Ken,

I would be interested in your thoughts on how well the article How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love HXs describes your Legend's behavior. For example, is your aim to flatten out the profile to a slant-L by continuous use, or does the Legend always have a certain "hump" in the beginning of the shot, even if run hard? This was true for the Cimbali Junior and I assume by design.

Dan

What I have noticed working with a BIG boiler E61(11 ltr), is that we usually begin our extraction at the top of your "hump". I will do a brief flush prior to extraction and begin the process at say 204F, and then drop to aprx. 202F and remain stable throughout the shot. If the machine has been idle for more than 10-15min., I will run 3-4oz through the group and then wait a minute or so and begin. After a long idle period I will notice the "L profile" that you describe if I do not "flush and wait".

I will do some temp experiments with the tc in the near future and report back.

Ken

Thanks Ken. In the meantime, would you share a picture of your Legend? It's a sweet machine and I'm sure forum readers would love to see it. Send me a picture offline if you would like HB to host it, otherwise check out http://www.photobucket.com for free image hosting that you can reference from HB.

Hey everyone!

I am the proud owner of an original 1-group E61, which I ultimately intend on installing in my kitchen. I haven't yet, however.....and I am tempted by high-end home machines. Why, you ask? A few reasons:

1. Vintage cloth wiring and mercury switches scare me. Don't wanna burn my house down. Yeah, yeah, replace the wiring and pressurestat. That's the plan.

2. Large boiler (long warmup) uninsulated (power drain and heat). Gonna have to insulate that dang boiler.

3. Beautiful design, that E61. Only problem is, you can only appreciate it from the back. If the back is toward the wall, the machine looks kinda ugly, to be frank. So, in my kitchen, it would require building a separate island or counter.

4. It's nearly as big as a two group Linea.

5. The water and drain lines come off the side visibly, and are dang ugly.

I know, I should not complain. And I love that thing. However, I don't necessarily think it is the ultimate home machine..... I would much rather have it in a light use commercial setting.

Peter G

hey peter... if you ever want to give the thing up you know who to call.

PeterG wrote:I am the proud owner of an original 1-group E61, which I ultimately intend on installing in my kitchen.

Hey Peter, great to have you on HB! I happen to have a picture of your machine from last year's EspressoFest. A one-group Faema E61 original... not too many of them in the US.

Call me when you are ready to sell.

The ultimate home machine is ALWAYS the one with the best barista operating it. The barista is the ultimate variable.

Just let me bring my own grinder (the super-j, baby!)...

I have a somewhat unique perspective. Six months ago I did not drink coffee. I visited one of my favorite Italian restaurants in Toledo while I was on business last year. I decided to try a cappuccino after my meal, that was all it took.

I started with an eBay special, lasted a month. Went to a Kitchenaid Pro (it actually pulls respectable shots and is a dual boiler on a budget), got a Factory lever for my office (no pumps no noise and I can pull a darn good shot after practicing for a month) and I am now the proud owner of a Isomac millennium. My new Mazzer from Chris will be delivered tomorrow along with a new steam tip from Dan (thanks again) and ten pounds of green beans (built my own drum roaster).

A week after I got the millennium I discovered Dan's article on HX machines, read it three times, made a huge difference in my learning curve. I have also been tempted to PID, insulate the boiler, add a thermocouple etc... but in the end, I have to ask myself why? I can already pull a shot better than any cafe in Dayton, and probably better than 99% of them in Ohio. Some day I will reach the point that I have become consistent enough with my equipment that a PID will allow me to tweak my extract a bit more, but for now master what I have, then make a change.

I know most of you are professionals in the field. Your abilities have progressed beyond 98% of the rest of the population and you can rightfully justify spending 5K on machine. I work in IT, my home server is a Dell power edge 2500 with 4 gig RAM, a RAID 5 array with 15K SCSI drives, twin gigabit NICS and a DLT tape drive. Most of the population will have no clue what that is or ever remotely come close to using it to its full capacity. It is the end user (Mano Dell'operatore) that makes the biggest difference. Too much emphasis is placed on the Macchina espresso and not enough on personal skill.

In the end, my ultimate home machine is one that lets me get the most out of it. You know, the kind that makes you wake up early in the morning or daydream of that velvet micro foam and dark creamy shot awaiting you at home. The one that makes you want to quit your day job and open up your own cafe and roaster just so you can enjoy it all day, ora che sta vivendo.

The Ultimate Home Espresso machine, certainly not mine. I stumbled on this forum and thread looking for info on calibrating my newly PID'd Miss Silvia. Had her over three years and FINALLY did water auto-fill mod Tuesday and PID yesterday. Of course been playing with Missy all day and into the night. Unfortunately currently don't have a way to measure actual puck shot temp so set PVOF based on other's inputs I've found, using -28 for what I believe will yield closely 200°f. Set temp to 200, displays 200, actual start of shot temp hopefully 200, I like that. Though most shots pulling higher set point. (various SOs, most pre-2nd or just barely 2nd) I ramble from many shots induced, well rambling!

I should not be reading this thread. I'd been drooling over an Andreja but funds are tight so decided since do very little milk drinks just PID Missy. And truth be told way happy with the auto-fill and PID mod results so far. For now anyway...