Cafelat Robot manual espresso maker - Page 6

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thomasben
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#51: Post by thomasben »

Cafelatstore wrote:We are still in the tooling adjustment phase, albeit a lot slower than expected. I am not happy with the speed of the adjustments and the casting results of the aluminium pieces - especially the intricate parts like the portafilter and spouts where 0.05mm tolerance is required. Our regular stainless steel portafilters can meet that tolerance without any issue at all. So I am now discussing with our regular stainless steel casting supplier to see if we can have the piston, portafilter and spouts all made in stainless.

Samples keep coming in and the main body and base are almost there.

<image>


Do you think these will be for sale by end of this year?

thomasben
Posts: 150
Joined: 7 years ago

#52: Post by thomasben »

Cafelatstore wrote:We are still in the tooling adjustment phase, albeit a lot slower than expected. I am not happy with the speed of the adjustments and the casting results of the aluminium pieces - especially the intricate parts like the portafilter and spouts where 0.05mm tolerance is required. Our regular stainless steel portafilters can meet that tolerance without any issue at all. So I am now discussing with our regular stainless steel casting supplier to see if we can have the piston, portafilter and spouts all made in stainless.

Samples keep coming in and the main body and base are almost there.

<image>
Any new updates on the robot?

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Cafelatstore (original poster)
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#53: Post by Cafelatstore (original poster) »

The status is we are making new tooling :x

I am very annoyed at myself for sort of breaking my internal rule, which is to not reveal anything publicly until we have it on hand. I'm not a fan of teasing and revealing when in progress. The European company we have been working with for 3 (!!!!) years is slow, very slow but we decided to stick by them as they have huge experience in aluminium cookware, and the Robot was primarily made of Aluminium and my experience is mostly stainless steel. So with a contract, a confirmed timetable and samples form our own tools on hand I thought it was ok to reveal the Robot. The tooling revisions were slow, glacially slow in fact and it was like pulling teeth.

So I split up the project into 2 areas and the European company will focus on a few items only and we will directly handle the bulk and especially the fine detailed items that have very high tolerances. Right now I have started new toolings with our existing stainless investment casting company and they have performed miracles. This time of year is absolutely the worst time of year to start any new item in China as production slots are full and they have zero time for even thinking about new items. But we were able to adjust the drawings for the wax molds within a few days and they are making those molds now.

Maybe it's a different way of doing business, but I found the chinese factories are so efficient and eager, and stick to drawings. What was taking 6 months is now taking just a few weeks. No basket company in Europe would even consider our filter basket as they did not have the production capabilities any more.

Anyway the new way forward is considerably more expensive, a lot more work for Cafelat since we will now takeover the project management and my unit costs just increased by 50%, but hopefully will result in getting this thing finished sooner rather than later and prevent any further delays.

I will update again towards the end of this month.

The good news is the coffee and water will only ever touch stainless steel.

fdehlvi
Posts: 57
Joined: 8 years ago

#54: Post by fdehlvi »

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the update, all the best going forward.
Looking forward to seeing the newest SS iteration once it is ready.

Best,
Farhad

IMAWriter
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#55: Post by IMAWriter »

Paul, as we ALL know, STUFF HAPPENS!!
All good things are worth the wait.

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arcus
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#56: Post by arcus »

Cafelatstore wrote: The good news is the coffee and water will only ever touch stainless steel.
Very nice! Thanks for the update.

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sosha
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#57: Post by sosha »

Will be following this thread closely. Looks like a lovely little robot!!!!!
LMWDP #440
www.kelpfish.com

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Cafelatstore (original poster)
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#58: Post by Cafelatstore (original poster) »

The first stainless parts are now in. To recap I decided to change the piston, the portafilter and the spouts to stainless steel from aluminium. The good news now is that we should be aluminium free with regards water contact. My job now is to trim down the weight of the steel parts and make sure water contact is at a minimum to negate any perceived heat-loss. So far no difference in performance has been detected.





The main aluminium body and base is done though. No more tooling adjustments are necessary, so I have instructed them to focus on the surface finish.


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arcus
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#59: Post by arcus »

Looks great!

IMAWriter
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#60: Post by IMAWriter »

Beautiful, Paul.