LMWDP Rollcall - Page 30

[IMAWriter]

[snippd]
Dad took his prize home and I was off doing other stuff. In my absence, my dad had chopped up several leather belts trying to create a piston gasket for this old lever machine. No dice.

Being internet savvy, I rolled online (with like a 1400 baud modem back then!) and found a shop in San Francisco to fix things up. I almost passed out when the boys at Thomas Carra told me it would be $150 bucks to fix up the old machine - but it would be worth it. When we got it back, it worked like a champ and served my dad well for many years.

I've called it many names: Mister Copper, Old One Arm and even, Precious! Watching Lord of the Rings - I think precious is most fitting- I remember my dad being so hard up for a shot, the poor bastard repacked a spent puck and tried to suck some more cremma out of it.


Glad to find you all.
Regards,
Patrick

Patrick...I only now had a chance to read your post...had a tear in my eye...my dad had a "fix it shop" for 40 years...oh, the stories!
I'm sure you miss your dad as much as I miss mine (and me mum!)
For those of us not as fortunate to have "stumbled' upon our dream machine...yet, I hope one day to you and others, cyber-enjoying a cup from the noble 1 armed Swiss.
Regards,
RJ

[HB]

As promised, those interested in joining can now do so automatically. All you need to do is post your introduction to this thread and click this link to register. The official list at the top of this thread will be updated automatically.

Tell you what... after my taxes are filed around April 15th, I'll write some code that will allow posters to this thread to register their LMWDP membership. Since it will be automated, inductees will get the next available number (i.e., no requests for specific numbers).

[IMAWriter]

As promised, those interested in joining can now do so automatically. All you need to do is post your introduction to this thread and click this link to register. The official list at the top of this thread will be updated automatically.

Dan, YOU da man!!
I also wish to thank all the lever pullers here who have been so generous with their help to us lever noobs.

[rawman]

As promised, those interested in joining can now do so automatically. All you need to do is post your introduction to this thread and click this link to register. The official list at the top of this thread will be updated automatically.

Thanks. Hope Uncle Sam was kind to you.

[turo0002]

Great feature. Thank you! (still lurking . . . . .)

[mogogear]

Aw - come on in the water is fine!! We area fun bunch!!!

[tommy]

[HB]

Nice try Tommy, the valve and pump activation lever on an E61 doesn't qualify it as a lever espresso machine.

[tommy]

Sorry- I wasn't trying- I was just excited about my new machine. I am still learning, and I am just getting started in the espresso machine world. Thanks for making me feel welcome ;-(

Tommy

[HB]

I was just joking... feel free to join the LMWDP today with the promise that someday you'll get a manual lever.

[tommy]

Well the way I am, I suspect that I will end up being in your club eventually. I know my gal is baffled by the whole thing and I have already become the full-time barista by default lol.

Honestly I thought I was pretty manual with this machine but clearly I have a lot to learn.

Tommy

[zin1953]

Tommy, why don't you re-post your pic in thread on the "Espresso Machines" forum entitled "Post a pic of your home espresso setup" . . . .

[tommy]

THX- I will!

[lilotaku]

I just wanted to join in on the domination of levers as well. I just picked up a Stradavari for dirt cheap. I gotta say I'm definitely glad I picked it up.

[Tink]

Hello. My name is Tink (Heidi). I have a coffee problem.

I have enjoyed coffee all of my life. I grew up on a farm in southern Ohio where coffee was the start of everyday. Farmers are huge coffee drinkers. Maybe not quality but they sure can put away the quantity. My Grandmother owned a local hometown restaurant. She always said that the farmers were breaking her up. When I was little she charged 5 cents a cup and she didn't charge for refills. The farmers would sit in her restaurant for hours and drink coffee. Now I'm not that old, this was small town America. Since first grade, I have never missed a breakfast coffee. I'm not sure how many families allow their 6 year olds to start the day with 2 mugs of coffee with cream and sugar. This has been my ritual for many years.

I married an have lived in the suburbs for 20 years. I still love doing things the "old" way. I love baking bread, baking pies, vegetable gardening, canning, and family dinners. I also love researching. This lead me to several forums where I spent several months reading everything I could find on making great espresso. I originally thought I wanted to purchase a new pump machine to replace my cheap Krups pump. It has served me well but I have certainly not reached coffee utopia. The more I read the more I was intrigued by lever machines. I liked the idea of less parts and quiet operation and that the lever is more hands on and "old school. HB has been very helpful and friendly while I was making the decision on which machine to purchase. I finally decided to purchase an Elektra Microcasa a Leva. I'm not sure I will ever make the "best" coffee, but I intend to continue to research and hone my coffee making skills.

