Dave: Looks like you have plenty of room there to enjoy your hobby. Perhaps you know someone who could make some nice wooden standoff for your 'other' machine.

Mark

From the old setup PID 12oz single boiler silvia:

To the new one brewhead temp sensored 6L HX Astoria SAE JUN:

mhoy wrote:Dave: Looks like you have plenty of room there to enjoy your hobby. Perhaps you know someone who could make some nice wooden standoff for your 'other' machine.

Mark

I like the pine 2x4 hillbilly block riser method.

Legs are too low to properly run the drain line, quick fix cut some 2x2 blocks, drill a 1 1/8 inch recess with a Forstner bit for the legs to rest in.

Just showing off my set up. Isomac Tea, Mazzer Mini E type b and recessed sink with under counter water filter / chiller. Ace!!!

Very nice . . .

My wife finally let me bring my Barista's Nightmare inside to a space where our old freezer was. The laminated bamboo cart was purchased from ekitchenislands.com and has space below for the water container and other items. The silicone rubber hose at the edge of the sink is for the espresso machine drain.

Amazing Eric. What do you have going on there? Five (or is it six?) dials plus I guess a timer in green at the right. What do they tell you?

I guess you have to open BOTH eyes to extract your first drink in the morning!

EMC GIOTTO plumbed and drained and Mini

boyscout wrote:Amazing Eric. What do you have going on there? Five (or is it six?) dials plus I guess a timer in green at the right. What do they tell you?

I guess you have to open BOTH eyes to extract your first drink in the morning!

You can never have too much instrumentation. The gauges measure boiler pressure, brew pressure, boiler temperature, group temperature, brew flow rate, boiler level, and shot time. The timer is 1960's vintage with one second and one minute per revolution pointers. More details are in my post at CG: http://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/espresso/machinemods/443221. Here is a video showing the machine in action:

My humble setup as I just started true (i.e. semi-automatic) home espresso in December 2009. Trusty Bodum FP hasn't been broken yet after all these years. Hopefully in a few years will be able to get plumbed "high-end" machine (GS/3 or Speedster) so that can output large number of lattes/cappucinos easier. For now guests know quality takes time and far exceed Starbucks dreck. And if they still want Starbucks then I toss them some German steel.

I modified the WDT by placing new sewing needle onto pencil as I can grip this better than dissecting needle.

So, Ive made a few changes/additions to my kit, which I am enjoying very much.

1st: Ive added lighting to the Vivaldi. Incredibly easy, using LED lighting pods found at Ikea. They have adhesive on them, and a transformer to plug right into the wall. The wiring will be routed through the machine, but Ill be moving soon, so decided to hold off of a permanent install, until we moved, and i was sure I liked them. Thing is, I dont like them. I LOVE THEM! They give off LOTS of light.


2nd: Ive replaced my Mazzer Major, with a Macap MXK conical. Been wantin' a conical for some time now, and the MXK was one that stuck out, to me, as a great grinder for the money. Got a great deal on it too. You can see the Gralab450 too, which works great! The grinder itself is ridiculous, and the shots are wonderfully consistent. Very, very happy with the Macap! (Vario is now in the kitchen, with the syphon and other brewing stuffs)


And, a shot of everybody all together:


I'm going to refrain from saying "upgrade complete", because that is never the case. But I can say that the coffee at Casa de Jman, is the best its ever been, and even more fun then it has been. Gotta love coffee!

As an aside, you'll notice I put on the stock "legs", as opposed to the taller, modified legs John made and gave me with the machine. I really miss the space underneath the machine, and have the work area of the machine higher up, especially for frothing. They're going back on.

here is another picture of my happy machine

and as a friend told me, "happy machine.. happy owner"

That short lens shot made me happy. Thanks.

-Cecil

Glad to see others who've moved out of the kitchen. I was just plain out of room, so the dining room (little used) has been transformed into the coffee shop...

Dave,

Very nice. Is it plumbed in or running off a bottle hidden in one of the lower side cabinets?

Here is my setup. I was dragging it over to the sink and hooking it up through a filter, but now I finally have it on a home-built table (though I still have to use the sink as my water supply).

It is a modified Faema Due -- one of eric's thermocouple set-ups, line pressure pre-infusion, machined dispersion screw and screen, rewired control circuit, and a couple of custom portafilter handles.

Next to it is my 'daily' machine, a Gaggia Baby.

Grinder is Compaq K3 Touch.

uscfroadie wrote:Dave,

Very nice. Is it plumbed in or running off a bottle hidden in one of the lower side cabinets?

Plumbed supply and drain. Actually, I thought the drain would be easy, but you have to be careful you don't make the run too long or through too narrow a pipe without a vent or your drip tray will never empty. The supply side was easy -- I sweated a 1/2" to 3/8" female connector to my copper supply in the basement and Chris' Coffee hooked me up with everything else (filter, regulator).

Juanjo, a charming picture! Made me smile . . .

karl_a_hall wrote:Next to it is my 'daily' machine, a Gaggia Baby.

You could probably sell the Baby for enough to entice an espresso drinking plumber to come get the Faema plumbed in and out.
There is no way that I could look at that Faema every morning while pulling shots from the Gaggia...

Chris (Psyd), the ability to plumb is not the problem (I am a more than capable plumber/electrician)... renting is the problem. Something about 'invasive'. I tried to convince the landlords that it is way cooler to have another water supply line and drain hook up (or even just a T) under the sink (or through the floor), but they just didn't buy it (even at my cost). You should see the split power line that I use to get 220 (plugged into two different outlets).

It is kinda hard to use the gaggia sometimes, but it works and gets me solid espresso quickly.


Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it.