Chabeau wrote:This is amazing. I think a Detroit area meet up is in order!

Hey there!

I was just down for the auto show and stopped by Astro for the first time.

it was good to see a place like that in Detroit.


count me in for a Detroit area meet up.

by the way....I tried to find Anthology but it took me to a decidedly industrial building in a very off-track neighborhood...so much for google maps

contraflow88 wrote:I can only imagine the power this thing will have! How did you run into these boilers, are they from a previous machine that you gutted?

They are the stock boilers from my Synesso.

The steam boiler is 2000W and the brew is 700W , yep, steaming is very good on this machine.

Cheers,
Sean

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing how this goes! Look great so far!

I fantasized about duplicating a slayer and was going to try and start with a boiler setup like this and a gear pump. Alas I can't even find the time to work on my grinder.

It is a shame that plumbing fittings add so much size to espresso machines. If only they could be tucked away somewhere under the boilers or something.

After working 34yrs in the auto industry I got to know quite a few guys like sean lennon, usually in our tool room, and I tried to make friends with every one of them. Great thread Sean, Jim

Wow, that's really cool. Can't wait to see the final product

Great thread! I look forward to seeing the steam wand. That Synesso wand is one I would like to modify for my 2 group lever machine.

Chert wrote:That Synesso wand is one I would like to modify for my 2 group lever machine.

The beauty is not actually the steam wand of the Synesso...but actually the control handle! I would give my left arm for that installed on my GS3 (and the joystick can go back to playing video games )

True that. I would enjoy the ergonomics of the curved steam wand which I suspect leads to less need for purging but also an easier on/off. The 2 group lever has knobbed valves that are not as good as SAS's Brasilia wands and no doubt much inferior to the Synesso version.

OK,
Time for an update...
re-thought the water inlet side of the machine.

Here is the new configuration


the relief valve is now hidden between the brew and steam boilers and NO MORE NPT pipe fittings and I got rid of that goofy Parker ferrule/npt adapter thingy !!!!




It is VERY tight in to the machine without crowding things too much, especially the solenoid coils.
I still have the hot water tap mix setup and solenoid to fit in there but it should slide in there quite nicely.



By the way, this build was enough excuse to get a new 1/4" stainless tube bender.
the new bender is all stainless constriction and uses roller shoes to form the tube.
my old bender used a slide block design that scratched the tubing all the time and would leave surface contamination on the stainless that would rust.

here it is with it's big brother; the 3/8" roller bender I already had.


Cheers,
Sean