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when you walk into the reception in
square mile one of the first things
you'll see on shelving is is this which
is an espresso machine and it is by far
the scariest was weird and wonderful
espresso machine I have ever owned now
this was built by Kay's Vander Vesta
you'll know him from building things
like the spirit things like the
speedster he builds really beautiful
stuff and there was an auction and he
donated this machine to that auction and
I bought it in that auction and it is a
fully functioning coffee machine and I
want to show it to you because one it's
really cool and two it's a really
interesting explanation for how espresso
machines work because everything is
completely exposed and that's really
scary you can really see how a simple 61
style espresso machine works how the
plumbing works what does what so this
hasn't runs like five years so we need
to do a little bit of TLC to this to get
it running so we're gonna clean it up is
it's dusty and then we're gonna work out
what needs doing to it it's missing some
parts we'll see if we can get it running
we see if we can pull some shots with it
and yeah this is this is that machine oh
and most importantly this thing was
built in 13 hours from scratch and he
used a bicycle that he found in in like
a skip out the back of his building and
it still has the bell on the bicycle
who gives that all right so I'm gonna
clean this up and then we're going to
assess what parts we need to get it
plumbed in and running and making some
coffee
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so that's a little bit claimants are the
easiest thing to claim in the world but
most of the dust is gone sort of it's
just ugly and that's kind of its charm
it's never gonna be beautiful unless you
stripped it completely to pieces and
powder-coated it and something better
we're just never gonna do that to this
now when it comes to these things the
first thing you want to do is make sure
that you have your hydraulics sorted we
want to make sure there is a supply of
water to the machine the water is
covering elements before we turn it on
so right now it's a bit bare-bones now
there's a water inlet here just a
threaded Inlet which we can put a
braided hose onto that will come from
the pump which I don't seem to have and
actually in the past what I've done is
I've put a quick-connect on the pump
control cable this is the thing that the
powers the pump turns the pump on when
you want it to come on so I need to find
a pump and a pump head I don't need to
wire it up and then I need to find a
couple of braided hoses and connected to
a cold water line and then you know
we're getting there
so I found an old senescent pump in the
workshop I'm going to be able to just
repurpose this I'll need to change some
parts and fittings here but that's not
really a problem wire it up and we
should be good to go a distinct lack of
compression it compresses that's water
in done now because this is gonna be a
quick setup I'm just gonna put some John
guests straight in there to supply with
water as quickly as possible
now don't judge me this is a just a
really quick and dirty setup this is
nothing like I would do for a hack an
actual installation this is just a quick
I can bench test it and play with it
kind of setup so you've got some push
bit coming in and then just switched a
few parts around and then we have water
going out to the machine so this would
be our next challenge which is the quick
connector that used to run to a pump
that I have long since lost so I'm just
cut this off and then just hardwire it
into the old sinner so pump instead and
that should be good to go so we've got
some water in here now so we're ready to
turn it on but we need one more thing
up here now at the back of the machine
there's actually a space for a light
bulb and that light bulb will go on
anytime that the element is heating so I
need a light bulb okay it's starting to
get hot now I start to get some pressure
building on the steam boiler and I
should try and explain why I have a
white tub here now this machine is
awesome but the drip tray leaves a
little to be desired it is just a piece
of mesh that has no connection to any
sort of waste so you need to put
something under it to catch anything
that you want to run out of this grip
head now this machine needed a good
flush through it had been a while since
I've seen fresh water so that's kind of
a thing and then what we can do it's
kind of water through the kind of
hydraulic pathway of this machine I hope
to try and explain how it works now
before I do that I should probably
explain the controls which are a little
bit unconventional okay so everything is
run from this thing here and this thing
activates these two little switches here
when you first push you like to make
this switch and all it does is
essentially start pre-infusion by
opening the group head solenoid just
sort of over here it's hard to see that
won't allow any line pressure coming
from your your water mains to come
through the machine and just drip out of
the group head when you push down enough
to contact the second switch that's what
kicks on the pump so you have kind of a
two-stage infusion here so if we go
Stage one you can hear that click we've
got some dripping from the group head
and then too
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pun goes on so you have to hold it down
to make the pump run so you hold it down
the whole shot so that's what's going on
here now this is an oldie 61 style thing
here so what you've got is one tube
coming out at the top of the heat
exchanger running along into the back of
the group head there they're cheap
underneath it running down and all the
way down back into the bottom of the of
the boiler the heat exchanger now that
is a thermo siphon so that hot water can
also be drawn off here to go through the
little switch here fitting to the group
head to make a copy so these things are
kind of stable ish but you often need to
flush them to sort of stabilize that
temperature it's got temperatures
surfing and and dual boiler machines now
don't really need that you can see our
steam pressure there that's basically
what controls the whole machine it's not
the most accurate way to do temperature
but it's a thing that works you've got
essentially a relay controlling the
power going to the element from the
thermostat and then you've got power
going to either the pump or to a
solenoid valve to open and close it now
one of the reasons this machine is just
so terrifying is that it's really hot
like all of the hot bits are exposed
this it's very easy to burn yourself on
this which is why I could never really
be used by anyone except me probably me
so one of the most terrifying things
about this machine is probably this
valve here which is a manual fill valve
to fill the steam boiler so you got to
keep an eye on your side glass to make
sure you've got enough water in there at
all times
now steam is pretty simple comes out at
the top of the steam boiler into a valve
which you just control in the normal way
and
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dramatic steam so there's nothing else
really left to do but pull some shots
I'll need to get a grinder and some
coffee and some cups and all that good
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round nose yeah I mess a little bit its
give me a messy day coffee in we're
gonna pull by pre infusing until we get
those first few drops of coffee it's big
dose it's getting a little while then as
soon as we see that saturation happen
crank up the pressure
we've made coffee it smells pretty good
but it's pretty good so there it is this
is by far the weirdest wildest most
terrifying coffee machine that I owned
but this was interesting and this was
fun I don't really know what to do with
this I just it's a beautiful ornament
it's a terrifying espresso machine so
this is probably the last time in a good
long while it will make coffee which is
a shame
anyway this was fun I hope you had fun
thanks so much for watching happy
everyday
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