Marc's Products:
Almost to a fault, i fix everything and keep it working after most others would replace it. I like to know how
things work, and this often leads to disassembling them, understanding their design, and when/where possible leaving
them better than i found them. I've often referred to this practice as Quiet Games. This drive was consistent from
one of my first jobs as a bicycle mechanic in my early
teens, through a career in software design. While in general i don't
think of myself as a big consumer, there are a few products i really like, often though not exclusively, tools; many
of which help me keep me
and my
stuff ticking...
-
Alexa Home Automation related:
I've found the following items useful and fun in automating my
home
via seamless integration into the Amazon Alexa ecosystem.
- Several Kasa Smart Plugs which allow you to say
"Alexa, turn on the
TubeAmp" (which the Amazon Echo Dot has a BT
connection to, enabling great HiFi stereo via which you can play
PrimeMusic-- included w/your AmazonPrime subscription, Pandora, Spotify, etc in your home), and "Alexa,
turn on the Mr. Coffee at 6:15a" after you've
setup the coffee pot the evening before.
- Several Kasa Smart Light Switches which allow you
to say
"Alexa, turn on the DenLight", to set the porch light to go on at Sunset & off at Sunrise, via a timer
rule, and allowing "Alexa, after 15min turn off the BathroomFan" when you get out of the shower.
- A TREATLIFE Smart Ceiling Fan Control and light
dimmer which allow you
to say "Alexa, turn on the CeilingFan"
- A Sengled Smart LED multicolor bulb which allow
you to say "Alexa, turn on the MagicLight" or "Alexa, MagicLight 20%" or "Alexa, MagicLight red"
- A Refoss Smart WiFi Garage Door Opener which allow
you to say "Alexa, close the garage door" or to open/close it from your phone.
- A Fire TV Stick 4k so you can cut the cord and
have voice command over your existing set... or if you're due for a new TV, perhaps the 65" Omni Series 4K UHD smart TV or the 55" Omni QLED Series 4K UHD smart TV.
- A Sharp ZSMC1469HS Microwave Oven which allow
you to say "Alexa, microwave my frozen peas for 5min." fwiw, not saying you should buy a new microwave
SO that you can say that, however if you were going to get a new microwave this might fit the bill, and
the home automation theme. It does keep its time in sync (and resets time after power failures)-- so you
can really use it as a kitchen clock on school days. I find it actually works quite well, though i do
get some side eye from other
family members when speak to the micro...
I have a Samsung (Model #NE63BG8315SS) stovetop/oven in the kitchen as well, and can similarly
turn on/off the oven light via Alexa, along w/keeping its clock sync'ed.
Ahh... the IoT. Yeah... the Internet, it's gonna be big someday.
-
Go Bucket for the Truck
Some gotta-have-it gear when heading out... i keep them it in a 2.5gal
bucket i bring with me in the truck like a portable glovebox:
-
Other tools you should probably have on hand, or otherwise around the house
Some items for the
garage
bench, your wrist, on or
under your
counter, etc. I'll leave it to you when and where you use them.
-
Must haves for the nerd bench
OK... must haves are an overstatement, though this is some fun
gear to geek out with, 'cause everyone needs a nerd bench, right?
-
The Commode
it deserves its own section.
- I'm a single piece Toto Ultramax Elongated 1 Piece
Toilet MS854114SG#01 Cotton White fan, which should come with a Toto soft close lid.
- Between that lid and the bowl, you should have a simple bidet. The LUXE Bidet NEO 185 is a good choice in my book.
- A motion sensing, color LED night light for the
bowl is
entirely
unnecessary... butt there are far worse ways to flush $5.
- In a more traditional tool sense... to the extent you want or need
to replace an old, multi-turn gate valve to shutoff supply for your toilet (or sink), in favor of a
working, modern 1/4 turn ball valve (maintaining
OG style internal copper compression fitting),
and in the process of attempting to reuse the old nut and ferrule find it seeping or worse
due to mineral deposits or other corrosion needing remediation prior to new refitting...
you will need a US threaded
(hard to find-- i bought 2 other tools first which had foreign/metric threads, despite claims to the
contrary, before settling on this one)
1/2" compression fitting nut and
ferrule puller. This one is a winner.
- And to the extent you live in a house full of women like me (i'd have it no other way) these tub and sink strainers make a great
alternative to the stock drain stoppers, in terms of keep the drains hair clog free.