Thanks for all of the help you have provided.

Heidi

[Chert]

Hello Espresso fans,

I like this idea of a list of lever users.

Since 2003 when my Moka Pot bought the farm after briefly using an old Gaggia at a friend's home, I bought (and outbid myself - ouch) a demonstrator La Pavoni off Ebay.

The coffee bug bit me at 19 when a housemate suggested I drink a cup of french roast with the dark Toblerone chocolate I had donated to the house. Gradually I tried most varieties of how to make coffee.

Espresso shots are my favorite though. I like the variety of flavors the lever gives - sometimes great, sometimes fare. The goal of tremendous consistency and always the same product out of the portafilter does not appeal to me.

Thanks for all the posts. I am trying hard to make 'microfoam'. That's what may lead me to buy a finer machine. I hope to improve the latte art for the coffee I make my wife each day.

Flint

[CoffeeOwl]

Hi all!

So finally first ever owl with a lever
Richard's naked pf post inspired me to finally make a decision - Electra a Leva will come to my door one day, although at the present moment it is a bit remote - but decision has been made and I'm in for the nudity tool for her.

Yeah!

[Spresso_Bean]

I'd like to join the domination plot with the addition of my 1960s Europiccola. So far it's a great little machine and I love the simplicity of it, but definitely takes some getting used to.

[BillR]

I've been a coffee fan since grad school in SF. Back then we got beans from a tiny roaster called Graffeos on Columbus in North Beach. Espresso was by a stove top and the only Peets was over in Berkeley.
After a trip to Italy a couple of years ago, my wife got me a Gaggia Carezza for my birthday and the real fun began. Sometimes crema, sometimes not. Hmmm. She bought a nice ss wooden handled tamper, but it was the wrong size - about 5mm too small (neither of us knew that portafilters came in different sizes!). The plastic tamper worked better. This spring just as I started making noises about wanting to upgrade to a nicer machine, our son's espresso machine died and my wife sent the Carezza to him and got me a LP Europiccola. Of course we needed a new grinder too... Lever insanity (or too much caffeine) took hold and just a few weeks ago I won an auction for a Cremina. It works fine and I pull much more consistent and better shots from it than the LP. I'm still very much coming up the lever machine learning curve but I love the Cremina. It even steams milk easier than the LP. I'll post some pics as soon as I figure out how to do that. Negotiating space in the kitchen for all this stuff has been challenging, but giving my wife the occasional decent shot with a dollop of steamed milk has sure helped pave the way. For us, so far, its been Lever Machine Kitchen Domination.
These days we use beans from Intelligentsia for espresso (Kid O's mostly). We live north of Chicago and I can usually convince my daughter to bring a pound up with her from the city once a week.
Oh - I did even have a Porche years ago, before I got married. It was a '60 356B Super 90 - pre-world domination.

Bill

[TimEggers]

Finally.

Finally a long time dream of mine has come true. First and foremost I've finally procured a lever all my own! And finally I can formally request my own LMWDP number. Oh man I've wanted to join this group for years. Now I fell I legitimately can!

My passion for levers is really out of curiosity. The looks, the lamentations of the lever lovers abroad really wrapped me up in the romance of the lever espresso machine experience. Forums like this primarily caught my attention because of the die-hard fan following of the lever espresso machine. You folks who love your levers really love your levers. I can recognize that and really wanted to learn what that was all about. In Talk me out of getting a lever machine (ramblings on going to manual lever) I even attempted to kill the lust I was having (yeah who was I kidding).

A very nice HB'er offered to graciously loan me a lever machine to try! Thanks again Paul! Using the Como Cafe was an eye opener. I'll admit I never really got the machine dialed in and the espresso wasn't the greatest (to my fault). But the process spoke to me on a deep personal level. As I flirted on the edge of lever espresso potential my desire grew and I decided that someday someway I had to get a lever of my own.

Today a dream of years is literally realized. I've found a complete, functioning Italianstyle CE-14C lever espresso machine:



The price? An unbelievable $50 shipped! Yeah it was the deal I've been waiting for all this time. I bit the bullet and made the leap.

I'm at a bit at a loss here. I have no clue what I'm doing and really I hope to not destroy lots of good coffee beans. It's the ultimate excited/scared feeling. I can't wait. It's a spring lever so I hope it will be somewhat easier on me. Of coarse now the only next step is to go full manual (don't tell my wife).

All in all I'm very excited to join you the legion of lever lovers. I can finally join this group and leave my lurking title behind me. And yes please bear with me, as I'm sure I'll be posting begging for help and guidance on my maiden voyage. LMWDP? Yes count me in!