Jon,
Thanks! I've already ordered the Le'lit PL53.

Also contacted Breville and they sent me a PDF showing what an Espresso grind is supposed to look like. Funny thing the PDF specifically addresses only their Double Walled Portafilter. Joy.

Nope haven't tried Blue Bottle or 4 Barrel. These days I live in Vallejo, and commute to SF and so don't roam around the City like I used to. But perhaps I'll ride my bike in next week and go try some shots at both establishments. I need some bench marks to judge my shots for sure.

Yesterday, in between chores and chasing my kids around the house I was able to sneak out to the garage. Found a chunk of walnut which I quickly found center and put on my wood lathe. A few minutes later I turned a lovely Walnut Tamper to replace the Bakelite thing that came with the Silvia. This morning I used it and it's a tiny bit too precise.. as in large. Need to shave off a thousandth of an inch to keep it from getting stuck in the portafilter.

Life is good.

GulDam

Took back the Breville to Macy's and they happily refunded my money. While waiting for the Le'lit PL53 to show up on my doorstep I attempted to use my old whirly gig grinder... that was an impossible task trying to grind for espresso. Finally gave up and used pre-ground Ily til the Le'lit PL53 showed up on Saturday. (nasty). This Grinder experience, first attempting to use the Breville and then the whirly gig was an eye opening experience. And now I'm ready to say that yes, a good burr grinder is essential to make decent espresso. I found this out, like I very often do, the hard way.

Unpacked the Le'lit PL53 Saturday afternoon, and quickly started running beans through the grinder. First pass, I ended up with a Turkish or beyond Turkish grind. And it took forever to fill up the portafilter. And so I started backing off. Finally ended up about 25 turns backed off before I got a grind that was workable. Once I got to this point I had the first decent espresso from the Miss Silvia. It was like night and day. Perfect crema, and a rather robust, not so bitter, and complex flavor. Now I get to experiment with some new coffees. My wife is much happier with the quality of her latte.

Some observations on the Le'lit PL53.
1. It seems reasonably well built in it's stainless steel skin. I'd rather it have rounded edges though instead of sheet metal edges.

2.The grounds catch box has sharp edges that might bite.

3.The grinder is infinitely adjustable within it's range of coarse to fine. It will take many turns to move to a drip grind, and so it will mostly likely only be used to espresso in my house.

4. The spout on the coffee ejection opening is not precisely made. It was very difficult to remove the thumb screw, and once I got it off it was just about impossible to reinstall. I think the spout hole is off a millimeter to the side, and front. It took enormous pressure to push the spout in and too the side enough to get the thumb screw started. This is bad design and implementation. A larger thumb screw that is further from the body of the grinder would allow more grip.

5. Le'lit PL53 is a noisy machine. Cats aren't happy. Dog isn't happy and whoever was sleeping is not happy.

6. Le'lit PL53 could use a little more weight to better plant it while grinding. I don't mind the switch set up, where you have a power switch on the right side and finally a grinding switch activated by the portafilter pushing, but I have to hold the grinder to keep it in place.

7. The grinds from the Le'lit PL53 are fluffy with no clumps. It's amazing.

8. With this decent grinder in place, I can now work on my Miss Silvia technique. As I mosey my way to work in the morning I stop at various cafes and sample espressos so I have some benchmarks to compare my own espressos to. I'm moving along just fine and dandy and am making some good espresso.

Life is good!

GulDam

Le'Lit PL53 Update....

It's been over a month of using the Le'Lit PL53 on a daily basis. On average I pull four or five shots in the morning. On weekends the Miss Silvia stays on much of the time and so I grind a bunch of coffee one shot at a time.

1. Beans have an annoying habit of getting stuck on the way to the burrs. I'll be grinding, and then whirlllllllllllll... with no coffee coming out. This seems to happen more and more even with fairly frequent cleaning.

2. It's a pain to change out beans since the hopper doesn't have a sliding door on it.

3. Machine will make clumps as coffee residue builds up in the machine it gets clogged in the chute. And so sometimes the whirrrllllllll of the machine with no coffee getting out is due to the chute clogging.

4. I'm usually happy with the grind, and the super adjust-ability of the mechanism.

5. I'm probably going to look for a used commercial grinder because I'm tired of the clogging and the loudness of this thing.

GulDam