Here's a link to a spring lever video featuring V:



A very fun and useful project. I found out that it only takes about four minutes total to produce an excellent espresso once V gets hot. And nary a sound to distract me from Alessio Benvenuti's rendition of the Mozart Meneut.

PC

Dan,

This was my first espresso of the day, first with this new (old) grinder, so not only was I groggy, but it wasn't at all dialed in. Figured on doing a second cut, but you know how that goes, so I just decied to edit it. Hence the results in the cup -far from the best V can do. She does require three pulls to produce a 1.5-2 oz. espresso, and if I'm feeling ambitious and dose just right I can get a 2-oz doppio with four pulls. V has a 45-mm group.

Digital video is so easy - you probably heard the little one inquring as to the grind. One of these days I'm going to edit the miles of kid footage for the family...

PC

I have never used a spring assist lever before, it looks interesting. Maybe one day I will get my hands on one to try out.

HB wrote:The quality of your videos and Dave's have me seriously considering a digital video camera... for taking footage of the kids, of course.

I just use the video mode on my canon S2 IS photo camera. It will do something like 320 or 640 rez at either 15 or 30 FPS. But it uses up a lot of memory fast. The first one I did of the lever pull was over 45mb if I remember correctly. I just use Microsoft movie maker to edit, which appears to be what peacecup used as well.

I borrowed a pretty serious 3-chip Sony mini-DV camera - supposed to be near commercial quality. I could get the model number if someone wanted it. It can be plugged directly into a PC via firewire connection and controled via Windows MovieMaker as cannonfodder mentioned. I've toyed around with more sophisticated video editing software such as Adobe, but they quickly begin to consume monumental amounts of time. The whole process I used for A Little Blonde took about two hours from downloading the video to posting it on HB, including setting up a GoogleVideo account.

Thanks to cannonfodder for the inspiration. I hope to have another go at it sometime soon.

PC

Very nice production and shot.

I find it very interesting how differently we all appear to pull a shot in our own world. I have pulled on both a spring and manual lever, but neither your pull nor cannonfodder's looks like mine.

I don't think any are right or wrong as long as the taste is right. It's just interesting.

I do have to say I have never seen a dosing like yours. One mound, no tapping down, no leveling - just straight down. Seems you might be promoting channeling on the edges as the density of the grounds would be higher in the center from the mound. But again, if it aint' broke, don't fix it.

John,

I am usually a bit more careful about leveling, either with a few taps on the PF or a light leveling tamp. The blonde results in the video probably reflect a general neglect of grind, dose, level, and tamp. Made for a good title though!

PC

Boy is Karl going to enjoy watching and listening to your production.

All nice components. How old is the child in the back bround? My daughter keeps flunking my every morning test exam of - " What is Dad doing" ? She replies "Making coffee" !! Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I agree if you had clips of all of us doing our thing, they would be all over the board. Interesting that all of us read the same stuff, some of us buy the same machines, and we apply it in vary different ways.

Also, Nice epilogue line .

My 3.5 year-old loves helping to make espresso. She gets a workout grinding with the hand grinder, and enjoys steamed milk and cocoa. She has her own cardboard Ponte Vecchio, and has practiced roasting beans on her stove. She also knows play time doesn't come until after espresso time on the weekends, when the PV crowds out mom's Saeco for counter space. When her mom asked her what dad wanted for his birthday she didn't hesitate to say a Cremina.

PC

I've recently gone to a new level/tamp technique. Don't know why I didn't think of this before, but now I remove the basket to dose, then very gently drop it to distribute and level the coffee before tamping. I also tamp with the basket removed from the PF, which ensures that it lays very level on the table while tamping.

My espresso, which have been very good of late, have just gotten better.

PC