taildraggin wrote:...A first post to introduce myself to the forum. As a newbie, I have spent many hours reading posts here and give many thanks to those that have created this great body of information here to support all these great machines. To start, I've picked up an early '90s brass/copper europiccolo and a Zassenhaus. We'll see where that goes.

My background is probably similar to many here. A wandering mind with interest in fanciful things in woodworking, motorcycling, flying, wine, food, and other things that seem important (but are simply life's entertainments and distractions). Coffee is pretty core to my day, though...

Welcome--do share a photo of your set-up and ask questions =) This is a great community

Again, many thanks to all on the site with your advice, particularly notable are rpavlis and homeberrero. (More confirmation that that plastic-site-gauge-cover pre-Ms have brass bases.)

This Europiccola had seen some use with little wear (or cleaning) and had some corrosion, particularly under peeling lacquer edges. After disassembly, calcium mining (think "Dover") and lacquer stripping, the boiler and base were buffed with tripoli and jeweler's rouge on a wheel. Must say that it really is a peacock now. Gaudy bugger. If it makes coffee half as well as it looks, I'll be very happy.

Still waiting on some rubber bits from Stephano, but put together what I could and took a couple of pictures.
-Charlie




"Before" shot from the seller:

It looks beautiful. Well done!

Hi Everyone,

My name's Mike and I'm living in Jacksonville, FL though originally from Auckland, New Zealand.
I have a La Pavoni EPC-8, which I've mildly pimped by adding a pressure gauge, temp strip, and more recently, a digital thermometer.
I'm enjoying the hands on approach to making espresso and my current drink of choice is what we'd call in NZ, a long black. I believe here it's an Americano although I use a tulip cup, which only holds 140ml. Anyway, the drink is delicious.
I have to thank all the folk on Home Barista for sharing their knowledge and experiences, with a special mention to drgary, another_jim and rpavlis for taking the time to explain and re-explain the nuances of the game.
For anyone thinking of getting a lever - if you're mildly OCD and enjoy the feelings of frustration, confusion and elation then you should do it. I would recommend reading the relevant links on this website for help and inspiration.

All the best

Mike

And here I am, another entrant to the LMWDP Rollcall. I'm from Melbourne in Victoria Australia and I love black coffee, espresso to be precise.

I've moved on to an Izzo Alex Leva recently from a VBM Domobar Super lever. Never looked back, love the flavor from the Leva and the PID is a gem.

Hi i am from Holland but live in Spain now.
I use a Fiorenzato Ducale 1 Gr for my daily dosage of espresso and bought me a Gaggia orione 2 Gr lever that i,m trying to restore.

I just joined the lever club. Here's my new (to me) Elektra Micro Casa a Leva, next to my Alex Deutto. Just starting to get used to it, but it's already winning me over. It will probably go to the office soon, but I need to get a grinder to pair with it first.

I have recently joined the lever club in addition to transitioning over to only hand grinding. I added this 1992 Olympia Cremina to my coffee bar in addition to an HG one. The case color is blue and it has the black frame that was used in the early 90's in addition to a black plastic drip tray instead of the polished steel.


I am getting the hang of pulling shots on a manual lever and received a Penney bottomless portafilter last week to help me with diagnosing any distribution problems. I am enjoying the Cremina/HG one combination so much that the Anita sitting next to it has been pretty much unused since getting the Cremina.

Some may claim that I am jumping the gun a bit, as my lever machine is still in transit to me, but I am excited and a touch anxious so here goes:

Soon to arrive (tomorrow??) is a La Pavoni Professional that was essentially sitting in the back of someone's closet collecting dust because they never spent the time to learn how to use it. I do not even know yet if it's a pre- or post- millenium model, so as I said, jumping the gun.

This is my first "real" espresso machine. Back in the 90's I had the standard el cheapo Krups, and I quit using it because it produced crap. Since then, I have watched a friend of mine go through and kill all of the sub-commercial machines that he could get his hands on, finally giving up and getting a single group semi-auto commercial machine that he's pretty happy with. I, however, heard all of his stories about various parts going bad and having to be replaced and/or serviced too frequently (or so it seemed to me). This scared me away from diving into espresso myself, as there are just too many things to break and none of the equipment is cheap to begin with, and do I really need another expensive hobby?? So I stayed with my French presses (3), Melitta pourover and Aeropress, generally drinking dark roasts and enjoying them for what they were. Then a friend of mine started roasting his own coffee, usually in a city to full city roast, and I discovered that coffee has a much wider range of flavors than I had previously imagined. Three dead air-poppers later, I am roasting my own coffee with various degrees of success (my worst is still better than what I was buying before).

Then I heard about this "nearly unused" La Pavoni Professional (black base - but I can fix that...) that I could get for about $300. I decided that this was *just* low enough that I could jump in, and if I have to rebuild everything, then I'll enjoy that process too. So last week, I pulled the trigger and the La Pavoni is winging its way towards me. Realizing that I don't want to succumb to upgrade-itis too quickly, I bought a good condition used RR45 (40 setting) to feed the espresso machine (and while waiting for the Pavoni to arrive, to feed the Aeropress). So, in the last week, I've spent about $500 on espresso equipment (and feel like I've gotten some pretty nice deals - at least assuming that the La Pavoni isn't actually a basket case).

In the meantime, I have played with the grinder, made it infinitely adjustable, removed the hopper and am contemplating making it doserless.

Additionally, since I have already been playing with thermocouples and temperature controllers (I made a version of Seattle Food Geek's DIY immersion circulator) I am planning to put a thermocouple on the group head for temperature measurement, but I probably won't PID the Pavoni.

Also, while looking for a hands-on "home espresso 101" course in the SF area, I saw that CoffeeCon was in SF last weekend, so I went, learned much, and won a coffeemaker.

I think that this last week definitely illustrates that I live by "if it's worth doing, it's worth geeking out on..."

Currently on my list right now are:
1. determine which La Pavoni Pro I have and ascertain how much work will be necessary to bring it up to speed.
2. get a naked portafilter so I can learn my shot pulling a touch more easily - I say get, because I want to keep the original portafilter stock, so that I have one with thermal mass for potentially playing with pulling multiple shots without overheating
3. Visit Chris's shop and introduce myself, as I definitely want to support good people and help keep them in business

Well, there's my intro, and as soon as the La Pavoni arrives, I'll upload some pics and start asking beginner La Pavoni questions (that I don't find have already been answered).

-karpo

Welcome to the LMWDP, Karpo, I'm sure you'll enjoy your La Pavoni once you learn it's lever ways.