1) be patient.  when I get up in the AM I turn it on. Make sure the portafilter basket is clean and purge about 6 ounces of water out of the brew head, making sure the brew head is clean.  Then do something else for 10-15 minutes.  That’s how long it takes to warm up; 20 minutes is probably even better.

2) grinding with the Hario Mini Slim Mill Ceramic is a little futzy as the grind adjustment doesn’t seem to be particularly fine (i.e. the steps are too coarse and the ceramic burrset is small) but still it works.  For $35 or whatever, it gets you much closer to consistent espresso grounds than anything else that costs less than $100 or more.  Yes, a Mazzer would be nice, or even just a Rocky, but I can’t justify it.  So, with each bag of espresso I buy I have to find that sweet spot in the grind where it doesn’t choke the machine.  And it’s true with hand grinding, the more you do it the more of a “feel” you have for what grind you’re getting.  Grinding a double shot takes less than 3 minutes, by hand.

3) temperature surfing the Gaggia means waiting until the right hand “Brew Ready” light clicks back on (you can hear the relay) and wait about 20 seconds.  From doing tests I found this to be near the highest spot in the temperature of the boiler.  Yes, a PID would help or a bigger dual boiler machine would be nice as well.  But as far as the law of diminishing returns here, I’m sticking with what I have, and so temperature surfing the Gaggia it is.

4) So, you’ve waited about 15 minutes or so, you’ve ground your beans to something you know won’t quite choke the little Gaggia and your brew light has just flicked back on, you count down, and now you flip the brew switch and enjoy some espresso.  Hopefully your shot takes around 30 seconds to pull with a good solid 5-7 seconds at the beginning with infusion, the crema should be heady, rising above your 2oz line.  The best shots I’ve gotten from this machine have no sourness.  For whatever reason, the small boiler and little pressure pump of this machine often has sour shots, but when you pull a good one, it’s not sour – it’s smooth.  Good luck.

Feels pretty good. Initially a little firm but seems to have broken in a bit already (less than 100 miles riding).  I had ridden a B.17 Standard in Portland for a while but never really loved it, so far the Narrow seems to fit better.  I purchased an Aardvark waterproof saddle cover from VO and some leather proofing.  The rails on the saddle do not run parallel the entire length (for most Brooks, it seems) which means if you require a good deal of saddle setback then there is a chance you may not be able to achieve it without switching to a different seatpost with more offset.

The sad fact is that my Gitane “Le Tour de France” is an older frame with plain straight gauge tubing and as such has a 26.4mm ID for seatposts, which means selection with 30mm offset are very limited.  Kalloy makes an “Uno” model with 30mm, the one pictured above is the “mid-range” Kalloy model that is welded as opposed to bonded, single bolt alloy clamps with 25m offset.  The 30mm offset model appears be a bonded head model.  I’m not a fan of bonded clamp heads.  I had one fail during a cyclo-cross race years ago up in Sea-Tac.

Single piece seatposts, ideally with two bolts, are desirable though few 26.4 posts have what I need.  Most Brooks (in the last 100+ years) were used with non “micro-adjust” clamps, whereby the post and clamp head assembly are separate pieces.  On sportier models like the Swallow, I think the rails run more parallel.  If I had 5mm more of adjustment I’d happy.  Custom made seatposts are not cheap.  Or you could cast or CNC machine a custom clamp that deals with the angle of the rails.  I’m just going to keep riding it and see how it goes.

Norbornene Stabilizing Spheres

Click here to view the embedded video.

On a related note, still having to do with polymers and rubber, one of our toilet tanks had a fiddly flapper, I think this is the technical term, where you’d have to jiggle the handle to stop the tank from running. The solution was a “Korky Plus Premium Universal Flapper” and it works like a champion.

Korky Plus Universal Flapper

We traveled to our local (giant) hardware store and bought:

1 x 48″ long 3/4″ black pipe
4 x 18″ long 3/4″ black pipe
8 x 8″ long 3/4″ black pipe
6 x 3/4″ black tees
8 x 3/4″ black flanges (feet)

We found it’s easiest to assemble the lower half of the “H” sections, screw in the 48″ long cross piece, and then finish of the top part of the “H” supports. You don’t have to use flanges if you don’t like the aesthetic, though as far as anchoring into wood is concerned the flanges underneath the tabletop do offer convenient support and holes for drilling. With this sort of pipe (black drain, 3/4″ cast iron) there are many other fittings (and shapes) that could be created out of 90 degree angle bends, not to mention the variability in pipe width.

As far as refinishing the butcher block goes, it needs to be sanded down (starting with a coarse 50 grit then going finer upward of 200 grit) and then coated with food grade (USP) mineral oil and then sealed with beeswax. Pure Tung oil is another option though it tends to be more expensive. Danny Lipford has a page that gives some great tips on butcher block maintenance.

All told this project should be less than $100 (presuming you salvage the wood) which is significantly less than a store bought version and then there’s the satisfaction of actually building something.

And as it turns out it works pretty darn well. It’s mostly plastic with a stainless steel shaft and a small ceramic burr set. My only gripe would be that with the plastic lid/cover off the handle seems to fit a little better on the grinding shaft. I started with a pretty coarse setting and the burrs are significantly sharper than my old PeDe (from the 1940s, I believe).  I should have no problem dialing in various espresso grinds for use with my temperamental Gaggia Classic.  And of course for brewing pour-overs, French presses (w/ a slighter finer grind) and  my macchinetta, it will be swell.

Ahh, a cup’pa joe. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Another sweet item I saw at Hive 76 was an older Sony Vaio automated DVD changer that connects via 1394 (FireWire 400).  Supposedly, using DBPowerAmp and some basic scripts it is possible to batch rip up to 200 CD’s at a time into .flac image files with good metadata and .cue sheets.  Alex Wetmore wrote several years ago, and I’m paraphrasing his sentiment here, that he had better things he’d like to do with his day, like go on bicycle rides, because the fact is that he is not a CD changer.

So the general idea is you use one of these big Sony Vaio XL1B* changers, load it up with your music, walk away from it for about 24 hours and when you come back hopefully you’ve got a hard drive full of music in a format that is future proof.  If I can actually get this to work it would be a beautiful thing, and Brendan said it was good go.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sony VAIO XL1B* Series 200 Disc Changer