Decent Espresso news - Page 113

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decent_espresso (original poster)
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#1121: Post by decent_espresso (original poster) »

biforcate wrote:Will these nylon inserts be available to purchase?
Hopefully yes, if no problems are found. I'm working with a new company, they're based in Madrid, and there's CE conformity and safety testing to do, as well as making them fit "just right" in our baskets.

I find that the few millimeters of tolerance on papers I've tested, leads to bypass and channeling and I want to solve that by sizing the filter specifically for our baskets, so much less tolerance is needed.

So, it'll be a few months, but I'm hopeful. This new company is still in product development and had contacted Rao and had sent him prototype samples.

I sent them samples of all our baskets and they acknowledged receiving them this afternoon.

rdcyclist
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#1122: Post by rdcyclist »

I have quite a bit of experience with the cart problems you had. I came by it honestly if not voluntarily.
decent_espresso wrote:The biggest thing that went wrong were the coffee cart wheels. Half of the the brackets we make bent on the drive over. Mostly, this was caused by my having loaded 20kg of water in each cart. With each turn of the van, these water bottles slid from side to side, causing metal fatigue and bending the wheel support.
Loading any cart and bouncing it around in the back of a truck will cause problems. I would suggest setting up the carts with retractable feet for when the cart is in place or being transported. This will take that load off the wheels and keep the cart in place while it's being used.
decent_espresso wrote:However, wheeling the carts to the location was also problematic. The wheels are great at home, where there is no dirt, pebbles, broken concrete or uneven pavement. We found that the solid-plastic wheels I had bought, had no tolerance at all for these problems. I looked on in envy at the UPS trolleys at the show, which have huge air-inflated wheels, kept at a low pressure, so that they soak up all these defects in the path.
Inflatable wheels are great but heavy and expensive. An easier solution is larger wheels. The little 3 inch wheels you've got there don't roll well over anything that's not smooth. I would suggest at least a 5 inch wheel and 6's would be much better.
decent_espresso wrote:We're redesigning our wheel brackets to be double-thickness, folded metal, at the weak points, and we're going to do extensive torture testing on this new design. We thought that 3mm thick folded, welded stainless steel would hold up, but it doesn't.
Any folded wheel mount is going to bend if loaded. 3mm/Eighth inch steel would be fine if it was gusseted or boxed. 6mm might not bend but any folded sheetmetal is going to be weak at the bend. If the brackets are welded up with gussets you can run the 3mm steel and obviate the bending problem. Also you want to use big ass washers to spread the mounting stress over the entire mount. As can be seen in the picture, the wheel mounting stud has distorted the mount.

As with any free advice, it may be worth exactly what it cost. YMMV and all that. :D

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decent_espresso (original poster)
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#1123: Post by decent_espresso (original poster) »

rdcyclist wrote: Inflatable wheels are great but heavy and expensive. An easier solution is larger wheels. The little 3 inch wheels you've got there don't roll well over anything that's not smooth. I would suggest at least a 5 inch wheel and 6's would be much better.
My concern was that the larger the wheel, the more stress will be put on the mounting, much like a lever getting longer. Do you agree?
rdcyclist wrote:Any folded wheel mount is going to bend if loaded.
I assume you mean things like this:



they do look good, I agree, and I saw their use is commonly seen with garage work benches.

The problem I had was that the IKEA BROR tables only have space for a single bolt mount, and all retracting wheels I found used the four-bolt-hole mount style, which is too large for the IKEA bror. But... we're looking to see if we can make a bracket to accommodate it.
rdcyclist wrote: Also you want to use big ass washers to spread the mounting stress over the entire mount. As can be seen in the picture, the wheel mounting stud has distorted the mount.
Nice tip, that effective thickens the mounting point for the wheel bolt.

romlee
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#1124: Post by romlee »

John: don't want to needlessly complicate this. Here're a few things to consider. I've worked in the trade show industry building booths and counters. Swiveling casters such as the ones pictured often don't have the clearance to easily ride over ramps and bumps. They can also be a little unstable due to size and the manner in which they swivel.

