Arclitgold
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2017
- Messages
- 317
Looks like you made a ton of progress
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Between 485 & 705 SQ/FT Mid-Century Moto Mecca Makeover
- Thread starter sakurama
- Start date
Workspaces between 485 and 705 squarefeet.
smschriefer
Well-known member
Are you looking in MD? There are three for sale in the Richmond area on CL.
So prices and availability are the opposite of here - on the east coast people buy these things for 2-500 all day long and they're much more common.
One thing I'd recommend looking for is the tractor with the extra hi-lo transaxle called the Swiftamatic. I think they're called the L8 for the number of speeds. If you're plowing, cutting brush or anything that needs a slower ground speed it's much better. I have the two plowing attachments but haven't used them but as a kid we used the Gravely to plow our garden every year and it did an amazing job. As kids our job was to follow behind and pick up any rocks from the furrows.
Good luck searching!
Gregor
Kirmet
Well-known member
Made in West Virginia, they made some nice riding mowers too.
67CarGuy
Well-known member
I'm an indefatigable CL hound, and after reading about this specific adventure, went searching around Baltimore. Found two close enough to be dangerous, one with a mower and one with a snowblower. Then I found a sulky attachment to make it a riding mower/blower. Because who needs to walk, or have any leverage, right?
And then I remembered that I have a postage stamp of a yard that takes less than 15 minutes to mow, it rarely snows in Baltimore, and after all of that, I don't have the space in my garage (or my shed) for this sort of thing. Phew, bullet dodged!
I'm an indefatigable CL hound, and after reading about this specific adventure, went searching around Baltimore. Found two close enough to be dangerous, one with a mower and one with a snowblower. Then I found a sulky attachment to make it a riding mower/blower. Because who needs to walk, or have any leverage, right?
And then I remembered that I have a postage stamp of a yard that takes less than 15 minutes to mow, it rarely snows in Baltimore, and after all of that, I don't have the space in my garage (or my shed) for this sort of thing. Phew, bullet dodged!
I'm surprised you let those small issues get in the way of what could have been pointless and fun adventure.
Gregor
TwoBytes
Well-known member
jimkinney
Well-known member
Exactly.
I was in Sears the other day and they had a dump cart display model marked less than half price. Do I need it right now? No, but I might someday.
Took it home and spent an hour taking it apart and putting it back together correctly and straightening out the bent pieces. It's missing one $2 part, which I ordered, but came with a bunch of heavy steel pieces from who knows what that I can use for other projects.
Now I just need to find a place to store it until I need it.
Bob Heine
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Gregor, alone? Being President of the Club doesn't mean you are alone. You are the reason for most of the neat but unnecessary stuff we own. I have two MIGs and a TIG to do two or three welding jobs a year.
bunks-tj
Well-known member
I'm an indefatigable CL hound, and after reading about this specific adventure, went searching around Baltimore. Found two close enough to be dangerous, one with a mower and one with a snowblower. Then I found a sulky attachment to make it a riding mower/blower. Because who needs to walk, or have any leverage, right?
And then I remembered that I have a postage stamp of a yard that takes less than 15 minutes to mow, it rarely snows in Baltimore, and after all of that, I don't have the space in my garage (or my shed) for this sort of thing. Phew, bullet dodged!
how close, im in Northern Va... maybe i should take a look
gearhead1960
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Liam, maybe we should look at one of these together......LOL. Although, I'm trying to declutter now and SWMBO would have a fit if one of these came home.....
Hi Gregor, I've been reading your thread for a while from over in the UK and managed to get hold of a Vivaldi S1, there seems to be a shortage of good second hand grinders around over here, I was just wondering what your current coffee set up is? Keep up the good work!
Congratulations on the Vivaldi - I am surprised that my machine has been with me now for 12 years and has been just an essential part of my daily routine.
So this is my current set up. The Vivaldi is a great espresso machine but like many things - from hifi to computers - it's only as good as what it's fed. Garbage in garbage out I think the phrase used to be.
I've owned a few different grinders over the year starting with a simple spice grinder that is like a mini blender to a retired commercial Rancillio and then a series of Baratza grinders - both flat and conical. The 270 that I have now broke after a few years and while Baratza is really great about being user serviceable I wasn't able to find the problem so I sent it in for a flat rate repair.
$90 and a week later I got a brand new grinder which was an upgrade over the one I'd had before.
So let's back up. The key to good coffee is consistency. If your set up is consistent you can make the small changes that make the big improvements. Getting something right is all about homing in on the details.
