The new little sister
to Mme. Gaggia arrived today...
The delivery man was
all for pushing Ms Gaggia off the back of his truck,
so I had to save her
myself.
You will notice the
familiarity with Mme. Gaggia - When I decided to build the espresso
trailer I particularly
wanted another lever machine - and preferably a bright red and chrome
machine with those
lovely exposed groups. I was lucky in that Frank at Visacrem had
a refurbished
2 group Visacrem VX
available, and with the addition of a gas kit, here she came...
Bodgitt was there to
help as usual. But I have to get a neighbour, as even us two couldn't
lift the thing (75kg)
She's an identical
pair to Mme. Gaggia, except two groups, and the boiler is only
15 litres or so.
I must say that Mme. Gaggia has had less of a strenuous life than Ms. Gaggia.
Makes me realise how
lucky I was to find my 3 grouper in such good condition - There's nothing
wrong
with the new machine,
it's just that you can see she had more of a working life than my little
baby indoors:)
One kind neighbour,
two cappuchinos later and we got it in eventually,
but what a squeeze...She's
the same width as the door to the trailer to within mm!
(The trailer is 8'
x 6')
Honda 2.7kw generator
underneath
---------------------------------
Looks OK, but a little
lower - I'll have to raise her a tad.
I don't actually like
this position, but there is no easy alternative,
other than moving
the fridge freezer around, or swapping it for 2 smaller
fridges that fit under
the counter, and then the elctrical consumption
would go up too high.
Now for the gas, electricity
and water, and where to put a knock box...
(Environmental Health
Inspector visits today at 13:30 - not sure I'll be ready for them)
I still have to find
a pump that will lift water from a container and also combat
the 1.2 bar boiler
pressure. I'm going to rig two electrical supplies - one
that can run off a
small generator (2.7kw) when she's on
Butane/Propane so
that the automatic level control and solenoid still operates - even
though she has a manual
fill knob (lower right), when I'm busy I will probably forget,
then there would be
a long wait for recovery after I refilled the boiler.
The second electrical
supply will be complete electrics at 13 amp for venues where I can have
access to power, thus
saving the gas and the generator.
If all else fails
I have another generator that will power everything in the trailer on electric
(5kw).
This way I can run
off gas or electric or both.
More pics of the completed trailer (much) later....
...Later today...
The nice lady from
the Environmental Health department has been. She paid me (or my
trailer) a compliment
by saying she hadn't often seen a cleaner trailer, was very happy with
my efforts, was pleased
with the thermometers I stuck everywhere that should be cold,
and had never seen
a trailer with a (hygenic) two sink arrangement (the 2nd sink is a clever
little pull out drawer!).
I moved the espresso
machine around a bit, ended up on the side, and have decided to take
the fridge out as
it is in the way, and doesn't work.
Tonight I bought a
massive Coca-Cola glass fronted fridge instead! Well, it was very
clean
and hardly used, and
for £100 I couldn't resist. Only trouble is it's 6ft high,
and wider
than the door opening,
So now I have to try and get it in through the serving hatch,
and the layout will
be changed again to suit the newest arrival!
The fridge will move
from here (far right), releasing the complete back counter,
and the new Coke fridge
will go in the gap above, with Ms. Gaggia further
along the counter.
I even found a great
little place to store the generator when travelling, out of the way
(pics later on that
one)
Well, the old fridge
has gone, Ms Gaggia has been moved round a bit, and the new Coke fridge
is in the trailer.
Final resting place for the fridge looks like 90 degrees round to the right
from present position,
against the side of the trailer where the light and cupboard is currently.
The idea is to gain
as much floor space as possible, as I have a full run of counter on
the other side.
I now have to re hang the fridge door.
I've settled for the
Gaggia in this position now. The fridge is due for a move this afternoon,
when I have help.
I connected power,
gas and water last night, and this morning I am turning out really nice
shots
with almost an inch
of dark crema. This, having adjusted the grinder finer so I could
use a
lighter temp.
The first two pics
are slightly green, due to the internal lighting.
The 3rd shot is taken
outside in ambient light
It's blooming hot
in there! I might insulate the top of the Gaggia as I have my home
machine, just
to keep some heat
from escaping when on gas. I've changed the gas and regulator from
Butane
to Propane as it has
a higher calorific value, so now it's even hotter (ambient 20 deg, in the
van 28 deg.)
I'm also toying with
a vent/hood above the Gaggia.
New stuff this evening
- we've installed the fridge in it's final resting place.
Jeff is routing a
piece of worktop to go under the Gaggia (where the old fridge was)
and some outside shots
from the customer's side...
Next day:
Everything is now
in it's place, apart from wiring/gas/water tidying up.
The grinder now has
a nice space, albeit in front of the fridge, but with limited space,
what can you do.
Just some cleaning
up to do, and try and remove the glue that was holding a
steel panel to the
side wall. We had to take the panel off to install the fridge.
Latest:
The horrible orange
gas pipe has gone, replaced with copper pipe and a gas valve under
the Gaggia.
We tested a pump today, fed from a water container, and
whilst it filled the
gaggia, it was sloooooow. I could get away with it, but
if I can find another,
better pump, I'd rather.
Trailer painted!
That's just about it
(at least for the first event). Just got to sort out
a few electrics and
install the pump properly and I'm ready for
other events too,
where I won't have water/electrics on site.