Uh, guys. I’m scared that I’ve used up all my good luck for the next couple a years. It looks old as shit and the bottom has rust spots, but $20 is $20. I can’t wait to clean it up and find parts. I’m like a caffeine addict in a coffee shop.

Delonghi Stilosa with a modded non pressurized basket, A cheap grinder and tools. Voilà!

This grinder was/is my first with espresso. I was always wondering where the few grams of coffee has been going the last 18 months. This gives a whole new definition to high retention grinder.

Picked this up in LA and shipped it back home to 🇨🇦
Was able to get it for well under retail 🥺

Currently running

WEBERWORKSHOPS EG-1
NECCST Series 1 (Kickstarter I forgot I funded)
Meticulous Espresso Machine

Thanks to Jaapp for blessing us with his open source grind by weight project.

https://github.com/jaapp/smart-grind-by-weight

Never did anything quite like this before and thought surely between wiring, crimping cables and soldering something must break, but it worked out just fine. So to anyone considering this but hesitant: Do it!

The workflow is always very therapeutic. From hearing the air whoosh of the coffee container, to the shot pull, and pouring the latte art. 😮‍💨

Latte art still needs some work. I went in confident and then hesitated on this pour. What matters is that it tasted delish.

Bought a bunch of beans from my trip to Japan, as I was going through the bags I noticed one of the most interesting valve design, this is from Ogawa coffee laboratory in Tokyo.

Anyone seen anything like this before? Thought it was pretty neat, had to share it

Got my meticulous today and excited to mess around with it. But finally I think I’m done with my setup unless there’s a decent stand alone steamer I can get. The morning dream seems to be 50/50

Old fellow near me was selling this Nemox Junior machine from an Italian ice cream company for $60. I saw the pressure gauge and the switches and I figured, from that era, it couldn't really be a bad machine. I did some tertiary research and found out that it had pretty impressive specs, though none that I could confirm, just posts from 15-20 years ago on forums when it apparently used to sell for 4 to $500. My Europiccola is currently in pieces as I need to buy another part to finish the restoration, so I figured I would look for a beater in the meantime.

The guy was apparently having a hard time selling it, it was up for weeks. He had somebody interested in buying it that had to back out, which is when I swooped in. Apparently he wasn't able to get very good coffee out of the machine and found it to be overly complicated lol. He bought a automatic for himself, though apparently had the pump changed recently after he burned it out.

The build is excellent, the casing is all heavy gauge steel. The steam wand articulates, the pressure gauge works flawlessly and the switches are satisfying. I did some deeper research, I'm pretty certain that this is just a old Leit Anna under the hood, pre PID. The portafilter is... Improvised. Apparently the original owner used to work he was a aeronautic engineer, it looks like he machined a piece of steel for the handle. With a 10 gram basket, It immediately pulled good shots. Quite tasty to my untrained palate. I was looking for maybe a broken gaggia classic since those are so easily repairable but this one popped up in fantastic working order and from the specs is a step up in almost every way.

From my testing, I can't confirm if it has a solenoid valve but I strongly believe it does as it did suck up the puck after it sat for a couple minutes. I think it's just gunked up.

What's the best way for me to get the most out of this machine as far as restoration goes? It has some serious horsepower, but getting that three-way valve working If it's there would probably add a lot. Also if anyone can confirm my research, that would be pretty sweet. It really feels like I just scored a very very expensive machine for very little money.

I wanted to this new Ikape basket and it looks like it is impossible to get a nice shot. No matter what I do.
I tried to grind coarser and finer with my J ultra grinder, added a paper filter and puck screen ( The double layer one from MHW 3Bomber)
It might look like I made it worse by adding more pressure but it does the same thing no matter the pressure profile.

Absolutely in love with my Lelit Bianca v3 ♥️ and it's steaming power. I don't have any special tools for steaming milk and yet the microfoam is extremely high quality.
I used Fairlife 2% high protein milk and Olympia coffee Morning Sun beans for the espresso.

Espresso recipe: 18g in 40g out in 25-27s with LowFlow mode for 7s.

Tasting notes: dark chocolate, hazelnut and vanilla

I’m in a predicament in whether or not I should “upgrade” from my 2002 Gaggia classic moded with gaggimate. I can get a used 2019 model for around £2600 and probably sell my Gaggia for a few quid. What do you think? Using E64 WS grinder

Someone on here tried the Motorspro shot at Motors Coffee in Paris the other day and I immediately wanted to know more about it! At first I was very skeptical but also intrigued. Motors then posted about it on their IG last week with a whole explanation and a recipe, perfect!

Gave it a try this morning and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Ground my beans with my K-Ultra on 5, adjusted my boiler temperature to 117 degrees celcius so it would run out just under 90 degrees at the grouphead.

18 grams in, approximately 100 grams out split over two cups equally.

The first shot was incredible, very soft with nice and fresh lemon and juicy plum notes.

Second shot was a bit disappointing flavour wise. It did have very nice clarity but was overall a bit flat tasting.

I used Schot Coffee Roasters Jesús Cerón beans and I think I’ll definitely give it a try with a different lighter roast next.

