Yes, nice job. The finished piece looks very clean.
ACS Minima with Lelit Bianca Flow Contol
I have a similar early model and replaced the weight sensor under the tank with the newer version from ACS that fits inside the tank.
MediumRoastSteam Looks like the culture of the parent company is already tricking down… 😔
I think the decision pre-dates the acquisition - it may be that Lelit buys the assembly from a third party…
(I’m not excusing it - particularly with “simple” mechanical parts, there is really no reason why they shouldn’t be available. Just saying that for this time Breville may be innocent)
MediumRoastSteam That’s very annoying. One would expect such things from Sage/Breville, but not Lelit. Looks like the culture of the parent company is already tricking down… 😔
The assembly is bought in not made by Lelit, so they never have sold spares…before and after the Breville acquisition. So far the only evidence I have seen of the corporate takeover the relative radio silence from Lelit, as far as I am concerned.
It’s a shame, but I guess, their development may be going in another direction and although all the same people remain, perhaps the freedom to do things quickly and with external people like me has been curtailed.
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It’s just a shame that something that can be replaceable relatively easily and inexpensively in case of damage needs to have the whole thing replaced instead. It’s the wasteful approach which annoys me more than anything to be honest. Even if the assembly is made elsewhere, there should be no reason why some parts of the kit should not be available as spares.
Feels to me equivalent of having to replace the whole E61 because of a worn out pin. :-(
Oh well.
If I had maintained the original a little better I’d still be using it.
How did the thread in the nut come to be stripped initially ?
I’d have expected that thread to last the lifetime of the machine.
Is there some maintenance that can be done to lessen the chance of it happening ?
The thread is weak as it is truncated, i.e the ‘peaks’ in the nut that engage in the ‘troughs’ in the shaft are not very tall, it is a very coarse thread so there are not many of them and they are made of soft brass. I imagine that they fail due to lack of lubrication and Molikote 111 is the solution. Someone else reported that the thread had stripped on his Bianca on the Home Barista Bianca thread, it was replaced under warranty.
Portafilter.
The Minima comes with a single and a double spouted portafilter. As I can’t see me using the single I decided to convert it into a bottomless. Quite a easy job if you have access to a lathe, the whole process took me under and hour.
The biggest problem was removing the single spout from the head, it was TIGHT. So tight that I stopped trying to unscrew with the plastic handle for fear of breaking it. I looked around and found a bolt of the same thread, screwed that into the head and holding the single spout in the vice, unscrewed the head using a sturdy metal tube (originally from a sidecar chassis but other tubes are available) over the other end of the bolt for leverage. There is evidence of a locking compound on the thread, heat may have broken the bond but I found brute force to be quite effective. Opening out the hole is straightforward on the lathe and I deburred with a bearing scraper.
I value the bottomless portafilter much more than a single, and will use that in preference to the double.
Everything is working now, nothing left to do. I am having trouble dialling in the grind, mainly because I use the grinder for the Leva and change the setting for the daily Minima test shot. The minima needs a finer grind, especially after converting it with the flow device, otherwise the extraction is about 5-6 bar max on the Minima using Leva’s setting. I have dug out my old Rossi RR45 grinder and will use that exclusively for the Minima so I can avoid having to switch settings.
Norvin the extraction is about 5-6 bar max on the Minima using Leva’s setting
This is interesting - I would have expected the pump on the Minima to get to about 9 bar, vs. the 10.5 - 11 starting peak on the Leva, with a sustained if declining pressure between 10 and 8 (and thus for the Minima to require a slightly coarser grind, not finer). Is there a way of wetting/pre-infusing the puck on the Minima?
Or is my understanding of “coffee physics” all wrong? (Perfectly possible!)
my old minima
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
CoyoteOldMan Or is my understanding of “coffee physics” all wrong? (Perfectly possible!)
If you preinfuse the puck for a long time, or apply pressure very gradually, trickling in the water, you need a finer grind.
This can result in more bitterness if overdone.
@Cuprajake I’m not saying that it won’t go any further, it is set at 9.5 bar with a blank basket. I just need to find the right settings, hence having a dedicated grinder rather than switch settings on a single grinder. Early days yet.
DavecUK That’s probably it, I have been playing with the pre infusion with the paddle, trying to reproduce the Leva profile.
ahh, i thought you ment it was stuck at 6bars, was going to say could be blocked,
agree having 2 grinders is brilliant haha
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
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Norvin with a paddle I always set the machines to 10.5 against a blind filter to give me more range and the potential for easier adjustment and higher flow rates below that pressure, as the puck becomes more permeable.
A lever is more adaptive as permeability increases and will simply put more water per unit time through the puck…a flow restrictor, not so much.