Tije's Wooden Group Ring for the La Pavoni
Recently, Gábor Laczkó said on his Facebook page that I "might be the owner of the Netherlands' most perverted coffee blog." Along that theme I present a beautiful gift Tije made for one of my little La Pavoni hand lever machines.
As many know, Tije hand builds these black aluminum cooling rings for the La Pavoni brew group. With such a ring, the group cannot overheat anymore and instead of switching the machine on to make an espresso and then switching it off to cool down again, it can be left on as long as there is sufficient water in the boiler and the 10th espresso will be as delicious as the first or second one.
Of course, when I got a La Pavoni with beautiful wooden handles and knobs, the black heat sink collar looked a little out of place. A high tech detail in an otherwise very artisan heirloom device.
This is Tije's replacement:
Of course, the more technically inclined reader will argue that wood, even the carefully crafted tropical hardwood used here, is worthless as a heat sink. Some will think that all the work Tije has put in is lost, his creating a multi layered perfectly round piece of wood, custom fit to clasp around the group without force and without leaving space between wood and group, then cutting twenty 'wings' of identical size and fitting these into the wooden multi layered ring.
But it sure looks great doesn't it?!
And I have the aluminum one ready to slip on before I fire up the machine.
As many know, Tije hand builds these black aluminum cooling rings for the La Pavoni brew group. With such a ring, the group cannot overheat anymore and instead of switching the machine on to make an espresso and then switching it off to cool down again, it can be left on as long as there is sufficient water in the boiler and the 10th espresso will be as delicious as the first or second one.
Of course, when I got a La Pavoni with beautiful wooden handles and knobs, the black heat sink collar looked a little out of place. A high tech detail in an otherwise very artisan heirloom device.
This is Tije's replacement:
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| Tije's wooden group collar |
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| Close up |
Of course, the more technically inclined reader will argue that wood, even the carefully crafted tropical hardwood used here, is worthless as a heat sink. Some will think that all the work Tije has put in is lost, his creating a multi layered perfectly round piece of wood, custom fit to clasp around the group without force and without leaving space between wood and group, then cutting twenty 'wings' of identical size and fitting these into the wooden multi layered ring.
But it sure looks great doesn't it?!
And I have the aluminum one ready to slip on before I fire up the machine.
Reacties
i am currently working on my pre mill pavoni again, and am thinking about installing a heat sink (Gen2 Group). Coming from a modified microcimbali, which is has a saturated group in the boiler and is absolutely not moving temperaturewise, i want to try to get the pavoni a little closer to a stable usable group temperature.
The lever Blog states, that you did some measurements with the first prototypes from Tije, but i couldnt find anything about that on the internet anymore. Do you still have the data or maybe an article that you could send me?
best regards
Philipp
thank you for the reply!
I noticed there was some turmoil some time ago within the homebarista forum.
Its a shame that all the posts are gone, they were quite a nice read and very good resource for information on various topics, but i understand your decision.
It seems, that you are not the only one who got pushed away from forums...
All the best for you
Philipp