DIY 3D Printed Espresso Machine - Workflow Demo 

He has to see this !!!!

Thanks!

But even bad shots *look* good.

@@theledman Is it safe to use for your health or does it leak microplastics?

Sorry this is an unlisted video so I didn't see this until now. I've added an addendum to the bottom of my original blog post. Tl;dr, no it does not impact taste because CO2 solubility in nearly boiling water is extremely low.

That's a fascinating spelling of circumstances

The specific heat of water is extremely high (5x that of CO2 gas). The amount of energy needed to raise the temp of 2g of CO2 gas (approximately how much gas is in the system during the entire extraction process) from 0C to 100C is 170J. That energy would lower the temp of 60g of water by 0.7 degrees C. I think it's safe to say maintaining water temp isn't a problem (and hasn't been for me in practice either)! :)

When I see these I think cool, but then why not just robot, gain greater control and reduce operating costs?

@@dmackle3849 i mean i'd rather have a robot too but this is about $330 less and a fun challenge to see if it was possible :)

@@theledman sure and I also appreciate the experiment. But that $330 is shrinking with every cup and will eventually go negative. Plus the external dependency doesn’t tick my prepper box.

@@dmackle3849 The robot is way heavier and pretty big. Compared to a big machine its small, but i coudnt imagine taking it to work.This machine on the other hand... You could also probably reduce ongoing costs bu using bigger co2 cylinders. Woud make it heavy though

agreed, though you can't 3d print a piston. target goal was inexpensive, simple, and the ability to pressure profile

While this is all true, you would need a pop valve or some easy and fast way to depressurize the chamber so you don't overshoot your extraction (which I didn't have at the time of the recording). All great points though!

Thought it worth mentioning. That's the intended operation of the robot (although you can create negative pressure in the basket by lifting the piston to stop extraction in that case). Came here through your blog post, whilst scouring the internet for information on the faema baby. I just bought a robot, and thought it'd be fun to find a faema to test side-by-side. This is quality content. What the internet was intended for!

Thankfully I don't have to speculate! Shots have been very good :) As with all machines, grind and puck prep are king so shot quality really has less to do with the setup and more to do with how well you dial the grind in. That being said, the actual device uses the cafelat Robot basket which, like most manual machines, is very forgiving in how it pulls shots. Pressure is very easy to control via compressed air which is what I use now. Using an digital electric air pump makes it even more consistent. Changing pressure (pressure profiling) is also a means to play with extraction, especially for lighter roasts. I rarely pull 9 bar shots on my Decent ever. I would hope 60g of water doesn't come out! With an 18g dose, 60g of water yields a 2.5:1 ratio shot which is well within what's considered an espresso.

everything you criticised would be the exact same thing for a Cafelat Robot, since the brewing chamber looks identical. As a owner of Cafelat Robot i can gurantee that it is able to produce fantastic espresso. I also own a e61 machine, so i have something to compare it to.

There is slow but steady progress on the next version 😀

In my experience pulling shots with CO2 and compressed air with two different pumps, there's no perceptible difference in crema or taste. CO2 solubility is very low at that water temp and pressure

Probably need more tamping or finer grind