds such as yours will allow others to more easily do the same.

Mark

Very nice setups!

mhoy wrote:Very nice job on your rebuild so far Jake. Keep up the great work. Pictorial rebuilds such as yours will allow others to more easily do the same.

Mark

~~~Thanks for the kind words Mark. As I mentioned once or twice posting on SM's in my Rimini thread, I do hope to influence others to get involved with an older hx machine project. They are available and often at a good price. Someone won an ES-1A (Bunn Espresso by Gaggia) a few days ago off ebay for $250. That particular machine more often goes for twice that. Anyways, I've had several encourage me to the point I felt comfortable taking on this project and once immersed, I found the challenge to be fun. For sure, lots of these older neglected machines can be cleaned up w/o taking totally apart, including giving them a thorough de-calcifying, w/all the plumbing intact yet it's so simple to dismantle using common hand tools. Anyone going that route, taking apart completely I would urge you to take plenty of pictures with a digital camera. I started dismantling mine back in Jan of this year, 8 months later and I can't remember where everything goes, but I took enough photos to refer to so going back together will not be a problem. I took photos of the most mi-nute details like panel clips, their orientation, fastener used. Same with the wiring and where the harness is fastened and to what and how

I found a half hour to do some work on this machine Tuesday (yesterday), specifically I was creating a pattern using a piece of felt to be used as a pattern to trace out all the various fittings on the boiler so the insulation I add to the boiler before assembling the various pipes to the boiler will fit

Here's another shot with the felt on the boiler-


I'm not finished making the pattern yet. There's over a dozen fittings on the boiler shell not including the two end pieces. The one end has the heating element, the other end has fittings for the boiler water level sight glass plumbing. Anyways, I probably would have started the re-assembly way before this if it wasn't for the fact I wanted to add a layer of insulating material to the boiler to cut down on heat emmissivity in my kitchen. Saving on power useage is secondary.

The insulating material I'm using is the 1/2" sheet of melamine foam you've probably seen others use sourced from McMaster Carr. It's quite fragile IMO in that it's easy to tear this material. So, I've been wringing my hands trying to figure out a way to make a template. My thinking is, if I make a template and work out all the fitting kinks on the template, the actual insulating material wont get abused from repetitive handling.

At first I thought I would use shirt cardboard then I remembered I had some felt pieces that were used to pack the frame covers with when hydro-dip.com shipped my espresso machine cover pieces back to me. The felt has been easy to work with. Okay...I just remembered I said I wasn't going to post progress pics here. My bad= : - )


Jake
Reddick Fla.

Wow what a cool thread. Great to see all the machines and setups. Here goes with a picture of what my mates call Jay's coffee shrine.

Latest version, with the grinder upgrade. Actually, the grind quality is probably equivalent to my previous setup. So I guess I spent the money on upgraded aesthetics, power, speed, and features.

Previous setup was the Macap M7K with a Super Jolly and current setup is the Mazzer Robur with a Mahlkönig K30 Vario. The plumbed in bottle-fed rotary Wega Lyra is still my espresso machine

Jon, how are you liking the Robur? Are you adding per shot, or leaving beans in the hopper? Noticing any effect on shot quality with regards to grounds left in the burr area?

I'm new to proppa coffee

Cubika for a present and I've used it with Lavazza preground for years. Saw some Latte art and thought it's time to step things up and found HB! So now I'm obsessed with improving my coffee but have a meagre budget. Fortunately I found an extremely cheap Carimali grinder and I've modified my portafilter to take the bottom out of it. Now waiting for some fresh roasted beans to arrive but have been practicing with some supermarket beans in the meantime. It's a revalation.

JmanEspresso wrote:Jon, how are you liking the Robur? Are you adding per shot, or leaving beans in the hopper? Noticing any effect on shot quality with regards to grounds left in the burr area?

Hi Jeff, this probably belongs in a different thread....but I'll answer here anyway

My routine for loading beans per shot (with the multi "bump & sweep") completely empties the burr area so I never have any old grounds and there is virtually zero waste (I actually weigh beans to load in and also weigh the grounds after and I routinely come out even within a couple tenths of a gram).

Since this is exactly the same routine I used with the Macap M7KR the shot quality seems pretty much the same to me, but the Robur is quieter, faster, and much more monsterous

Thanks Jon.. Just what I was hoping to hear.

I do the same thing.. Weigh beans per shot, bump/brush the exit chute, and Im usually within .1/.2gr. I had hoped Id be able to do the same with a Conical, and although the Robur isn't one Im considering, the Macap M7KR is.

Thanks.