Well finally, some progress. {image} {image} Time to fire this thing up. I HAVE THE POWER! Click... Hssssssssssss, drip, drip, drip. Oops, forgot to tighten the thremosyphon line. It's funny how with all the new bits, it did not quite go together as easily as before. I had to jiggle

Well I'll be... The tap I ordered from the US several months ago and had given up on, arrived in my mailbox today. My sealant is in as well. Need to pick it up tomorrow and I can finally put this thing back together

Well, that's interesting. I had a Geisha from a local roaster about 8 months ago that really wowed me. I decided to try again a couple of weeks ago and, while it is quite good, it is certainly not as good as the first batch and not worth the current price. To the OP, google offers up

Give it a try. You can always resell it for what you paid if you don't like it

I see where you are coming from. If you're going to spend $4K on an advanced espresso machine, why not drop the extra grand on a titan grinder. Given the equipment the OP is coming from, his grinder choice is still a big step up and will deliver very good results. Once the Vesuvius has dragged

He is actually not 'out of whack' at all. For those more experienced coffee heads who have tried the Sette, it is suggested as the grinder of choice for those just starting out. In fact, if you really want titan grade quality and control, you can get that with something like the OE Pharos. There is ...

Yup. That's on my list of things to do. That is just a dry fit you see in the picture above. No sealant applied yet. For now this is a convenient way to store all the bits and parts while I wait for my thread sealant and take care of other things on the machine

That's good to hear, because that's what I just ordered today. I guess parallel threads make sense for parts that require aligning, which is most of the fittings on my machine

With the backlash against globalization customs has gone from a rigid bureaucratic government agency to a PIA. I work in automotive and we have had techs turned back at the border on multi million dollar equipment installs because some guy didn't like the look of the paperwork, or the tech, or ... w...

I hear you about the rabbit holes. I ended up with an espresso machine because I wanted a better grinder for my morning filter coffee. Hopefully my used Oscar will plug the hole to the really deep end... As to the empty reef, I can understand. The few guys I know who moved from the hobby