Obviously coffee is a very deep and caffeinated rabbit hole so you need to pick the level you want to descend to and put a hard stop there. Find the coffee you enjoy and then enjoy that. For me it's a cappuccino. Or specifically a triple ristretto cappuccino.
If you want to go to the bottom of the rabbit hole this book is your guide. Espresso Coffee written by Andrea Illy (yes, that Illy) it is a very dry treatise on espresso and it is the bible.
Without going too crazy a shot of espresso is 1oz of coffee made at with 7 grams of ground coffee extracted under pressure.
So there's a bit variability in the numbers but for the most part that's the definition. A ristretto is a shot where you restrict the water so we can guess that a triple ristretto is three shots restricted. Or instead of 7 grams of coffee you're using 21grams to get your single shot of 1oz or 25-30ml.
So stay with me here - we're bringing it home.
If your amount of water is set at 1oz. and the amount of coffee is set (for me) at 21g. and the water temperature is pretty set than the last variable you have control over is your grind. And that is why your grinder is perhaps the most important part of the coffee equation. The grind is the single thing you can vary to obtain the perfect cup of coffee. It needs to be matched to your process. For drip or pour over the water is being drained through the coffee with the pressure of gravity but for espresso you're using a pump to push the water through at around 9bar or 130 psi and since you have that sort of pressure you can therefore grind your coffee a lot finer.
I used to just have a timer for my grinder and that would get me close to 21g but Baratza introduced this grinder that has a built in scale and I have to say I love that it eliminates a step from the process. I set it for 22 grams (like going to 11 - that extra gram is... 1 more) and it grinds and weighs the coffee at the same time.
Since a triple ristretto is more of an American coffee trend you need to get a larger coffee basket that can hold that much. I made mine before they were available by welding two baskets together. So I have a lot of different portafilters, baskets and such.
The Baratza's have two grind controls - coarse and fine above and a micro adjuster below. I almost never change the top one unless I need to grind coffee for a camping trip where we'll make pour over. Otherwise it stays at 9 and the letter scale below is used to adjust the grind based on environmental factors such as coffee freshness.
So if the grind is the one variable you really get to control it makes sense to get a good grinder and I've been super happy with this Sette 270 Wi.
You can use what is called a "bottomlesss portafilter" basket so you see if your coffee is being extracted evenly and it's a nice way to just check to see if things are normal.
When you get your grind dialed in a good shot will have that mottled tiger striping appearance and your shot will take about 25-30 seconds to get your 1 oz. If your grind is very loose or coarse your shot will be much quicker and if your grind is too fine your shot might only drip out a little bit at a time and take minutes before you ever get to 1 oz. Both situations don't taste good.
The whole latte art thing is really just a visual representation of correct milk and coffee preparation. If your espresso preparation is correct you'll get a nice crema. If you steam the milk correctly and don't scald it you get a shiny, creamy milk that matches the consistency of a correctly extracted shot. Mixing them immediately together makes them blend in a way that, at the end of the pour, the last bit of milk floats on top of the espresso. Art.
That's why you don't get latte art at Starbucks. Bad espresso and scalded milk. Europe has hewed to it's traditions of topping the cappuccino with more foam but it's not the dry burned foam that looks like yesterdays bubble bath.
Anyway, that's the coffee and grinder set up. I learned pretty quickly what I did and didn't like and I have homed in on that to make it so that I get the exact sort of cappuccino I like every day. It's super important that you know when to stop digging the coffee rabbit hole. When your coffee makes you happy stop.
Gregor
Vertigo Cycles
Well-known member
Gregor, what milk pitcher is that? The spout appears to be quite wide.
Now I’m just shaking my head and laughing.
Thanks for sharing yet another well crafted, detailed response and explanations of your process. The level of care and detail you put it all facets of life that you’ve shared here and inspiring and humbling. It takes time and a high GAS (give a shhhh) factor, even going to sharing photos of the process.
I learned something again today. Thank you. More food for thought for me step up our coffee game from stovetop espresso and pour overs.
Looking forward to whatever the next thing is that you explain and teach us!
Thanks for sharing yet another well crafted, detailed response and explanations of your process. The level of care and detail you put it all facets of life that you’ve shared here and inspiring and humbling. It takes time and a high GAS (give a shhhh) factor, even going to sharing photos of the process.
I learned something again today. Thank you. More food for thought for me step up our coffee game from stovetop espresso and pour overs.
