Espresso machines

Bit before my time Vince but Errol Flynn was a chancer gold prospector and a bit of a rogue up in the Bulolo Valley and the Eadie Creek goldfields in Wau. One of the stories going around is that he borrowed some money when he was down on his luck but naturally never paid it back. After the war when he became famous the bloke he borrowed from contacted him asking for his money, Errol sent him an autographed photo of himself instead
In Wau the is a street named after Errol, as well as one named after John Laws.

As an aside, before the war the Wau-Bulolo goldfields were the richest in the world and the two airfields were the busiest on earth, all the dredging and mining equipment was flown in from Lae, no roads to the coast in those days.
 
Interesting, Red was telling me about a drilling job he did up there, apparently, it was the sketchiest job he had done. The gear was chopped in off barges I think. One of the Gold Rush shows in Foxtel did a stint up there, Big difference between the huge company sites and what the locals do in the backblocks. Lots of security needed as it danger plus.
 
Last time I was in Wau, in the seventies, they were still washing gold out of Eadie Creek, the remains of the dredges were still there in the Bulolo Valley.
 
Hello
After 7 pages........Marty did you ever get your coffee?

Lee, I remember that coffee product, it was a nice try, but epic fail. I was up in Cairns last November and had breakfast each day at Rustys markets the humidity, smells, tastes just fantastic.

Cheers
Jason
 
When there was a northerly breeze and the coffee grinder smell blew over the carpark, the queue to the coffee stand was mega, first stop for everyone. The market isn't really the same now that it has moved inside.
 
Hi jason yes not been near it yet the rest of the family have been making my morning cuppa, sure I'll get to use it when they grow tired of the new toy.  I did get to pay for it, hmmm.
 
Just had my first cup ex Jura. I do miss the very first Pavoni I ever had in the 80s, as you could tailor grind, pull through volume etc to find the espresso / lungo that worked for you. Every now and then the pull down handle would kick back up, no teeth broken though... Less easy if not impossible to tailor the Jura above mild / normal / strong and volume.

Maybe that's part of the logic of needing having 17 classic espresso machines . ALEX
 
sonomalaverda said:
Just had my first cup ex Jura. I do miss the very first Pavoni I ever had in the 80s, as you could tailor grind, pull through volume etc to find the espresso / lungo that worked for you. Every now and then the pull down handle would kick back up, no teeth broken though... Less easy if not impossible to tailor the Jura above mild / normal / strong and volume.

Maybe that's part of the logic of needing having 17 classic espresso machines . ALEX
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Actually I bought most of the machines to refurbish and sell, but I had a change of heart, I can't let them go. I keep having the thought that in x amount of years I would regret selling them. I have 3 or 4 of them in different friends houses so they can use and enjoy them. I send them care packages with service kits for when they need to do light maintenance replacing group seals, springs and washers etc. So the machines stay in good form. You are spot on with how you can tailor a shot out of a lever machine, and it takes a lot of skill and time to learn to do it consistently, but its fun. A lot of it believe it or not is muscle memory in tamping the coffee and easing the lever,  and visuals from how the ground coffee  looks . People may call bullshit on this and say its all sounding hipsters, but do it 100 times a day, and each time you do it its 30 odd seconds of work, it just becomes second nature. It is pretty special to have an espresso machine in your house that makes you feel  like you are in a cafe. At work I have a 2 group E61, pic attached , I found this one in Madrid on top of a fridge in the back room of a bar, it had been painted orange, because they were too lazy to move it when they painted the wall around it orange! It took me about 2 weeks to refurbish it and get it back to how it should be, including chrome  etc
 

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Dave, yeah, I remember it, used it a lot bushwalking in Lamington National Park and similar places in the 60s. Freezing, soaked, being sucked dry by leeches, with ticks and mosquitoes trying to get a look-in too, desperately trying to get a fire of wet wood to put out enough heat to sustain combustion.
Don't remember it tasting very good but it was better than water straight from the creek.

Ken
 
Legs said:
Last time I was in Wau, in the seventies, they were still washing gold out of Eadie Creek, the remains of the dredges were still there in the Bulolo Valley.
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I?m off to OKTEDI again in June, if we are allowed to travel, not my favourite place to visit. But eye opening  :o
 
sideshow said:
E61, pic attached , I found this one in Madrid on top of a fridge in the back room of a bar, it had been painted orange, because they were too lazy to move it when they painted the wall around it orange! It took me about 2 weeks to refurbish it and get it back to how it should be, including chrome  etc
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Great story - like a good barn find!! You sure they weren't Laverdaisti with that orange paint?!  :D

BTW, has your Faema in the pic got a cover over it? Where is the group and the user paraphernalia?
 
Piranha Brother 2 said:
Great story - like a good barn find!! You sure they weren't Laverdaisti with that orange paint?!  :D

BTW, has your Faema in the pic got a cover over it? Where is the group and the user paraphernalia?
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I didn't have a Laverda when I bought the Orange painted E61, I did know about them , so now I have what will be an Orange Laverda  I suppose its serendipity !

Attached are some of the pics from the workshop E61 when I was refurbishing it. The boiler is taken off in one of them, I was cleaning it with acid to get rid of all the scale. Boilers from these old machines last for ever, and are beautifully made from copper, they clean up well. Most of them have the whole diameter of one or both ends removable, which makes for easy cleaning, now it will be even easier with my soda blaster! The end caps are held on with 12 or so M8 bolts, The boilers are around 30cm diameter and hold 11 litres  . The E61 here when assembled and full of water weighs about 45kg.  Normally E61 machines had Neon lamps in the front of them, I replace them with LED, its safer, Most of the Neon lamps were taken out in the first few years of the machines, as the high voltage needed to get the neon going, didn't mix well with steam and leaking pipes. The electrics were not what I would call outstanding. They kind of reminded me a bit of the Dick Smith  bread board kits I used to get when I was a kid. I will put up some of the Urania lever Machine in my kitchen so you can see a bit of that if anyone is interested

 

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This is cool looking-

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cafetiere-italienne-vintage-machine-a-expresso-SIMERAC-MILAN-annees-20-40/324091541030?hash=item4b755c7626%3Ag%3Av-EAAOSw-EheRcNR&LH_ItemCondition=4
 
Here Alex in the States. New ones mind you.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/La-Sorrentina-Atomic-Coffee-Machine-ID-49054/143428506500?epid=2254360102&hash=item2165015384:g:8WkAAOSwQjhdu4cY,

 
When you posted that first pic, I almost asked, are you a rigger?
Now with subsequent pics Im sure you are, where are you based?
Tom
 
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