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Revision as of 03:29, 14 February 2016
The Extraordinary Least Squares household hosts a souped-up Rancilio Silvia Espresso Machine, which was handed down from a nearby friend. This particular model is quite popular with home espresso aficionados and modders. There is quite a community out there based around this machine. See, eg: http://coffeegeek.com/proreviews/firstlook/ranciliosilvia
We also have a very fancy commercial espresso grinder.
IMPORTANT: User beware! Be careful with this machine! It's all hacked up and could easily cause serious injury to the unsuspecting user. Right now water and steam can come leaking or bursting out of nowhere, all the internals can get very hot (above boiling), wiring is *not* waterproof or protected, etc. Hot steam can burn badly or explode with shrapnel, and 120v wall voltage is no joke, and aside from electrocution could start a fire.
The original (to us) modifications included a PID temperature controlled (seems to work fine), extra copper tubing wrapper around the boiler to pre-warm fresh water (seems to work fine), and a powerful external water pump (220v, with 120-to-220v adapter required, doesn't seem to work). The steam wand doesn't seem to be functioning (knob can not be turned); the control switch is maybe attached to the PID controller?
Bryan proposes to switch back to the original (internal) water pump until we know what we are doing.
The "Blue Bottle Coffee Book" floating around the house has some background on espresso machines and directions about how to do a basic shot.
