Coffee Appreciation

If I didn’t have a spb I’d get one of those in a heart beat.

They look cool af

If only I hadn’t just splurged way too much on more Gaggia mods…

How big is the pot?

Cheap Backup incase spb has an off day?

Appx 350ml.

Gaggia for espresso days, Aromaboy for filter days. Makes perfect sense.

Any sort of moisture is an issue, even towel dried hands after washing up can cause it to be a bit temperamental

350ml isn’t enough coffee

There's never enough coffee. This can do back 2 back brews fine.

That’s reassuring.

I’ve got my morning coffee prepped

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Just won this...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/205151280050?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=QdwEddNFTge&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=90nfr6tdTdu&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Should make a cracking winter project as I have a new lock ring and element already, which are the expensive bits.

One thing I will be adding though will be a resettable thermal fuse 😂

I'd say the expensive bit is going to be the time sunk into scraping all the plastic off!

Good luck with it! Looking forward to following the progress!

Agreed! Will need some elbowgrease I'm sure.

What a lovely little project.

This will need to go in the current projects thread

Yer man being using it for Viking reenactments?

Good luck! Make sure you show us the end result!

Probably used it to start the viking funeral by the looks of things.

😂😂😂😂

What a result! Enjoy the project!

Anyone do the Decaf tasting?

Found the Swiss Water one absolutely rank from my kit, EA was the best, a bit sweeter and fruitier.

Bought a separate Swiss water decaf from the same roaster which is bloody lovely, so, not entirely sure what I learnt 😂

We did, struggled to find considerable differences except for the caffeinated which had greater depth. We found CR3 to be our preference with Swiss Water a bit too long on the finish

Interesting, we found quite a big difference.

SW lost all fruit notes and was just really earthy and vegetal. EA best and CR3 was a bit nothing.

Tbf I didn't think the caffinated coffee was particularly good to begin with.

Just swapped the Vario/Ditting steel burrs into the DF54 and reversed the motor direction. Super easy aside from the bastard shimming. Consistency in grind is, visually, immediately obvious - can't imagine it won't bear through in the cup. Excited to find out once they're seasoned.

Doesn't the base / boiler interface have three small pins to hold it in position?

The fact it doesn't leak coukd be because the boiler (3) / base (5) connection is separate from the boiler / element (9).

That's the bit which seals in the water, with a very squishable o-ring (8).

The base should have three

https://theespressoshop.com/pages/la-pavoni-lever-boiler-and-base-components-exploded-diagram

I used a cheap <£10 oil filter wrench to tighten the boiler to element, following various suggestions on here & elsewhere. It didn't take much grunt at all to undo it / tighten it back up.

I seem to recall reading / hearing that the chap in the video has confessed to having very limited grip strength, hence the massive lever.

Yep I think so, as long as the 3 allen bolts holding the element to the boiler ring are tight, there shouldn't be any leaks (assuming the brass ring isn't basically hanging off!).

I think the issue I'm facing is that the spacers (parts 4 & 6 in the diagram) aren't thick enough, likely just getting compressed over time. So while the element is tight to the boiler, the whole assembly isn't as tight to the base as it should be. With the original spacers, I ended up having to bend the p-stat pipe a fair bit as the spacers were presumably getting squashed over time, so the boiler ring had to be tightened to accommodate. I do have one of those little oil filter wrenches and it did work pretty well.

Might give it another tighten this afternoon and see how much is needed, haven't touched it in maybe 6-9 months at this point.

Update on my Europiccola refresh...

Tightened up the lock ring last night with my new breaker bar and oil filter wrench with the help of my dad keeping the base aligned (we got there on the second attempt...)

Then set to with refitting the element and rewiring the machine with a gaggia baby wiring loom. Handy as it is heat proof and has the right heatproof insulated connectors, too. I also fitted a new power cable (iron flex) which is terminated inside with a connector block.

Wooden handles fitted as well as a re-lubed grouphead/piston.

Then I had to move (bend) the pstat pipe as the element was in a new position because of the lock ring being in a different position. This caused a split so a new pipe is on the way... Just this and it'll be finished.

Here's a pic as it looks today

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Nice.

Worth remembering that you will need a new pstat any time you need to bend it - they're only malleable until they're heated, then they become quite brittle.

Absolutely, a couple of fettles and they're usually fine. Anything else they are toast. As I found out again 😅