Great story. And I agree about the Millennium version being harder to "work" with. I have a Millennium and a late Pre-Millennium with one switch and a pressurestat. The Pre, while it will overheat faster, is easier to nail the temperature with. I only every make one or two shots at a time on any of my machines, so the the tendency to overheat does not affect me. Anyway, if I had to choose, and only have one Europiccola, it would be the Pre-M. And an all brass one would be too good to be true. Great score!

-Peter

Hey all!

I started my espresso journey out of happenstance and a bit of luck a back in 2016 or so. A good friend of mine (who knew I was quite the coffee nerd) happened to come across a well used Breville BES860XL at his office that they were going to throw out. He brought it home and it was all downhill from there.

That Breville wasn't the best machine but it was enough to light a fire in my journey into espresso. I had always wanted to buy an espresso machine but the price of entry at the time was quite steep for a machine. I was fresh out of college and just got an in-between job while I studied for my MCATs. The Breville was a ton of fun to learn on and figure out how to dial in a grind. After a couple months, I really felt like I had found the limits of the built in grinder on that machine. I started searching for a new grinder and ended up finding a really beat up Mazzer Super Jolly. I was able to snag it off craigslist for a cool 80 bucks! That thing had seen much much better days. I had to replace the doser "glass" as it was so caked that I couldn't remove all the oils no matter how much I soaked it. I pulled the burr carrier and soaked it in cafiza for an hour and it cleaned up nicely. After some fresh burrs that was my faithful companion for quite some time.

After I sold off the Breville, I picked up a Crossland CC1 which was a huge upgrade from the Breville. That was an awesome machine but I felt limited since it was a single boiler machine and was slow when I made more than a couple drinks. I stuck with it until last year when I moved in with my long term girlfriend and started making a lot more milk drinks every day. This prompted an upgrade to a Breville Dual Boiler which I still have today. Its a fantastic machine that was more than I ever really needed. I did everything I wanted and did it well. Still... something was missing in my day today even with the flow profiling mods I had made to it. I still felt like making espresso was somewhat disconnected.

When I purchased my HG-1 from a local, he let me test it out with his La Pavoni lever. This was a really interesting experience but I wasn't sure that it was for me. The LP seemed a bit too finicky but it was a ton of fun to pull shots on. Much like my cars, I prefer a manual trans and rowing my own gears. Something about that need to balance the gas and clutch to take off or taking one hand off the wheel going into a turn to downshift smoothly to not upset the balance of the car... that was something missing from my espresso routine. I put a pin in that for a while and for the last year or so, have been happily pulling shots and steaming milk with my BDB. But curiosity always was there about levers....

So about a month ago, my curiosity got the better of me and I started looking into LPs. I came across some talk of spring lever and the L-R came across my radar. The L-R was something that I had seen in photos many times in other's coffeestation posts. It was always such a work of art. The more I read about these spring lever machines, the more excited I got. So two weeks ago, I decided that I wanted one. I pulled the trigger on an L-R after searching around a bit for a used one. I always reached out to someone on here for a L1-V2 but I drink a lot of light roast coffee so I felt that I would always wish that I had the L-R since it was designed with lighter roasts in mind. I don't have the ability to plumb my machine so the R felt like a great balance.

Well the L-R arrived today and I was more excited than words can convey. I drove to work this morning so that I could swing by DHL to pick it up after work. Mind you, I work and live in SF if that gives you any indication about how excited I was to get my L-R today after waiting for four days while it sat at customs. A week from UK to USA isn't bad at all but I was looking forward to getting it setup and pull a shot. I can say that I'm very happy with my decision to get a lever. The first shot I pulled just a few mins ago really filled in what I felt was missing from my espresso journey. Looking forward to learning more about this as I get some more seat time with it. I can tell its going to be a fun ride and definitely don't regret for a second not getting a DE1pro instead! Though I'm sure that I'll have one of those on my counter at some point to complement it when I decide to sell my BDB. Who knows!

