Chert wrote:Do you know if that Intelli piece is a workhorse or more of a trophy?

Regrettably, a trophy. It sits at the far end of Intelligentsia's U-shaped espresso bar in Venice, where it is attached to Greg Scace's custom pressure profiler and rarely used.

flopshot1016 wrote:Have you seen this?
http://www.nuovasimonelliusa.com/yachtclub.htm

Have not seen that one. I would have my doubts about its longevity but if if you look close, those side panels are at least an inch thick, probably more like 1.5-2 inches. The thicker the wood, the less likely it is to warp, also the specific cut of the wood will make a difference but I would put money on it eventually developing a crack unless they put a heat shield on the inside of that wood to insulate it. Wood that thick would be impractical to use on a domestic machine needing a full case. 2/4 to 3/4 would be more practical and you would have to mill that down from a 4/4 board. Anything could be done, however longevity would be the issue. If you did do that, you would want a ceramic or aluminium faced fibreglass insulation on the wood to keep it cool. On a full case, you also have joints which would be subject to some severe dimensional shifts (shrink/swell) from the heat and humidity. You would have to use something like a blind rabbit, dove tail or box joint on all the joining surfaces to keep them from separating. You could do it, and it would be one nice looking machine, but it may fall apart in a few months and it would be a lot of work even with a well equipped workshop unless you were just making a plain 3 sided frame.

flopshot1016 wrote:Have you seen this?
http://www.nuovasimonelliusa.com/yachtclub.htm

It's already discontinued. May be due to warping?

coffeecircus wrote:It's already discontinued. May be due to warping?

It was discontinued likely due to that it's a Mac Digit with wood panels...NS put wood panels (albeit, smaller ones) on another machine, a Premier VIP, and they called it a Tiffany Oro, also discontinued: http://www.nuovasimonelliusa.com/programVIP.html.

We put Oregon black walnut side panels on our showroom Mini Vivaldi:



Here's how we addressed the possibility of the wood splitting:

We use wood planks that are air dried for a couple of years, then kiln dried. The planks are 1 3/8" thick.
The wood is around 1-1 1/8" inch thick where it gets the most heat from the boiler on the left side.
We finished it with multiple applications of Tung oil (matte look, rather than glossy poly look)
We're putting a layer of fiberglass matting inside.

We've left the machine on 24 hours a day for several weeks, and so far so good.

Since wood is a product with natural variations, there is of course the chance that these panels will split over time, so we're offering a 5 year warranty against splitting (repair or replace, but likely replace).

The panels precisely match the profile of the original black plastic side panels.

Best,
Mark

I did add a touch of wood to my first restore (documented in this thread).

That's very classy, Ross. Beautiful.