If the Bror cabinets are relatively light you can lift the cabinet to clear the bumps. But if not, then you might consider building wheeled pallets of 3/4" plywood or 2x4 lumber that the cabinets can be strapped during transport or show set up. The wheels can be 3-5" diameter (TBD), swiveling and lockable. The pallet would be built oversized (larger than the outside dims of the cabinet) so that wheels are positioned outboard and can swivel freely and provide more stability then wheels positioned directly under or behind the Bror legs. After wheeling to the exhibit unstrap the cabinet and lift it off for final positioning. You could make one or more wheeled pallets depending upon the number of cabinets to move. You can use two pallets to move long cabinets, too. They're versatile carry-alls.

I recommend not leaving cabinets on these pallets when they're in your rental truck. Wrap the cabinets in blankets and push them tightly together. The less opportunity for stuff to slide around inside a truck the better.

Again, hope this helps and isn't a distraction.



“Be curious, not judgemental.” T. Lasso

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decent_espresso (original poster)
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#1125: Post by decent_espresso (original poster) »

Torture testing our new portafilter handles

We're switching to solid vinyl as the material for our portafilter handles. We like the way they feel, look and wear.

However, in torture testing our first batch of 20, we found that we could break the top off. This was because the bolt connecting to the stainless steel head, wasn't that deeply sunk into the vinyl material.

We've remade 20 samples, now with much deeper bolts sunk in, and we've not yet been able to break one.

The solid black vinyl will be the new standard in the future, that comes with our black machines.

So... now onto manufacturing these!

-john


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#1126: Post by decent_espresso (original poster) »

romlee wrote:If the Bror cabinets are relatively light you can lift the cabinet to clear the bumps. But if not, then you might consider building wheeled pallets of 3/4" plywood or 2x4 lumber that the cabinets can be strapped during transport or show set up. The wheels can be 3-5" diameter (TBD), swiveling and lockable. The pallet would be built oversized (larger than the outside dims of the cabinet) so that wheels are positioned outboard and can swivel freely and provide more stability then wheels positioned directly under or behind the Bror legs. After wheeling to the exhibit unstrap the cabinet and lift it off for final positioning. You could make one or more wheeled pallets depending upon the number of cabinets to move. You can use two pallets to move long cabinets, too. They're versatile carry-alls.

I recommend not leaving cabinets on these pallets when they're in your rental truck. Wrap the cabinets in blankets and push them tightly together. The less opportunity for stuff to slide around inside a truck the better.
Your suggestions are good, but not likely useful in my very weird case, which is that I'm trying to "systematize" this, and not have anything custom, instead offering an "off the shelf" solution.

So... making pallets with wheels isn't an option, because I don't want to ask customers to do this.

so I'm focussing on
a) strengthening our brackets
b) if possible, supporting the installation of wheels that pull up out of the way, as you suggested, with parts buying from Amazon.

The BROR carts are very light, but with a grinder, DE1 and 20 liters of water, less light.

PIXIllate
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#1127: Post by PIXIllate »

You can buy those style dollies/carts at most home centers:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-1 ... /300292417

romlee
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#1128: Post by romlee »

Harbor Freight. $17.99

https://www.harborfreight.com/30-in-x-1 ... 58314.html

May not meet criteria but, hey, inexpensive and definitely not custom.
“Be curious, not judgemental.” T. Lasso

jamescauwelier
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#1129: Post by jamescauwelier »

decent_espresso wrote:Your suggestions are good, but not likely useful in my very weird case, which is that I'm trying to "systematize" this, and not have anything custom, instead offering an "off the shelf" solution.

So... making pallets with wheels isn't an option, because I don't want to ask customers to do this.
I really like the availability of such a system for the Decent and I agree with your focus on keeping this accessible. On the other hand, it might not be accessible enough and it would also be good to provide more stylish options for kitchen carts as opposed to trade show carts. Something with doors and compartments for easy storage of water bottles, potentially with wheels, that doesn't look out of place in a kitchen.

I am kind of going back-and-forth between the current solution you have and drilling into something that can be found at WayFair, like this: https://www.wayfair.com/furniture/pdp/l ... 57096.html

Giampiero
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#1130: Post by Giampiero »

The torture testing video seems a good anti stress therapy to :)
Anyway, good job.

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