Looking forward to whatever the next thing is that you explain and teach us!
Good luck Paul. Glad you've found something of interest and made your first post here.
It's an Alessi 10oz pitcher. When my studio was in Soho I was near the Alessi store and I'd stop in once in a while while walking home to the East Village. My Vivaldi isn't as powerful as a full on LaMarzocco so to steam milk it was important to have a smaller pitcher. This one was heavy, well made and the right size - it was also $112 which was full on crazy for a milk pitcher. Not wanting to spend that sort of money I instead spent over $100 on 5 or 6 cheaper pitchers I hated.
Before I moved to Oregon I went in and just bought it and couldn't be happier with it. It's both an awesome pitcher and one of the last things I got in NYC.
Umm, the next project probably isn't one your looking forward to. I've put it off for about 5 years...
Gregor
OopsClunkThud
Active member
have to say I'm shocked to not see a versalab grinder in your setup. Some day I'll find the justification for one, some day...
E12-535iTurbo
Well-known member
I'm super happy you said that.... I don't drink coffee at all. Rabbit hole --> diverted. I was kinda worried that I had to start at age 38.
I do like the smell though.
I think Gregor's seen enough of my Versalab grinder to know better than to get one.
I went at looked at the Versalab site because I wasn't sure what it was until I saw it and realized it was the one Ben has. I think because I know Ben has had issues with his for so long I never considered it but it's working now with the upgrade. I am very impressed with the eclectic range of products he's made. I appreciate his focus and deep dive in the minutiae of things. The grinder is cool.
But it's not for me. Too fussy. I like having a hopper for the beans, I like the ease of the weight measurement and it works great. Sliding scale is weighted a bit more towards convenience.
Ben has teased me for years that we should build our own espresso machine but we both have good ones. But a portable grinder might make sense...
Gregor
Vertigo Cycles
Well-known member
Thanks
I've been down the same path of buying too many $30 pitchers, I haven't loved a single one of them. I'll be putting that one on my Christmas list.
And thanks for the bead blasting assist a few months back. I finally got around to painting the control markings on the chassis and it looks great! I should have cleared the front and rear though since the raw surface won't hold up over the long term, but I'm too far along to go back now.
Vertigo Cycles
Well-known member
I sounds like Ben isn't terribly impressed with that one. If you haven't seen the Lagom P64, check it out. It's a singe dose grinder too, which makes it fussy to use since you should weigh out your beans for every shot, but it's pretty nice.
jimkinney
Well-known member
In my case I don't even like the smell.
I will stick to my Real Sugar Pepsi for my caffeine fix, although they are getting harder to find.
Have you seen a Lagom in person? I haven't, curious about how well its built. I get nervous when their web page only shows computer models. The design seems like it would sink a bunch of motor heat into the grinding chamber but with home volumes that probably wouldn't be a big issue.
The Versalab is awesome in theory and I think the new production ones are much better sorted than mine. Mine was a very early copy and I've ended up doing a bunch of improvements which have finally resolved the big functional problems. The newer Versalabs have better runout tolerance, improved motor control boards, and a better drive belt system.
As thoughtful a machinist as you are the Versalab would make you bonkers.
I found a video of the Lagom. One thing I can say is its much louder than the Versalab. I don't notice it much anymore but the quiet motor and belt drive on the Versalab make it much better to live with than any other grinder I've used.
They also make the Helor 101 which looks like a nice small hand grinder. In this article they mention that they want to make a motorized version of it but it's been a year and I don't see that - other than a drill adapter.
Sean the Lagom does look like a nice grinder and the price of $600 isn't really out of line with the Baratza. I have to say, when you read any of the coffee forums, or any coffee literature really, that I have to wonder at what point the emperor has no clothes. At the very least he's wearing tights and that's it.
I've done coffee tastings, and sat in on tastings at Heart Roasters and certainly spent plenty of time getting my coffee dialed in but that last percentage reminds me of how loopy coffee and hifi get when you're really off the deep end.
Gregor
Sometimes you need to make a tool because there's just not one for the job. I don't relish this particular tool but nothing commercially available works worth a ****. So to speak.
I picked up the bender that Mike recommended and it's a very nice piece of kit. I ordered some stainless tubing but I had this rod sitting around and while it's only 3/16" it worked fine. 3/16" is heavier than is typically used.
I decided to make this from stainless since it will live outside.
I was going to knurl the handle but wanted to keep it simpler.
