How To: Make a Coffee Dump/Bash Box – on the cheap
So, these past few weeks have been all about Coffee and making things... I make no apologies for that 
I love both making things and coffee... and in a few days i'll probably have made something else coffee related. The past few things i've made have involved using my 3D printer, but this time i've gone back to the more traditional tools...
- Hot Knife
- Scissors
- File
- Dremel
- Silicone sealant
Slightly related sign that was up when I was entering...
Pipe!
Tube! (I already cut it down to size before taking this photo, but it cost about $6 for a metre)
I then marked across the bottom section of the pipe where i wanted the tube to slot into and then used my hot knife to cut out a rough half moon shape. Used a file to clean it up best I could, then finished it off with the dremel to make it smoother
Slot Cut
As you can see below, the tube fits quite nicely into the slot i cut out. Although in it's present form, the tube slides around on the groove.
Getting its groove on
The next picture is just to show you the general idea of how it'll be used.
General Idea...
Obviously the above is a bit rough and bashing spent grind into this will just make it fall out the bottom, so
Circle on clear plastic sheet
With it cut out, i needed to attach it to the bottom of the pipe and make sure it was water proof, so this stuff works a treat:
Sealant
Sealant applied
Next, asthetics:
Spray painting it a coppery colour
Find something suitable for a stand (I found an old VESA monitor back) - glue on a grippy material to the grooves to stop the tube sliding around (also helps to hide rough dremel work) and....
Almost done
Last step is to put the tube in place, and set up for a posed shot pretending to use it in action...
Finished!
That's all folks!
My adventure fixing a Jura Impressa F50 Espresso Machine
My friend Vince gave me this (very) broken Espresso Machine last Saturday.
The machine - looks alright on the surface, huh?
He said he believed it to be dropped at his work and whoever did it wouldn't own up to it. I gave it a test and sure enough... coffee leaked out of everywhere else but the nozzle.
When removing top cover, I noticed a couple of floating bits of plastic inside that should latch onto the chassis were broken off (the black plastic had turned white from sheering) coffee had spilled out into the machine and was sitting on the circuit boards (including the 240v power in) I quickly turned to removing these boards, cleaning, drying out and coating in a moisture protecting spray.
The hoses for both the steam wand and the espresso were blocked and had caused them to rupture under pressure.
The machine is: http://www.jura.com/home_x/products_home_use/f_line/impressa_f50n.htm
The following set of pictures document my fixing of the machine.
though close up you can see there has been a big dilemma... coffee... everywhere.
and inside the machine...
And I suppose when it was dropped, the coffee that was already ground exploded inside the machine in a cloud
Pretty sure there shouldn't be a pool of coffee sitting around inside the machine 
A shot from above
I initially tried cleaning out the compartment where the coffee goes before it hits the nozzle... slightly better but it's dribbling and going sideways with inconsistent pressure and still leaking out all over
Opening it up a bit further i find that there is coffee all over the circuit boards and wires..
including the 240v input source - coated in a corrosive... coffee and getting wet with all the leakage going on...
I decided to give the nozzle head a good clean as i had to remove it to get to the electronics anyway...
actually i cleaned half the machine
After all that cleaning i got to tracing the problems in the machine... i got a bit bored of taking photos.. essentially the problems had stemmed from kinks in the hoses that grab water and espresso. The kinks caused the hoses to rupture, meaning pressure drops at end or hose and the ruptures caused coffee and water to leak out inside the machine. Managed to cut the hoses a bit shorter and it still had enough hose left - you'll also note i've added the steam/water nozzle holders on the right hand side of the machine.
first test after fixing. 2 x 30ml doses of espresso in this mug
On Sunday afternoon I had my friend and Coffee Aficionado, Matt over for his professional opinion on the machine now it has been restored to working condition... his response:
"The F50 is basically a suped-up home espresso machine with some serious advantages. It has an internal conical burr grinder (way better than the blades on a spice-mill), total one-button operation for espresso, no messy grinds coating your benchtop, and no portafilter to tamp or empty wet grounds out of. The steam production is what you'd expect from any thermoblock machine. It includes an auto-frother attachment which completes the super-automatic package. All in all it's a great machine for someone who has no budget for making great coffee at home and would rather drink freshly-ground over instant shit."
The steam wand also works now too - stretched half a cup of milk and finished off... - hey presto - a working Super Automatic Espresso Machine - though it's pretty evident that i suck at Latte Art
Overall i'm pretty pleased with this little machine The down side (debatable) is i'm going to be drinking a lot more coffee now!
Future upgrade ideas:
- Planning on making an adapter for the steam wand to pump milk into it automatically.
- Once the above works, do a CNC-style etcher that runs on GCode.
Any more ideas?
Stop Breaking Capitalism!!
It seems to be a growing trend lately that whenever a financial company goes belly up, governments are more than happy to bail them out - using our tax dollars too!! Since when has capitalism been about this? In my personal opinion this too nanny state, and from an extremely slanted view it’s approaching socialism.
If I started “Marks Fruit and Vege Shop” tomorrow and a year later it went belly up, following trends I shouldn’t have to worry - the government will bail my company out because I was too dumb to see the over-saturation of fruit and vege shops in the market. Any investment involves risk, it’s up to the individuals making the investment to manage the risk and invest wisely (be it in a finance company or a business venture).
Do you go ask the government for money when you lose all your money gambling at the casino? (Well I suppose to some extent state welfare gives you a safety net) but essentially: If you gamble with your money be prepaired to manage the risk and if you lose it, it’s your problem.
Adding to this, it only seems to be big finance companies that governments are willing to bail out, when smaller ones go under the investors lose everything – but if it’s a big one, by jove we better help them out?.... It should be all or nothing… Personally I’ll go with the nothing option thank you. Call it economic natural selection if you will….
What do you think?