# My New Set-up.



## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

Here's my set-up, the classic came in the post today.

The steaming is different from what I'm used to on a Delonghi and I can't quite get the hang of it and my tamper is 10mm too small, but apart from that, all boilers boiling aboard hms espresso.

The drinks are already quite a lot nicer.

In a previous thread I was complaining about the beans in my hopper, with this set up the extraction is quite a lot nicer.

I'm already planning a pid though......


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Nice little compact setup hope you enjoy it.


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## CoffeeDiva (May 9, 2013)

Lovely you seem to have all the bits there. Where did you get the bench it is all on?


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Blimey, Kyle - you're very tidy! Nice set up - have fun with it.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Very neat and tidy, congrats on the new gear . Looks like your gaggia has the silvia arm on it , it should produce better milk after you get to grips with it . Just takes a little time and practice and milk ( or water and a drop of washing up liquid ! ) . Getting a tamper that fits would be a good step and I'd do this before a PID. Good selection of cups there though. Enjoy the coffee from your new gear !


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## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

CoffeeDiva said:


> Lovely you seem to have all the bits there. Where did you get the bench it is all on?


It's an Ikea piece, pretty good. Nice and heavy and real wood, as far as I can tell.

Anyone got any tips on dosing?

With my old machine the PF was plastic and didn't have a spring, so dosing into the basket and weighing was a doddle; the Gaggia has a pretty heavy sprung brass PF though. Dosing into the pf from the grinder is a lot easier due to the diameter and size, but the scales just dance everywhere if I try to weigh the pf.



Mrboots2u said:


> Very neat and tidy, congrats on the new gear . Looks like your gaggia has the silvia arm on it , it should produce better milk after you get to grips with it . Just takes a little time and practice and milk ( or water and a drop of washing up liquid ! ) . Getting a tamper that fits would be a good step and I'd do this before a PID. Good selection of cups there though. Enjoy the coffee from your new gear !


A tamper is my next step, I already messaged coffeechap regarding it.

If not, then I'll just get a made by knock or something.


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## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

Apologies, accidental double post.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Do you single dose then or is there always a store of beans in the hopper. The silvia has a sprung PF , I found I could still pop in a ridged basket without too much trouble if I had done a little WDT on it , this enabled me to Weigh the dose accurately with the scales.


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## Gangstarrrrr (Mar 4, 2013)

Kyle548 said:


> It's an Ikea piece, pretty good. Nice and heavy and real wood, as far as I can tell.
> 
> Anyone got any tips on dosing?
> 
> ...


Re dosing, I, and some others I think, weigh the dose going in, so assuming low retention, what you get out doesn't need to be weighed. So put a small container on the scales, weigh out 18 grams of beans and then that gets chucked in the grinder. Grind straight into the portafilter.

Is that what you meant?


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Accuracy Will depend on grinder retention to some degree as well .


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## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

I single dose, yes.

My grinder doesn't have such a low retention though and depending on the beans it can be anyone's guess how much I lose.

With the worst beans, maybe 2g, but on average about 0.5 - 1g.

The chute also tends to spray grinds a little, so while not massive, how much I lose is anyone guess; at least I need to hoover after every couple of shots.

The basket on the Classic is pretty difficult to remove and gets really hot if I leave it to preheat in the machine.

So weighing input into the grinder is pretty easy, but I'm not really sure what I get out if I grind directly into the PF.

I suppose I could grind into my old basket and transfer to the classic's PF, but ideally I wanted to grind into the classic.


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## Gangstarrrrr (Mar 4, 2013)

Your other option is to grind into a small milk pitcher. This will act a bit like a doser and break up clumps.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Perhaps measure a couple of times to get a good eye for what your dose looks like then go from there as a compromise.

Then when you try new beans , measure a couple of times , got back to eye . Really depends on how scientific you want to be . I set the k30 up and dial in and weigh when I change bean , after that I use the timer mech on it and judge by eye .


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## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

Cheers guys.

Makes sense.

I think I'll employ a combination of those.

While dialling in and first couple of shots, grind into a pot to work out loss and after it take pot look on the pf.

I can imagine 1g being a problem, but for >0.5 I'm not sure there will be such a big problem in the cup.....


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Kyle548 said:


> Cheers guys.
> 
> Makes sense.
> 
> ...


Sounds good to me!


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## Spooned (Aug 4, 2013)

Nice setup bud. What's in the red tipped dispenser just right of the grinder?


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## forzajuve (Feb 2, 2011)

For single dosing on a grinder like that I would as others have recommended grind into a pot/tub of some description then transfer to the portafilter/basket. Reasons for this is that if you just sit your pot down (not holding it while grinding) there is a greater fall height which will break any clumps up. If there are some residual clumps just give it a quick shake and all are removed.

Regarding retained grinds and effect on shots, I would say there is a noticeable difference of anything greater than 0.2g change in dose weight. Therefore if single dosing you really need to clear retained grinds out every shot. How do you do this? Look for the lens hood mod, works a treat every time with near zero retention.

PS. very smart, need to go tidy my work area now!


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## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

forzajuve said:


> For single dosing on a grinder like that I would as others have recommended grind into a pot/tub of some description then transfer to the portafilter/basket. Reasons for this is that if you just sit your pot down (not holding it while grinding) there is a greater fall height which will break any clumps up. If there are some residual clumps just give it a quick shake and all are removed.
> 
> Regarding retained grinds and effect on shots, I would say there is a noticeable difference of anything greater than 0.2g change in dose weight. Therefore if single dosing you really need to clear retained grinds out every shot. How do you do this? Look for the lens hood mod, works a treat every time with near zero retention.
> 
> PS. very smart, need to go tidy my work area now!


If I just let the grinds fall, then I end up dressed in them as the grinder spits the grinds rather than drops them.

As a result though, I find it doesn't clump at all. Mainly because the clumps are inside the grinds chamber.

To dislodge them, I stick a spoon into the chute and waggle it a little until they fall out.

In regards to retained grinds, I try my best to get everything out into my basket, then for the next session I adjust my grind however much I need to then put maybe a gram and a half though to dislodge any of the old grinds and 'prime' the new grind setting as it were. Of course, I dispose of anything that comes out into the sink.



Spooned said:


> Nice setup bud. What's in the red tipped dispenser just right of the grinder?


That's chocolate sauce.

I can't do art the traditional way, so I just draw it instead.









A poor example of an apple and a drawn on face.


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## Callum_T (Dec 23, 2012)

Great minds think alike, I've had to put my whole setup on a Ikea Kitchen trolley. Good bits of kit though and a real nice tidy setup for espresso at home!

In terms of dosing, I'd just weigh out of grinder then espresso out in given time to check consistency!


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## Kyle548 (Jan 24, 2013)

After working on my milk obsessively, I got this out of a 20oz pitcher, some supermarket beans as a cheap base and a 8oz cup.

I wonder if I'll be able to do it again....

I doubt it.

I just can't find that sweet spot, so I have been ripping big bubbles into the milk then franticly trying to break them down before its time to texture.

Anyone got any tips on finding that sweet spot?

I either have it to low or it rips the milk into massive bubbles, there's no intermediate space.


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

Kyle548 said:


> After working on my milk obsessively, I got this out of a 20oz pitcher, some supermarket beans as a cheap base and a 8oz cup.
> 
> I wonder if I'll be able to do it again....
> 
> ...


Excellent mate, looks like perfect micro foam to me.


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## iroko (Nov 9, 2012)

Looks good to me, better than all my attempts.


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