Well it arrived today - that was WAY faster than I was expecting, does it normally only take a week to get shipped from Italy to the West coast? The package had an array of Italian stamps on the side, I'm definitely keeping that as a memento.

Guy packed it very well, nothing broken, everything looks great. Haven't used it yet, but it at least powers on all fine. Was a little dirty, but a good scrub down with some vinegar and the piston/tank are looking like new. Even the seals still seem soft and pliable, I'm replacing them all anyway, but surprising to see how long they last. It says VAM on it, the piston is one of the older styles. I see why people are really impressed with these machines - pictures don't do justice to all the solid metal.

The basket included is the 7g single, looks identical to the one that Orphan Espresso is currently selling. Are there any tricks with this one?

For some reason I thought shipping would take about 3 weeks... what a nice surprise! Thanks again for the help - glad to join the club.

Sounds great. I would keep all the old seals. I've had to re-use mine from time to time, and they still work fine. I've found it best to keep water in the kettle at all times, catching any drips with a container. That seems to keep the seals in good condition.

I've never tried the single basket, but if you can get a double it will be worth trying too.

PC

With the single just dose it full (similar to double) and take a single pull. Makes great shots. I messed mine up by cleaning it with a pin, it enlarged some of the holes and now I get a good bit of grinds in my shot. But it's still nice to play with. If you don't want to play with multiple pulls I prefer the single basket to the double actually. But either way getting a double should up the resell value once these things become rare on eBay.it

Well, just spent a couple hours getting everything working. I'm completely new to this, so I wasted a loooooot of shots. But I'm starting to get the hang of everything. One initial problem was simply installing the lever the wrong way, it kept getting in the way of the portafilter . Two quick questions:

Tamping - is it recommended? I seem to see some people who do, some who don't. If you tamp, you have to run a coarser grind, correct?

I ended up getting two drinkable shots, which I'm happy with (one had that bubble type look as it came out of the portafilter, looked yummy). I'm used to a caffeine dose each day, so as morning progressed - I was racing against the clock to get something I could drink!!

Congrats on your purchase. I've been reading about the Caravel here for a while and this thread finally pushed me over the edge. I'm now searching Ebay.it with google translate open in the other tab and hoping to get one before too much time passes. Hope your shots improve fast and you enjoy the machine.

I highly recommend it - the experience has been fantastic. Just for the simple fact of getting a 50-year old appliance from eBay Italy, what a trip!! It's so much fun.

I've already managed to get shots out of this thing that are the best I've ever tasted in a local store... and I'm still a complete newbie, can't wait to see what's ahead

Good luck!! Google translate is how I managed to figure everything out, it all worked out great.

I just use a light-firm tamp, maybe 10 lbs of pressure or less. If you grind fine enough to the point where its difficult to pull the lever down, then back off a little you should be in the range.

Remember, you'll usually only get 1 oz or less of espresso per pull with this little machine. If you want full double-size espressos (2 oz) you need to take two full pulls. This will often taste a bit bitter and over-extracted, but can be done with practice and a very full basket. Otherwise, just make two!

PC

Sounds good, that's about what I'm doing now, and the shots are already decent. For a while I was doing about 30 pounds tamp pressure, and that was mainly an exercise in frustration. I hate choking the machine, water goes everywhere, what a mess.

I'd read that some people use a very light tamp, say around 1-3 pounds, with a finer grind. Is there any consensus on which way is more ideal - or is this just personal preference or bean dependent?

With other levers I don't know, but with Caravel this kind of tamp works best for me: no matter how much coffee in the basket, tamp that it goes a bit below the rim - 1mm or 2mm. And it's also better then no tamp at all (grinds level with the rim) - that I had a chance to test the very first days, when I had no tamper for Caravel.