I don't know if this will be an heirloom tool to hand down to the kids...
Yup, it's a stainless poop scoop. After 3 weeks of working in the studio the yard was a landmine disaster. I'd meant to make this a long time ago but the situation forced me hand.
I'm sure Lucas and Nadia will treasure this forever.
Gregor
I picked up the bender that Mike recommended and it's a very nice piece of kit. I ordered some stainless tubing but I had this rod sitting around and while it's only 3/16" it worked fine. 3/16" is heavier than is typically used.
I decided to make this from stainless since it will live outside.
I was going to knurl the handle but wanted to keep it simpler.
I don't know if this will be an heirloom tool to hand down to the kids...
Yup, it's a stainless poop scoop. After 3 weeks of working in the studio the yard was a landmine disaster. I'd meant to make this a long time ago but the situation forced me hand.
I'm sure Lucas and Nadia will treasure this forever.
Gregor
quadrcr87
Well-known member
Glad you skipped the knurling. Much harder to keep clean in its intended use 
fartymarty
Well-known member
I was headed down the coffee hole when sanity intervened. I had a burr grinder which seemed annoyingly loud. I dutifully ground my beans every morning and told myself that I was living the good life as I truly enjoyed my coffee every morning and it was the thing I missed most when traveling.
One week I had to get up much earlier than the rest of the family so I took the grinder out into the garage to grind the beans. Out there in the garage the grinder sounded even louder than my air compressor. I decided (later in the day) that I was just going to grind a weeks worth of coffee all at once in the garage. I noticed that later in the week the coffee tasted just as good as the earlier days. That made me experiment with a taste test between my brand's pre ground and fresh ground whole bean versions. I couldn't tell the difference.
I now buy pre-ground coffee and donated my Burr grinder to the less fortunate so they can become coffee "enthusiasts" (aka coffee snobs) too. 
RABBIT HOLE DIVERTED! I have noticed a difference in taste from a basket drip brew and a cone style (Mynolta) drip brew, so the closest I come to coffee snobbery is folding the cone filter to fit my coffee maker (why can't either the filter maker or the coffee maker get it the right size??? wtf?)
To my way of thinking an un-knurled Stainless Steel pooper scooper is nowhere near jumping the shark, but that $70-$100 milk pitcher certainly is!
OMG Gregor you couldn't spin your own???!
One week I had to get up much earlier than the rest of the family so I took the grinder out into the garage to grind the beans. Out there in the garage the grinder sounded even louder than my air compressor. I decided (later in the day) that I was just going to grind a weeks worth of coffee all at once in the garage. I noticed that later in the week the coffee tasted just as good as the earlier days. That made me experiment with a taste test between my brand's pre ground and fresh ground whole bean versions. I couldn't tell the difference.
I now buy pre-ground coffee and donated my Burr grinder to the less fortunate so they can become coffee "enthusiasts" (aka coffee snobs) too. RABBIT HOLE DIVERTED! I have noticed a difference in taste from a basket drip brew and a cone style (Mynolta) drip brew, so the closest I come to coffee snobbery is folding the cone filter to fit my coffee maker (why can't either the filter maker or the coffee maker get it the right size??? wtf?)
To my way of thinking an un-knurled Stainless Steel pooper scooper is nowhere near jumping the shark, but that $70-$100 milk pitcher certainly is!
OMG Gregor you couldn't spin your own???!
GeddyT
Well-known member
I've shoveled plenty of ****, but I've never heard of raking it. What kind of animals are we talking? Now that we're hitting the rainy season, the dog's poop (and, way more prevalent, the deer poop) turns into a puddle if you don't get to it within a few days. A rake would just draw nice racing stripes in the poop!
fartymarty
Well-known member
Well you need to get to it before it puddles for sure, but the tines of the "rake"
(as you call it) go between the grass/dirt without digging in and then support a well formed stool without damaging the under turf. In usage the handle stays near vertical not horizontal at least not until the unloading into the bucket point. I've shoveled too, and it usually just pushes and smears and you end up digging under it before you can get good purchase on the....er..stoolage.
My, My, my,...$100 milk pitchers to shoveling turds...do we range or what? And my wife thinks men are not very deep. Hrumph! I guess we showed her.
Finallygotit
ALLIANCE MEMBER
fastev
Well-known member
I've been spitballing with a buddy about making a grinder. We just got a new Mori DMC mill at work and have been told to run some g-jobs to break it in. Maybe we should all talk...
