Tije used his lathe to carve a ripple in the bottom of the tamper that he made for his La Pavoni and for him, this solved the issue of grinds climbing up against the basket wall during his "nutating' and tamping.
Below is a little video, also showcasing the new ROK grinder that he uses and some modifications. He added a little collar to the bottom of the grinder to help prevent grinds flying around with static electricity. This addition may help a little but a droplet of water appears more effective. He also made a seat for the La Pavoni naked portafilter with a magnet in the bottom which then auto-centers to rest exactly below the axis of the burrs.
Since I got the latest LONDINIUM button tamper which has a tapered form, I rarely use the original straight sided button tamper so I asked Tije to carve ripples in that bottom as well. On my system this does not seem to make a big difference but I do like the feel of it and also the looks of the puck.
Original tamper, now rippled on the left, the new tapered LONDINIUM tamper on the right
Tamping
Rippled puck
After extraction: impression of the shower screen and faint traces of the 'ripples'
(also see Daily Coffee News feature ) Tije designed and made the following structure for a tiny and cheap fluid bed roaster, to which Jan van der Weel added the Arduino parts, electronics and programming: Sketch by Tije de Jong Jan sourced a very cheap blower (€ 11) to start with, Tije developed and constructed the mechanics, Jan built together and programmed the TC4 / SSR electronics. On his blog, Jan will specify exactly how the TC4 part is combined and programmed and I will copy these details into this blog entry, just as Jan will use this video in his blog. We did a few test roasts to make sure it works at all and it does. Towards the end, the first roast tended to get a flat BT line and airflow was slightly decreased. 200g seems max load of green beans. Second roast a little more power was given to the heater. Next we will try the Background Roast driven by the PID software of Artisan. A week later, with updated software that works better to change the...
Last week a friend brought me a BWT Bestmax water to replace the DV8 that I had. The advantage of this new filter was that it has a built in bypass so some amount of Ca minerals that the resin in a DV8 and Bestmax replaces with Na / sodium can be mixed back in for a better coffee extraction. Then I read that the newer " Premium " version of the Bestmax filter uses Mg(Magnesium) ions instead of Na which further enhances the water taste and subsequent coffee extraction. Online, BWT are very brief about what exactly sets this filter apart from the rest. I find that generally, water filter manufacturers are terse in explaining the exact workings and most text has words like rich, full taste, particle-free and pleasant. I assume manufacturers keep the text vague for two reasons: first, the competition is not to be made any wiser and second, consumers may be taken aback by technical specifics. Anything beyond the absolute necessary, like mention of Calcium ('scales ...
100% to 0% The Rocket Giotto espresso machine at my girl friend's place uses water from a Brita filter . This filter has a timer that counts down from "100%" to zero over a number of weeks but that time span is totally unrelated to the actual use of the filter so it's useless as a reminder to change the filter cartridge for a fresh one. Unpredictable I reset the timer a few times before replacing the filter but then I mostly forget how often I have reset it and I take out a new cartridge when I start to feel worried about the water hardness, which is subjective and unpredictable. Brita themselves suggest replacing it every two months or after every 40 gallons of water taken from the pitcher although local water hardness may vary greatly and thus influence the life span of a filter cartridge. So that's not a great help either. It would be nice if Brita supplied a test kit to see when the water quality delivered by the filter is deteriorating. Predicting ...
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