Wild Turkey Pastrami!!!

Just had some awesome wild turkey pastrami, provided by my friend Jo and her husband.  That stuff was so good.  They make venison pastrami too.  A new hobby on the horizon?  I think so!  And stay tuned for info about my new coffee roaster.

Technosystem Magic Coffee - The Mods

Well, like I mentioned before, the information I found that this machine might be using Le'Lit parts was a great lead.  Searching the web, 1st-Line.com is the sole (I believe) distributor of Le'Lit espresso machines and parts.  I contacted them on what I was looking for and what I was trying to do to see if they could help me.  I was disappointed that they will only give technical support to the specific machines they sell and pretty much only help out customers that purchased machines from them.  Esh.  Really?  Im looking to buy parts so won't I be a customer?  But, I guess I understand as I'm sure they get bombarded with calls and questions from other coffee nerds like me, which can be a real time suck.  At least they were kind enough to reply to my emails (thanks Jim) unlike the tecnosystem company itself and a few other places I tried.

Well, I looked at their parts online. Boy sure looks close to what I need.  From what I saw, the model PL041 looks to have very similar components to my Tecnosystem Magic coffee.  But hard to tell given the scale and such.  In addition, there is a new model PL041, called the PL041QE which has a much improved boiler nut/jet and dispersion screen...Thats what I want too!  SO, I took the leap and ordered the portafilter gasket, new jet, and new dispersion screen.  No returns on these items so I was hoping I had it right!

The gasket fits perfect, and the diamater of the screen looks to be correct too....but bad news on the jet, as the threads are much finer than the threads on my boiler.  So, the PL041QE seems to have a differnt boiler bottom half from the standard PL041 (and my boiler).  You can see below the differences in the threads with the left showing the "pods adapter" I removed from my machine and the new jet on the right.  I do think the old stype PL041 boiler jet/nut would have fit my machine, but I dont like the design of it so I didnt order it.

So, now my choices: 1) purchase a new boiler bottom half at a cost of $70 (with shipping) or 2) purchase the standard PL041 boiler nut and screen at a cost of around $50 or 3) turn the original pods adapter into a custom jet myself.  The thought of spending more money on this machine does not sound appealing.  If I buy more parts and they dont work, I cant return them so I would be out that money.  Gosh, I dont plan on using pods...so.... LET THE MODDING BEGIN!  I will have to turn the big hunk-O-brass on the left into something like the thing on the right.

My Mods!

Now, before I get too much into the details, let me say that I am showing you what I have done here for informational purposes only.  It is in no way an endorsement or recommendation that you should do the same.  If you choose to do any alteration or modifications yourself, you do so at your own risk and as your own responsibility.  With that said...here we go.

Step 1. Drill a series of holes around the perimiter to remove as much material as possible to make cutting out that much easier.

Step 2. Cut remaining metal to seperate inner portion from outer ring. Discard outer ring.

Step 3.  My buddy Dave at Hay Springs Lumber and Hardware hooked me up with the right size and thread metric bolt to secure the jet to my drill press.  I used this setup with the power off to hand file the big jagged edges.  I then turned on the drill press and used a file to round and smooth the jet to the right size.

Step 4. I now have my roughly shapped jet. On the left is the purchased jet and on the right is my modded jet.  While I am using the purchased jet as a model, I will have to custom fit the new jet.

Step 5. I continued to shape the modded jet to roughly mirror the purchased jet.  Modded jet is on the left, purchased jet on the right. 

Step 6. Final Jet shaping.  Throughout this whole process, I would continually fit-check the modded jet in the expresso machine.  It became obvious that the design of the new jet fits deeper into the PL041QE boiler, so I would now have to stop trying to model my jet so much after it.  I kept removing material until my modded jet was flush with the outer edge of the boiler so I determined that was as far as I needed to go.  I then cut a slot in the jet for a screw driver (or table knife,,,sorry honey) to be used to install and remove the jet.  I also used a dremel to cut recesses into the modded jet top to allow water flow out the holes.  I have a little polishing to do, but the final jet is show here below (modded jet on the right).

