New parts in from cannonfodder! Camera died while installing the parts. Will post pics on the machine when I can.

Battery charged. Here is the machine with the new parts.

Trying out preinfusion which with my machine is a combination with pre-wetting. Moving the lever up halfway does nothing. No water comes out. With my machine I can engage the pump for a couple of seconds then pull the lever down. But not all the way. Don't want the water to drain in the drip tray. Wait a couple of seconds, then bump the lever up slightly and water will trickle out. Just slightly because anymore and the pump will engage. I tried all this without the portafilter to see how it worked with my machine.
So first try I grind my coffee and prepare the shot, lock and load, engage the pump for 2 seconds, lever down a bit, wait, then bump the lever. What I can't see now is the water trickling. Portafilter is blocking everything! Since it's just prewetting, there's no sound. I can't tell if it's working! I wait more than 30 seconds and then I see the water! Success! Shot is good.
Next shot I engage the pump for 5 seconds but it's too long. Shot is already running.
Three seconds is the sweet spot. The water beads show just before 10 seconds. Shot tasted great. Seemed to run forever too before I started to see any blonding.
Will see how this works out. Preinfusion is supposed to mitigate channeling and every once in a while with my normal routine I'll get gushers. Same prep, same beans, just random channeling and gushers.

Guess it was louder in the house than I thought. I tried the preinfusion/pre wetting again after everyone had gone to bed and I could hear the water after I nudged the brew lever. I'll have to keep experimenting though. I changed to new beans and engaged the pump for three seconds, but this time it took more than 30 seconds to see the first drops from the portafilter. The shot was very fast too. Two ounces in less than 30 seconds.

Although the straight shots were good, the americano I made for work a couple days ago had a harsh bitter aftertaste. I make three doubles and make a giant 32oz iced americano for work. I just sip on it all day. The bitterness wasn't the prewetting. This morning I'm sipping on my americano with only a short prewetting cycle. I didn't wait for the drops to show up out of the bottom of the portafilter. Much better this morning. The bitter aftertaste is gone. There's a sweet aftertaste now.

Looks great! What do you mean by the throw away shot after the flush?

Sorry for the late reply. I was referring to the seasoning shot that the manual recommends after doing a detergent backflush.

It's almost been a year since I purchased the machine. Time flies. I was only using my bodum paving shot glasses for the straight shots. A couple of weeks ago I bought two demitasse cups from sweet maria's. Nuova Point Sorrento and Palermo cup. For me, I really liked the feel of the Palermo cup when sipping my shots. Even though I'm the only straight espresso drinker in the house, I bought four more Palermo cups in brown. They should be here next week.

Almost a year with the machine and not done experimenting with the routine. At some point I started using 24 gram doses. At the beginning I was using 18 grams but couldn't get any consistency. Random shots with channeling even when doing wdt and using a distribution tool. So went with a bigger basket and 24 gram doses to see if there was any improvement. I also set the brew pressure down to 6.5 bar. I ditched the distribution tool as it wasn't making a difference with channeling, but I recently started pre-wetting the grounds which have reduced channeling significantly. As always happens with me I dig through posts in the forum and see something I want to try. This time it was about only using the distribution tool and not tamping. Most tips recommend changing one parameter at a time when experimenting. So of course I did multiple changes. I changed doses, 24 to 20 grams, basket - changed to an IMS 18 gram basket, and went back to the distribution tool and no tamp. With the distribution tool set as high as it goes, 20 grams is a bit too much and I'd either have to go back to the larger basket or reduce the dosage down to 19 grams. Maybe 19.5. I ran out of beans so another change to come. The 5 shots with the new routine have been nice though. No channeling and the very first shot was a very tasty ristretto. Oh and I purchased a proper funnel. No more yogurt cups and taped up overhead projector films. I must say as far as neatness, the funnel has helped the most. I was spilling so many grounds with my diy funnels.

One year with the QM67 and it's been great. I dolled it up for the anniversary pic. Wiped away a bunch of splatter and got her nice and shiny. One minor change I recently made was storing my cups face down. They get pretty dusty in a short period of time.