Thanks Greg, I really appreciate you taking the time to go through all of this.

In particular, thanks for going through the uncertainty calculations for me, that makes considerably more sense than the 'back of the envelope' ones I did.

A couple of questions:

How do you know if something will follow a standard deviation? Lots of things do, but I've never gotten a good feel for knowing what criteria to use to say "This will or won't".

I'd be interesting in your 'thermocouple failure' stories some time if you have the time. We do almost exclusively RTD's at work, so I have very little exposure to them.

Thanks again.

-Jesse

Sorry for a rather naive question on this subject. I have an Olympia Maximatic and am pretty much a newbie when it comes to espresso compared to most HB members. I bought my machine used but like new. Maximatics don't have a pressure gauge to use to make adjustments. I have no idea whether my machine is even close to where it basically should be or if the previous owner adjusted it from the factory setting. Question, could I take an extra elektra dbl. basket I have(with my naked 49mm pf), Drill a hole in bottom insert a T type bead tip thermocouple wire so that the tip of the wire is at the top of the tamp level, High temp silicone the wire where it goes through the basket and maybe a tad below the tip so water doesn't get forced between the two wires, fill and tamp the coffee and get some kind of a basic useful reading? I might get some channeling around the wire but hoping this would not effect test use that much.
Ed

farmroast wrote:Question, could I take an extra elektra dbl. basket I have(with my naked 49mm pf), Drill a hole in bottom insert a T type bead tip thermocouple wire so that the tip of the wire is at the top of the tamp level...

Sure, that's what Bob and others did prior to Greg's thermofilter. It's shown a few pages back:



You can also do decent "over the lip" measurements with 30 gauge thermocouple wire. The portafilter basket will eventually wear through the wire's casing, but the wire is thin enough for the grouphead gasket to seal. Just lay the wire across the top of the puck, route the wire around the lugs, and measure. Below is a plot comparing the two:


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