Installing my modded jet

Here is the original boiler bottom with nothing attached.

Here is the boiler with the new gasket and modded jet installed.

Here is the boiler with the new screen attached.  I had to flatten the "cone" at the screw hole and use a small metric bolt to attach the screen.

I think it looks pretty damn awesome!  And, I didnt have to spend any more money to get me to this point so ya gotta love that.  Tomorrow,,,we do our first pull and see how this puppy works!

Tecnosystem Magic Coffee - The Boiler

As I mentioned before, the boiler on this machine is an all brass boiler, similar in appearance to once found in a Francis! espresso machine.

The inside of the boiler is typical.  I did soak it in citric acid to get the grunge and minerals off.  Overall, it looked like it had not seen heavy use but was still in need of a refresh.  So after a little saok time and cleanup, it looks pretty nice!

Something different with this boiler is the strange gasket and brass fitting on the bottom of the boiler, something which I had not quite seen before.  In doing a little research on the web, there was very little I could find on this setup, but I did happen across a post by Kris at

http://coffee-stuff.blogspot.com/2009/12/tecnosystem-magic-coffee.html

So!  Finally some answers!  Thank You Kris!  This setup is for pods use.  Intead of a funky portafilter for pods, this machine uses a regular portafilter with a single filter basket and when the portafilter is inserted, the gasket presses down on the pod.  I dont like pod espresso so I dont have any to test with, but even so, for my use, I want to use ground coffee with double filter basket.

Hummmm....there must be a way to convert this machine.  Let the search begin!

Tecnosystem Magic Coffee - First Looks

Now for some details on this machine. Starting with the exterior housing, it is all steel and appears to be powder coated. Only a couple of chips, which I will treat to prevent any rusting. The styling of the case is very simliar to the Gaggia Classic with it's square shape and tapered front which makes sense given the date of manufacture, 01/1999.

Looking inside, I was very pleased with the components used to build this machine. First to note is the all brass boiler, a feature found in mostly high end machines. Brass retains heat much better than stainless steel or aluminum and it wont corrode the way the Gaggia aluminum boiler will over time (and yes, I still have my original Gaggia Classic and have repaired others too, and pitting/corrosion is always a problem).

The brass steam value is nice as well, since the inner stem can be remove by taking out a white plasic retainer and unscrewing the stem. This will make maintenance nice if the value ever begins to leak and needs new o-rings. This is far superior to the Gaggia Classic, as you can not remove the stem and they always suffer from eventual leaky steam values...the only recourse is to replace the whole value. Who wants to spend $45 for a steam valve because of a faulty $0.30 o-ring! The steam wand has 3 holes, not just one which should make steaming milk go very fast.

There is no solenoid valve on this unit, which to some, might be a negative, but I have never found a few drips at the end of a pull to be a big deal. Plus you dont need to backflush this machine. With or without the solenoid valve, liquids will end up in the drip tray so not a big minus to me.

Overall, this should be a solid performer. No circuit board, no "timed" pulls, just a simple, high quality setup which is why it has lasted 13 years so far, and should last another 13 years.

Next up? The boiler....

Tecnosystem Magic Coffee Espresso Machine

Picked up this espresso machine for pretty cheap.  The brand is Tecnosystem which is a small espresso maker in Italy with little market share in the U.S..  I searched the web for any specifics and very litte information is out there on these machines which was disappointing, but I decided to pull the trigger.  The machine is made with very high quality components which was a real plus but the downside...it is made for pods!  Pfffffftttttt!

But, there might be good news....stay tuned.

Look Ma,,,I'm blogging...

For 12+ years, I have been passionate about all things coffee, especially the roasting of green coffee beans and home espresso machines.  I finally decided to share my experiences.  Who knows, someone might just find something of value!