Too Much Coffee

This has arrived for a complete strip down and rebuild. Should be interesting and different.

Machine looks like it's had a hard life...

I doubt Jank will bother to introduce himself so I will.

Jank is a SE London coffee machine guy and fellow backyard engineer, he has been helping out Dark Fluid and this is machine was bought(I say bought but hustled might be more appropriate!) by Chris, also a member here. I have seen a fair bit of Jank's work now and most of the machines come back looking newer than they left the factory. Weird but true. If anyone needs a service I recommend a PM.

I bench tested this machine the other day, as stated it's been really hammered, probably a kilo of coffee and hot choc in the frame. It steams like a monster and the foot pedal is the coolest thing ever. Fun was had till it blew the safety valve, never seen this before, it's dramatic and nearly killed coffeehits PC!. The HX loop is funky to say the least, flowmeters on cold side and it brews with water from the hot and cold side of the thermosyphon, I think. Hopefully Jank will explain the full workings soon. Kees has been very helpful in supporting the restoration.

Side panels and gas, gas, gas!
http://twitpic.com/5pnk7w

Plenty photos please mate

Is this the same Mirage as was on ebay last week? Must admit I looked at it more than once

Yep, me too. Kudos to Chris who looked only once, then made an offer anyone could refuse.

Based on those photos, it's probably a good job I only looked! Otherwise I'd currently be sitting shell shocked and wondering what I had got myself into

Nice to hear a beautiful machine is going to be restored and used properly

Ha! Thanks for the intro and big-up LS

I'm just giving the Mirage a wipe down with a soapy sponge so I don't get sticky fingers whilst working (like last weeks stinky Spaziale - separate thread to follow).

I will be stripping the body work off this evening so I can have a good look round the machine and meditate on the rebuild.

Looks like at least the groups, steamers and water spout have to come off before the all-in-one stainless body will slide off.

It certainly is an unusual design in that respect. You can't just pop off the body and be left with a naked machine like with most others. Parts of the chassis are visible outside the box and are used as part of the styling.

More pics to follow...
Anyone know how to get bigger pictures on here?

BTW, for those who don't know, 'lsjms' is a coffee roaster extraordinaire and jointly responsible for Neil le Bihan's 2nd place and Best Cappuccino at this years UKBC

First thing you notice about these modified E61 groups is the third hole in the back.

Standard E61's exhaust through a valve in the lower section and out to the drip tray whereas these vent through a hole bored through the back of what would normally be the lever cam chamber then on through a solenoid to the waste pipe.

Wrong. Or at least partially wrong. I'm just beginning to realise that this machine contains some funky concepts that are not 100% clear to me as yet...

JankSolid wrote:More pics to follow...
Anyone know how to get bigger pictures on here?

WOW! Wonderful thread, wonderful work and welcome JankSolid!

Unfortunately, you cannot put larger pictures up here (or more accurately, you can, but the mods will have to reduce them in size because of the mechanics of the forum software). You can put the pictures up on another site and then attach them here as a URL, but that is also a problem because they then throw off the line length and make horizontal scrolling necessary. I can help you reduce pictures to fit here if that is what you want to do or you can put the pictures up somewhere else and just link to them from here. PM me if you think I can be of any help to you. We would LOVE to see more pictures of your work.

With the bodywork off (in 2 main sections [front and rear] plus 2 top sections and a plate on the bottom) and the groups and taps removed the Mirage was still too heavy to lift on to my bench.

Draining the boiler has brought it in to my lifting range so I'll be able to get a better look round it and get down to some serious work today.

Meanwhile, here are some photos for your entertainment...

...

great pictures!

quite amazing but through all the gunk one can still see kees' extraordinary work shining through.

Welcome to TMC JankSolid and thank you for taking the time to document the strip down of this beautiful machine for us.

Thanks.

A couple of concepts were confusing me but a bit of head-scratching sorted that out.

a: A standard E61 group has a valve (5) separating the top section (3 - where the thermosyphon is circulating) from the central chamber (14). Whan you lift the lever the valve opens and allows water in to the centre where pump pressure on the HX/thermosyphon loop pushes it through to the head.




On this machine the top section and middle chamber are blocked off from each other. A water feed is taken from the upper thermosyphon pipe, through a solenoid and in to the back of the central chamber. A neat way of replacing the E61's valve/mushroom gubbins with a solenoid .


b: I couldn't see how this was right



It looked like the pipe to one of the flowmeters (the connections on the left of the square section brass block) was fed from the waste pipe. Until I realised that the block is hollow and a very clever and neat way of packaging water feeds, non-return valve and expansion valve in to as small a space as possible. I like it!

(I since found out this is from a Magister. Thanks to lsjms for noting that)