Just a note about the site. I’ve just migrated everything from Drupal, and I gotta say, WordPress is the way to go (for me). I’ll accept that Drupal may be the technically superior solution, and can be beaten to better serve very high bandwidth sites…but seriously, upgrading was hell and most everything else was a headache for me. This is so much nicer….
But, given that this is one of a few sites I’ve just migrated, I’ll have to work through them all one at a time and the site identity here will use the default 2013 theme for awhile.
Dennis clearing the driveway after the Blizzard of ’13 (Nemo)
My mother sent me this picture of my father using his snowblower to clear the driveway after the Blizzard of ’13 (I have a hard time calling it “Nemo”) dumped 30-inches of snow overnight.
This is the view burned indelibly into my memory from childhood: watching my father do this very thing from our big bay window, me snug in my footy pajamas while he wrestled outside with the loud, snow-belching machine that threw the snow forever…
Well, after partially assembling, checking for leaks, fixing leaks, and completely reassembling, Miss Silvia (a 2006 Rancilio Silvia) is pulling its first espresso shots and steaming milk for lattes. So far everything is working more or less like it was before it died. Next weekend I replace the portafilter gasket and see if that gets rid of the niggling leak around the portafilter.
Making my first latte after rebuilding a v1 Rancilio Silvia
Well, I managed to fix the second major headache in my quest to revive Miss Silvia (a 2006 Rancilio Silvia). If you don’t remember, this was my boneheaded over-tightening of the high-temperature thermostat. It resulted in breaking the shaft of it…the part that screwed into the boiler.
I had a couple of options: buy a replacement boiler (to the tune of way too much money…), try extracting the screw using any means available, or jury-rig something.
Since the high-temperature thermostat essentially prevents the machine from turning into a bomb if it gets too hot (steam under pressure can be a dangerous thing), I wanted to do my best to extract the broken screw and replace it with a new high-temperature thermostat. So, I ordered the new thermostat and and a set of micro screw extractors:
The biggest screw extractor in the set did the trick:
Successfully extracted a snapped thermostat screw from a Rancilio Silvia
Well, today I have another broken screw problem with my Silvia. This time I broke the screw off the high-limit thermostat. This is the part that shuts off power to the device if it’s about to turn into a bomb, so I’d rather back out the broken screw and replace with a new part than jury-rig a fix.
If you look closely, you’ll see that it’s broken off INSIDE my new boiler… and the local hardware store doesn’t sell reverse drill bits/screw extractors this small.
The fun never ends on this project…I snapped the thermostat screw in my boiler by over-tightening.
Cleaning the Silvia was achieved by repeatedly filling the group head with a solution of water and citric acid (Dezcal), letting it soak, and scrubbing with a scotch brite pad. Took about 20hrs of soaking and scrubbing to get all of the mineral deposits off.
Rancilio Silvia boiler is opened, and very dirty.
Starting to see progress as the Silvia boiler starts to clean up with citric acid.
The bottom plate of the boiler is now looking clean.
Well, I bought the espresso machine off my employer when it stopped working. I got a good deal on it, and figured it would be a fun project to undertake fixing it. And at the end, I’d have a working machine and great espresso.
The model is a Rancilio Silvia, and this is what she looks like when she’s all buffed and shiny (actually, the image is of a V2 machine. The machine I have is a V1, and has a slightly different grill over the catch basin):
What a new Rancilio Silvia espresso machine looks like.
The first thing I had to do was diagnose what’s wrong with her. I was expecting to have to replace the boiler, regardless. But when we unplugged it, the machine was still able to pour on. It just produced a tepid pull of espresso with a funky taste to it.
When I got it home, the machine wouldn’t turn on without tripping the GFI outlet. Uh oh. Maybe this was going to be more complicated than I thought.
After a little bit of Google-Fu, I found this dicussion. After disconnecting the wires from the heating element posts, the machine powered on. Since I had planned on replacing the boiler anyways, this doesn’t really change anything for me except that it solves the mystery of why it wouldn’t power on.
I’ll post again when I start ripping things apart. But for now, here’s what the guts of Miss Siliva look like:
This is what it looks like inside my Rancilio Silvia espresso machine.
Let’s see… electricity, steam, heat & pressure… what could possibly go wrong?
OK, the titular alliteration signifies my jubilance. Hy-Vee just sent me the following email regarding pink slime. Looks like they are not only going to stop trying to convince people that pink slime is wholesome, but they appear to be in the process of removing it from their inventory as well.
Here’s what they wrote:
In response to concerns expressed by our customers, Hy-Vee has decided to discontinue the purchase of ground beef products containing Lean Finely Textured Beef. Although this ground beef meets all USDA standards for quality and safety, recent news stories have led to a loss of consumer confidence in the product.
We have notified our suppliers of this decision and are working to switch our product lines as quickly as possible. We want to thank our customers for sharing their feedback on this issue and assure them Hy-Vee will continue to listen and respond to their concerns, just as our company has been doing for more than 80 years.