- Andy

I am back in the Lever game. I was originally number 147 in the group (beans bats), but haven't been active in years.... so now I am beanspucks. I started with a Pavoni, moved on to a Lusso, and just last week got back into the game with my dream lever machine: A Profitec Pro 800. After spending a few hours getting the grinder and water pressure dialed in I have started to pull some really good shots. I can't wait to start playing around with the included naked PF and see how good or bad I am actually doing

-steve

Came across an Arin at a garage
sale for around $25. Didn't find much about it on the web. But posts here were quite helpful.
It's a Spanish spring lever with an open boiler sitting above the group. Is a very compact & cute design.
Holds 250cc of water, any more and you will get scalding water burbling up through the opening onto the hand that is stabilizing the top to keep it from flipping over when you depress the lever arm.
Portafilter holds between 5-8gm grounds, and it seems happiest with about 7gm.
Using a 51mm tamper & it might accept a 52mm. The 53mm I tried did not fit. With around 6.8gm gently tamped you will just see the ridge where the filter basket starts to narrow so is easy to see that you have an even tamp.
It appears or evious owner added a power switch on top (I don't see one on the web images I found) which is convenient. Add water, heat, can use an instant read thermometer or watch and listen for the boil. Switch off, then pull the lever down. There is a little bubbling bc there is some air pocket released when the piston comes up (see note re scalding-Keep your water just below the level of the horizontal plate inside the boiler). Water starts to be introduced to the puck about when the arm is halfway down.
Not much crema, but have consistently obtained shots with a very nice mouthfeel and good flavor. Best feature is that you can pull a shot, knock out the puck, rinse the portafilter, tamp another, load and pull again quickly, and noiselessly. Can get 3-4 shots before emptying the boiler. The boiler has a decent thermal mass so pull-to-pull variation is not too bad.
Son and I were happy to find we are getting better coffee than the shop nearby with a nice Marzocco.
Update: Piston gasket failed, luckily spares are on their way. So added some shots of the insides

Nice find, Hiroki, don't forget to proudly display your LMWDP # in your signature, welcome to the club.

Not spring, but there's the Portapresso and this crank driven project.

[PROMO] New manual crank handle espresso machine

Not sure how I managed NOT to join earlier. I lucked into my Bezzera Family Lever just over a year ago. I got into home espresso brewing about a decade ago if we're not counting Moka pots, and Krups steam machines. I started with a refurbished Saeco Aroma, but coveted a better machine. When it died I upgraded to a Gaggia Classic which is what I was using along with a Breville SGP until I lucked into the Bezzera Family lever on craigslist. It was the beginning of an almost unbelievable stream of lucky craigslist finds which culminated in a total turnover of my gear in three weeks time.

I probably would have been an instant lever convert, but about 2 weeks after picking up the Bezzera I also picked up a Expbar Brewtus IV. The Brewtus actually took some work to get it running reliably, but overall it was an easier daily driver, so I kinda neglected the Bezzera most days in favor of the ease of use of an e61 DB machine. I even contemplated selling the Bezzera a few times, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it, and I still played with it on the weekends sometimes. The power switch fritzed out one weekend morning when I was hosting a brunch, so it didn't get used at all for a while, but I finally got around to changing out the switch and since then I've barely fired up the Brewtus. In fact I'm finding the Bezzera such a pleasure to use I don't think I'll be using the Brewtus that much for a while at least.



For many years I coveted a lever machine with a Cremina being high on the list, and a vintage Faema being right up at the top of it. At this point I don't think of a Cremina as an upgrade from the Bezzera, the large boiler, and spring lever actually make it seem like the ideal home lever. It's not huge and it doesn't take that long to heat up in the morning, but it's quite adequate for serving a small gathering of friends. A vintage Faema commercial lever is still on the list though. I know I have no actual use for a commercial machine, but I won't let practicality stand in the way of my dreams.

New member, about a month into an intense relationship with my 1996 La Pavoni Professional, although it was barely used when I acquired it, I couldn't resist a few upgrades mostly thanks to Max at CreativeWerks. There were times I feared the machine had the best of me but at this point I'm pulling shots I'm quite happy with and am now focused mostly on enjoying the coffee.

Complete after much turmoil Radaelli Caffomatic. Custom 110v element for North America voltage. Difficult machine to work on due to tight spaces. A beauty epitomizing 1950's design.
Thinking of adding custom boiler cap with gauge and OPV for easy of usage.

Super fast heat up. About 8 min from roam temp to ready.





* Special thanks to Francesco C and Dave (cuppajoe) for their support.

Nice Radaelli Caffomatic, Robert. I'd love to see a video someday of it in operation.