toots Senior Member Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 63 Location: belgium Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ... Grinder: Faema MPN
Posted Sun Feb 19, 2012, 11:22am Subject: Re: a "E61 compact" homebuild project
after 4 years i pulled my nice little homemade espresso machine out of the garage of my new house, and i made a little youtube video. Now it needs finishing, finally :-) it had been standstill for those years, and still works fine. I got an old grinder with big grinding disks which is a true bliss. It needs some more modifying as i removed the grind coffee supply& lever, and wanna make it fall fresh into the portafilter.
Sorry my spoken english is bad, the comments is in Dutch language
things i need to improve: - steam wands with electrovalves can work fine, but i used a 1,5mm diameter valve, which is unsuficient for stretching the milk. Therefore i got a 2,5mm valve. - little cups have to be held up while brewing, otherwise the cups get dirty, so the machine frontplate needs a little elevated grill under the brewhead which stands quite high. - i'm making a aluminium housing with tearplate, very robust and heat transporting for cup warming - on top of the machine will be a knob to adjust the group temperature manually (it sets smaller/wider the break in the thermosyphone circuit. - after the solid state relay will be a second high current relay that will be set at startup or the little switch on the left, but primairly reset by the safety pressurestate to cut the power to the heating element if the pressure in the boiler gets too high.
Posted Sun Feb 19, 2012, 1:16pm Subject: Re: a "E61 compact" homebuild project
Very interesting, even in Dutch! The grind should have been finer for the extraction, and you need a better video source. I would like to ha ve seen more detail. But the loessoin in Dutch was enthralli8ng. ;-)
I like the foot switch for operating the steam valve. I would make the pressure regulator hose a little longer, The tight bend looks like it may kink over time from heat. I gathered that you got the boiler from a Faema Compact And the group as well? I like the old-style roller lever on the group.
The "corrected" Google English translation of the Video description:
I built this homemade espresso machine as a hobby project to make a perfect cup of espresso or cappuccino at home, and at low cost. All parts have been recovered from scrapped espresso machines and other devices. The PID controller and manual temperature control group allow a very constant and precise regulation of the E61 group to obtain the preferred taste, and it is very easy to vary and optimize.
toots Senior Member Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 63 Location: belgium Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ... Grinder: Faema MPN
Posted Sun Feb 19, 2012, 1:59pm Subject: Re: a "E61 compact" homebuild project
Thanks for the feedback! i'm happy being back on the forum Indeed the little hose needs to be a bit longer and in the dutch explanation i mentioned the shot being too fast and the grind needs to be finer. The boiler indeed was from a faema compact which i searched for a while to get it, as it is a perfect little hx boiler for this homeuse apllication. The group head i got from a very very old original faema E61 and i replaced all the gaskets and bought a new lever as the original one was in bad shape. I added your engish translation to the youtube clip, thanks alot for the effort! next time i'll borrow my mom's camera :-) mine is low quality... sorry for that. I can try english :-) The grinder is very very good, but i made the pvc tube just temporary, next tube i make with stainless steel
Posted Sun Feb 19, 2012, 2:12pm Subject: Re: a "E61 compact" homebuild project
Glad to have been of assistance. I wish I knew as much Dutch as you do English. About as far as I go is "Gouda."
The grinder: If the tube was shorter it would be easier to clean out. Maybe the permanent replacement could be held on by magnets so that it could be removed for cleaning the chute out at the end of a session. If you have old computer hard drives (3.5" or 5") the magnets in them are VERY strong! They will hold on when placed on opposite sides of a finger, but do not let them "snap" together or onto hard surfaces as they do break easily and teh edges are very sharp..
toots Senior Member Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 63 Location: belgium Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ... Grinder: Faema MPN
Posted Sun Feb 19, 2012, 2:41pm Subject: Re: a "E61 compact" homebuild project
good idea! i tought of using 2 screws dutch is easy, yes = ja; no = nee; coffee = koffie; milk = melk so as you see it's quite similar to english... most people here in flanders speak 3 or 4 languages :-) its a little country
Posted Sun Feb 19, 2012, 3:47pm Subject: Re: a "E61 compact" homebuild project
My wife and I Toured Europe by Moto in '86 with my English friends. Sitting at a sidewalk table at Auberge du Puits, in Souillac one evening, I was speaking Spanish to the Portuguese waiter. That's mixing it up pretty good! ;-)
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