Lever Espresso Machine - tips, tricks and magical stuff

[milowebailey]

Bam.... La Pavoni 1.5 oz shot with a little steamed milk.... Sidamo Natural, Colombia Cauca, Canaan Natural blend. machiatto goodness. 

I'm not sure it could be much better due to prep, but I'm willing to take one for the team and try it again.

[milowebailey]

I've been getting great shots with the Gaggia Factory using 16 grams in the 51 mm double basket.  Just great.

shots this morning were 15 grams... I'll try 16.

[milowebailey]

Lever land is pretty fun.

Yesterday I decided to bottomless both the Sama and La Pavoni portafilters and I had a brass tamper base that came with the La Pavoni and no handle so I turned on out of Padauk I had laying in the garage.  I couldn't find my turning finish so I just used some carnuba wax.  I wasn't totally happy with the handel or the finish but it's better than not having handle.  I may take another run at it down the road.

I've decided that bottomless is essential for a small lever.  The tamp is less forgiving than on a 58 mm portafilter.  First shot on each I had gushers, which clearly proved that my tamp wasn't right.  I played with it for a few shots and this morning the shot was spot on.  Milk was a bit over stretched, but still a great mini-latte.

[BoldJava]

Lever land is pretty fun.

...

I've decided that bottomless is essential for a small lever.  The tamp is less forgiving than on a 58 mm portafilter.  .   .

Great set-up.

I find the Cremina extremely forgiving.  I have both the naked portafilter and standard PF -- both work fine; 49.4 mm baskets.  I have adjusted my tamp to a needle stir, thumping it with my Cafelat, x3.  Then I polish more than tamp.

[milowebailey]

Great set-up.

I find the Cremina extremely forgiving.  I have both the naked portafilter and standard PF -- both work fine; 49.4 mm baskets.  I have adjusted my tamp to a needle stir, thumping it with my Cafelat, x3.  Then I polish more than tamp.

Thanks!

I have learned the La Pavoni is very forgiving in the shot because I control the pressure, but the Sama is a spring so tamp is way more important.

The Sama is a steam engine as Orphan Espresso says.  Easy to steam milk to microfoam and similar to a commercial machine.

The La Pavoni on the other hand is not so easy.  I'll need to work on it more to get the steaming down.

I plan to bring both of these to SCAA as well as plenty of towels for the gushers 

[BoldJava]

...
I plan to bring both of these to SCAA as well as plenty of towels for the gushers 

I look forward to it on many levels, not the least of which is to keep you humble <wink>.

[mp]

I see you're taking a trip down the lever rabbit hole Larry.

 

[milowebailey]

Looks like fun.

What kind of steam tip do you have on the La Pavoni.  Mine came with a drilled out acorn nut (Brooklynshot style) single hole tip that seems pretty easy to use.  I've heard that the stock tip can be harder.

I might have a spare tip on one of my pump toys that I could send you, or OE has a slim steam tip in stainless and brass that's a little classier.

I looked a bit closer at the tip last night.  It's a 3 hole tip and even though I soaked it well in citric acid it has one hole plugged.  I'll see if I can clean the tip better.  Maybe that's the problem... if not I'll order one from Orphan...

[milowebailey]

You may not want to try too hard to clean the plugged hole... I've heard of people breaking off toothpicks in their tips to plug up the extras so that they'll make a three hole into a single... YMMV.  Let us know the results either way.

Take comfort in the fact that I found steaming on the La Pavoni (even though I still need work on it) to be much easier than the Bellman stovetop steamer.  It is known to be a bit tricky, though, but I think the right tip (or plugged holes) helps.

What did you think of 16 grams on the La Pavoni?  What dose does the Export like?

I ordered 6 brass acorn nuts from the UK today.  I plan to make 3 tips with various hole sizes and a few with multiple holes to see if I can find a good tip design.  I read on Home barista where someone used a single 1/16" hole.   I might start with a slightly smaller one and work up from there.  I also plan try a 2 and 3 hole design or two.  Worse case I'm out $15 for the nuts.

I can't get 16 grams in the La Pavoni... it just won't work captain... 14 grams seems to be good for it.  As for the Export 16 grams seems to be the magic amount although 15 grams is ok too.

[Tex]

A friend made a fan shaped tip, like this, for my HX - I wonder if one would work on the LP?

I'm putting in an old-style Euro double switch on my Pro when I reassemble it, along with rewiring it so it has a separate steam circuit. That way I can add a PID, similar to what I do with SBDU machines, and get a higher steam temp - thus better steam pressure!

[milowebailey]

Milo, I wonder if we have different basket sizes... 16 grams seems to fit just great in my Millennium.  My baskets are shown in the second photo below, top row 45 mm La Peppina, next is an oddball 49 mm basket I bought for a project, then the 51 mm Millennium, finally the 53 mm Mypressi Twist setup.

Tex is on to something there... I've got the pressure dialed down for good temp management which means the steaming power takes a hit. 

hmm... I'll measure it when I get home today.

I have two heat settings on the La Pavoni, so I switch to high when I steam.  The Milk gets hot, but not enough movement of the milk.   I haven't set the pressure on the La Pavoni yet.... the gauge I ordered should arrive in the next couple days.  Curious what pressure you have on yours.  Orphan suggests 1 bar.

My shots are good with the La Pavoni, so I'm guessing the temperature is pretty good, clearly a PID would be better, but the shot doesn't lie.

[Tex]

The pressurestat on my Pro keeps the brew temp rock solid, but it's a PITA to fine tune. The real advantage of the PID though, will be to let me set the steam temp high enough to get decent pressure for creating microfoam.

The fan shaped hole in the steam wand tip on my HX seems to make better microfoam with less attention to detail. It doesn't do much for a non frou-frou guy like me, but it may be useful for the more effeminate effete barista?

[expy98]

after a few months w/ the toothpick trick, it was in there pretty good and took some effort to
remove it w/out resorting to the drill bit...

[milowebailey]

My double basket for the la pavoni is 20mm deep.

[Tex]

I think the pressurestat on my Millennium Gaggia Factory G106 (Pro) is set to 0.8 bar.  This makes it really easy to maintain stable temps, even with a bottomless portafilter cooled with water between shots.