There was yet another thread complaining about Orphan Espresso being non-responsive to a parts inquiry. But really Doug and Barb are pioneers in sourcing parts and providing restoration info for orphaned espresso machines and hand grinders. I don't think they can be everything to everybody and have now created a wonderful niche building some of the best hand grinders and sourcing Olympia machines and parts. On that other thread I raised the idea of a co-op where hobbyists could join together to buy parts and share knowledge. Doug wrote he liked that idea. So Doug and Barb, when you see this, please chime in. Brandon (pacificmanitou) asked me what I had in mind. Here are some starting thoughts.

For purchasing parts, we could do something like the Green Coffee Buying Club where maybe people with Gaggia Orione machines could join together to buy spares. For collective knowledge people here have been suggesting a wiki. I don't know where/how that would be hosted. We could also trade for credit where people have different skills, including those with milling machines, lathes and such, fabricating parts. What do you all think?

Should a hat be passed and funds drummed up, I would think a 3-D printer (and scanner) would be a boon for orphan machines. That may see unrealistic in the short term, but as these printers do exist and are intended to be affordable/accessible for entrepreneurial prototypes and specialty repairs, it's a genuine suggestion! Just putting it out there.

Gary - I think that's a genius idea. Of course with total respect to Barb and Doug who without their services, I never would have jumped head first into lever land (been their customer since the early days).


(Happy spring forward, y'all)

SpromoSapiens wrote:Should a hat be passed and funds drummed up, I would think a 3-D printer (and scanner) would be a boon for orphan machines. That may see unrealistic in the short term, but as these printers do exist and are intended to be affordable/accessible for entrepreneurial prototypes and specialty repairs, it's a genuine suggestion! Just putting it out there.

Much of this would be organized to best use resources that already exist. For example someone who's already a member of TechShop could use some of their gear, like a 3-D printer. Co-op members could source parts through existing distributors who would already have relationships with parts suppliers and have the importation aspects figured out, much as is done when buying greens. Some of these things could be sourced through Orphan Espresso, or 1st-Line Equipment or others and eliminate their having to handle inventory or do all of the picking of individual orders off the shelves, handle issues or returns, etc.

And thanks, Cher ... just putting ideas together that were already out there.

i'm waiting for my delivery from ascaso spain, it's with fedex now. ascaso made an exception to the 300 euro minimum order policy, very nice! let's wait and see...

so in the future we could do a joint order to make the 300 euro minimum. their prices are very low; e.g. portafilter holder 10.86 euro instead $45.50 at EP!

important, the ascaso spain catalogue website (english) doesn't work on safari! i had to use firefox.

in regards to OE, my main complaint is not so much that they didn't respond specifically to my inquiry, but their absolute unresponsiveness. if they had said 'sorry, no time' or 'no special orders', ok... not responding at all is very unprofessional and in the long run hurting business. either they keep it as a hobby or they take it to a professional level. their website and especially their wholesale business make it appear that indeed it is a full-fledged business. btw, i spent more than $1400 with them.
what if EP are the nicest people around and personally very dedicated. would you cut them slack if they don't respond????

cafebmw wrote: what if EP are the nicest people around and personally very dedicated. would you cut them slack if they don't respond????

Yes if they've had a death and birth in the family, a huge backlog of orders and they aren't getting any younger. I don't think they can be all things to all people and their business model is catching up with them. Let's stay on track, though, as the whole point of this thread is to generate alternatives. Also H-B's guidelines for productive online discussion discourage complaint threads against vendors.

Again, distributors like espressoparts, prima, and 1st line deal in ascaso. I wouldn't have even approached OE about it.


Anyway.... I thought a 3-D printer would work wonders for some machines. Need a drip tray? No problem! I first wanted one for a new peppina lid. I think a great first step would be a wikia group for vintage machines and manufacturers.I believe it's free to do. Each article could include information about the machine and how to do general work on the machine. Or for companies, histories on the company and their various offerings. There could be separate articles that include major hacks and mods for machines (eg: list of common mods for home-use Mazzer grinders) A lot of this is already on HB but it can be hard to find and isn't always easy for quick reference when its burried in a discussion. If people here helped put together the articles, we would probably cover most of the vintage machines, home and commercial. It would also be worth compiling a list of people interested in participating, and what knowledge or resource they have to offer, even if its just to add to collective buying power, or that they live near a distributor, it would be good to know. I like the idea of being able to buy a part machine as a joint effort. I once bought a peppina just for the portafilter.

Yeah OE is unique as a business in that they operate more as a hobby vendor than a wholesale distributor like espressoparts, who has dozens of employees. You can't expect them to operate the same way. We all know what were getting with OE and I at least, am happy with it. But let's stay on topic here.

How would a parts co-op come into being? And what would the focus of the wiki to support it? Also who would build the co-op? What would be its organizational design so it serves those who belong and spreads the effort of running it? Answering these kinds of questions would be the next part of making it happen. Does anyone reading this have experience to share how these things are generally accomplished?

Here are some ideas, but I haven't done this. I don't believe it would be a replacement for the profit-making businesses that source and import parts for a wide consumer base but instead it would spread the task of serving hobbyist needs while benefitting the hobbyists involved. This would be similar to the Green Coffee Co-op, where members source specialty greens from distributors and share the work of distributing among themselves. Those greens then become available at an affordable price.

There would need to be some kind of website and wiki listing members and allocating benefit for people who do more of the work. This would be especially true if someone offers services creating bottomless portafilters, for instance.

One way to create this wiki would be to point it at Home-barista.

The wealth of knowledge, in all parts of our collective Lever machine passion, accumulated here would take a very long time accumulate on/at another site.

It seem we are bombarded by so many dead end searchs for a variety of things these days (imho) i.e. how to sites, diy, one page summary badly researched with adds usually unrelated...... It is a comfort that so much genuine knowledge from passionate people has gathered here. as well as some very useful business models that cater to it.

I would be scared that a wiki would be a diluted copy of what we have here, or maybe not. I had to just chime in on this though.