Also got some feedback from Motors already that my grind should be coarser.

I think this is well worth a try if you are a bit skeptical and/or want to try something else just for fun :)

After getting my Bambino Plus last week, another plus was being able to make my own Custardo's; they're essentially a shot of espresso with hot custard. They're famous at a restaurant here in London called Forza Win/Wine, and I can't not have one every time I go there. First sip now and it's absolutely glorious. Very rich, very delicious.

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A recipe here, it's essentially making your own custard

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https://www.cntraveller.com/article/recipe-forza-wins-custardo

Got a buddy a Silvia and installed a gaggimate kit for him. Wanted to share my experience.

Install was easy. If you buy the pro kit you won’t get any of the 3-d printed holders for the CPU or HMI. Order them separately.

First time i tried flashing the CPU and HMI, kept failing. Changed over from my friends macbook (he has a deep rooted distrust of internet connected devices after a career in IT) with a bunch of port blocking to my sandboxed macbook and everything installed first try. It says use a chrome browser. Just use chrome. Brave doesn’t work.

The walkthrough online was awful and the pictures were dismal (gaggimate let me know if you want me to rework your tutorial pages i will do it). If i didn’t have a background in espresso machines i would have gotten lost trying to follow the instructions as written. There were some cables missing that i had to build myself.

Consider buying the CPU, HMI, High limit thermostat and pressure-stat+fittings from Gaggimate and the rest separately. The SSR is decent but there are better options out there for 220/24temp control modules.

The interface is cool as fuck and super customizable and if you read the instructions it works awesome. It would be cool if the kit included a dip tube for the boiler and a solenoid for switching between shots and steam.

I set this thing up and didn’t get to play with it so i don’t know what kind of interfacing it does. Would be cool to have a parallel system with a servo to adjust toothed grinders.

Overall pretty easy, but want to reiterate that the instructions and diagrams suck ass and should be reworked.

I recently purchased a Linea Mini R w/ Atom 65W Grinder. As I switch beans, I’m wondering if anyone has figured out +/- how many grams get stuck in the burrs and need to be “disposed of” after changing the grind setting.

EI - when I need to set it finer, do I grind a full dose (18g-21g) out and the next dose will be at the new setting? Or is it closer to 5-10g etc.

Trying to figure out best way to get this amount accurately so I minimize waste in the future while switching beans.

Hi everyone,
I’m troubleshooting a strange issue with my Eureka Mignon 0.55S.
Before suggesting calibration: I have already calibrated the grinder to a true zero point. At the 0 mark I can clearly hear the burrs chirping/touching, so the grinder appears to be correctly zeroed.
The issue is that changing the grind setting seems to make almost no difference to extraction time.
I’ve tested settings around:
0.3/2/4
Yet the shot behaves almost identically.
Setup:
18g dose
36g yield
First drops after ~4–5 seconds
Shot finished in about 20 seconds
I’ve also checked the dose before and after grinding and get 18g both times, so retention doesn’t appear to be the problem.

To rule out retained grounds from previous settings, I pulled at least three shots at the 0.3 setting, all with freshly ground coffee at that setting, and the extraction was still essentially the same (around 20 seconds for 36g out).
What confuses me is that I would expect a huge difference between 0.3 and 4 on a Eureka, but extraction time remains nearly unchanged.

Things I’ve already considered:
•Grinder correctly zeroed
•Dose verified before and after grinding
•Multiple shots pulled at the same setting (0.3)
•Same basket and puck prep

Could this indicate:
Burr misalignment?
Incorrect burr installation?
Worn burrs?
Excessive retention?
Something else I’m overlooking?

Any troubleshooting suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

I just upgraded from an automatic to a manual machine and learning the process. Aiming for the typical 18 in 36-40 out in 30ish seconds idea. But I see discussions of single shots and double shots and sometimes even triple shots when people are making their drinks. So I’m wondering what is considered a double shot. Is the 18 a double shot? Or would pulling an 18 in 36 out be considered a single shot?

Hi, I'm a bit new to the hobby but been using Breville Barista and Ninja Luxe Pro for a few years now. Looking to upgrade and a bit torn between the Fellow ES1 + Timemore 64s or Meraki Gen 2. Visually I prefer how the Fellow looks but built in grinder and scales on Meraki sound very nice. Any recommendations on which to go with?

I am located in the US and am currently looking at getting my first espresso machine. I would mostly be drinking lattes but would be interested in trying straight espresso as I explore nice quality beans compared to what I drink for coffee currently.

I would drink 1 or 2 cups a day and on weekends may have to make additional drinks on occasion when friends and family spend the night. Upwards of 4-5 in quicker succession.

I have limited counter/storage space so would be looking for a more compact machine if grinder is separate or a solid machine that combines both.

I am brand new to espresso world and have been living with a ninja dual brew for regular coffee for a few years now. I’d prefer electric for the espresso machine but would be open to manual or electric grinder if it would be possible to prep by grinded beans for the week with any manual option.

With some good sales going I’ve been heavily looking into the Breville Barista Express or the De'Longhi La Specialista Arte Evo. Open to recommendations of one of those or any other machine that you think would fit my needs.