Cafe Racer Design

Decent customer "EspressoSquirrel" continues to fire amazing design ideas at us.

Here is what he wrote about this set, that he sent at us:

"I was thinking about cross pollination of design elements from other products into espresso machines rather than thinking of other machines. I started looking at motorbikes and then particularly 'cafe racers' ironically. So here's a cafe racer inspired design, kind of rough around the edges, the lines and curves are not great, but maybe of interest."

I love he turned the "ugly" back panel into a design feature with a partially translucent back panel. So cool!

-john

Puck Rakes Samples received from new suppliers

I received samples from a new supplier of puck rakes -- this is the same company that makes our funnels, and their quality is good. They're also charging 3x more than the others, but I'm happy to pay it to get a higher quality product, reliably.

Paint quality is good, but the main problem is that they packaged them in plastic bags and not the custom-sized boxes we have, and this caused most of the received samples to have bent wires on arrival . The natural wood is nice, but needs a coat of something. So...kicking this back at them, to get a second-attempt at this.

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I haven't received them yet, but I have photos from the other supplier. They've changed our design without asking us (grin), getting rid of the "wire holding tube", and instead cutting the rake in half, mounting the wires inside the wood, and then regluing it.

It's not unusual for suppliers to change the design, because the product is hard to make as it currently stands (with the suitcase, their improvements were important and good)

In this case, the wires are straighter and the mounting is invisible, which is good. But... you can't replace the wires with your own, and the cut line is not attractive on the natural rakes, but likely ok on the black painted ones. We'll see!

Key grinder from Weber, used with a Decent

Doug Weber shared with me this video he made a few days ago, showcasing his upcoming Key grinder https://weberworkshops.com/products/key-grinder and his Decent.

What's interesting about the Key, besides its size, is that a very, very respected name in high quality grinders, is coming out with a conical burr set. I feel that Niche brought conical burrs back into respect, with their 63mm set. Weber's massive 83mm burr is another big step up, and it'll be interested to see how it compares both with the Niche and with big flat burr grinders.

Size and design-wise, the Key looks great next to a black DE1, and doubtlessly next year we'll start seeing Instagram photos of happy parents, with their new coffee setups.

Upcoming Zooms: Puck Prep

Please read this new chapter by Dennis Hew in the Decent Guide to Espresso:
https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/MvQ8StL ... 43TfaBNUWP

Dennis and Paul Chan will be discussing how to prepare a coffee puck for espresso. The zoom call will start with the basics but also cover advanced topics. Please feel free to place your Zoom camera near your coffee gear, show us what you're doing, and ask questions.

I will introduce the call, but it will be run by Author Dennis Hew, and professional espresso trainer Paul Chan.

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John Buckman is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Decent Puck Prep #1 (USA/Asia/AU)
Time: Jun 6, 2021 09:00 AM Hong Kong SAR

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89905277805?p ... ZpUHRHUT09

Meeting ID: 899 0527 7805
Passcode: 168249

With this URL you can put your own time zone in, and see when the call will happen:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ ... 179&p4=152


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A week later, we will host the same topic at a different time, so that we can reach those in: UK/EU/Middle-East/Asia. It will be at this time/date:
https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ ... 179&p4=152
and I'll advertise it next week with the Zoom URL.

As always, both calls will be recorded and later made available publicly.

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-john

Puck prep: youtube copy & next time zome for same

Here is the Youtube saved version of today's Zoom on Puck Prep: And so I can now announce the next Zoom call for puck prep:
https://tinyurl.com/zoomprep2

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84526120030?p ... tMd2tMQT09

I've got a new supplier for the puck rakes and am ordering 1000pcs of each color. The samples they made did arrive with needles bent, due to bad packaging (they were in plastic bags), but otherwise quite nice.

We're going to experiment for the first time, with a "blister pack" form-fitting approach for this, because it holds the handle in place and nothing touches the needles during shipping.

I'm not usually a fan of plastic, but this is a case where the material is the right choice for the job.

These should arrive in about 2 months. When I've got them in my hands, and can confirm that I'm happy, I'll re-open ordering on our web site, for our puck rakes. https://decentespresso.com/rake

Above is a photo of a hand-made blister pack we put together, to test the idea.

Sorry did you consider an option where you can keep the blister pack, but pack wood separate from needles? So you would have wood and for example, a little plastic tube with a rubber lid for the needles packed next to it?

Have sales slowed down at all in recent months for you to consider restarting DE1+ production again?

kidloco wrote:Sorry did you consider an option where you can keep the blister pack, but pack wood separate from needles? So you would have wood and for example, a little plastic tube with a rubber lid for the needles packed next to it?

That would totally work, but it would require:
- you do some assembly
- to own needle nose pliers
- and likely, for you to cut the ends off the wires
- and it's not easy to get them all to the same length

So... not ideal.

winterfresh wrote:Have sales slowed down at all in recent months for you to consider restarting DE1+ production again?

We've sped up our machine building speed, so we're *finally* about to have stock of all models https://decentespresso.com/queue in a week or two, so it's too early to tell. We definitely won't bring the de1+ back if every machine we build ships to someone who has already paid, and thus nothing ever sits in stock.

-john