-
Coffee-- on feeding the Espresso ritual
also deserving of a separate section... perhaps soon its
own page. There's an area
of my kitchen countertop that's beginning to
resemble a modest science lab.
- On the simpler side of things, a great cup of coffee (albeit not espresso) can be made
from a French Press. Or an Italian moka style percolator produces a great
shot, as i was
rereminded by Benoit
Paulis
while
in
Stavelot, Belgium in summer '23 (2 decades after initially meeting him, at a mutual friend's house, in
Taiwan)
upon returning our year-long exchange student, my '3rd daughter'
Lia, to
her
rightful
family. I had first started drinking coffee at
breakfast time just shy of 4 decades earlier as an exchange student
myself in
Florence, Italy from a traditional, aluminum, dodecahedral Italian moka, or
macchinetta del caffè. In any
event Press or Moka,
i prefer the stainless revisions shared, of those classics.
It will undoubtedly break less in the case of the former v. the more common glass version. I've replaced
many
a
beaker over the years despite handling with care, to no avail. And in the
latter case
the 6 & 9 cup versions are my
preference for 1 or 2
persons, respectively; neither will not leach aluminum.
- Years ago i stumbled upon a Lavazza
Espresso Point machine at a senior living center holiday bizaar fundraiser for $25; you can
still occasionally locate one on eBay.
My find required
a minimal amount of maintenance, mostly cleaning... and to this day makes a reasonable
espresso, though
requires proprietary, limited variety pods. I've tried various options available and more/less
settled
on these Lavazza
Aroma Club 100% Arabica Espresso Point Cartridges. While the steam wand is far from exceptional,
it works and you can make some
lucious looking, delicious
drinks
with surprising ease.
- If for some reason i'm away, and Kirsten isn't traveling with me and needs a cup sans my fixation on
toiling about it... there's the De'Longhi
Nespresso
Inissia Espresso Machine which is more/less foolproof once you get the initial hang of
loading
the cartridge. There are tons of coffee options for this machine, many great ones from Nespresso
themselves (and there's actually a science here to their
patented
advantage over other supplier's pods
you can geek out on if you wish).
And yet, there are also many more than adequate options, like the Lavazza Maestro Ristretto capsules, or even the budget Amazon Branded Solimo Lungo capsules. If you
simply want a reliably good shot with almost zero effort, in no
time, and no nerding about-- this just might be your go to.
- Oh-- and before i get to the pièce de résistance, i suppose i also need to mention the
Maxwell
House 'Good to the Last Drop'
Vintage 35-cup Percolator
i picked up for $4
from 'Nona's attic' at the
Greek Orthodox Holy Trinity Church fundraiser festival in Maitland, FL late last year just prior to
Thanksgiving. It paired splendidly
with an over abundance of Pie à la Mode over the '24 holidays in the company of family and friends
(and
heck, the Maxwell House Big Max can of coffee
was
more expensive ;-).
-
The back story on the Lever machine is as follows... at some point in the early fall of '24,
subsequent
to packing out full Tetris stylie in Seattle, and driving cross country in a 15' U-Haul
box truck containing many a sundry from 20yrs prior...
one of the finds locked away for two decades,
shortly before i was closing up the last panel on the storage lock down in '04 on heading to Hong
Kong,
unbeknownst to me was a Swiss made
1976
Olympia
Cremina67 lever machine
which someone
had gifted me, noting it needed a rebuild but was right up my alley.
I can honestly say at the time i had no idea what it was (other than the obvious in terms of my
knowing it was an espresso machine).
A few weeks after arriving in FL, the machine's shiny exterior
reflected some light from a corner piled w/other boxes from the trip and called to me leading me to
plug
it in on a kitchen
counter. I attempted to 'pull a shot' (a term I only later heard, and began to appreciate)... and
got
nothing but dirty water. It was at that point i recalled the mention of the need to rebuild...
Because i have this constant nagging hunch that, the internet is going to be big someday, i set out
surfing
the
interwebs to learn all i could. It wasn't long before i started to get a picture of what might lay
ahead.
Suffice it to say, thanks in part to a not well deliberated yet fortuitous last minute decision to
squeeze it on the truck v. dispatch it as part the final Goodwill run... my morning routine has been
transformed.
- With some hindsight, i can now say, when it comes to rebuilding an Olympia Cremina
it's
hard to imagine
proceeding without:
- visiting
Orphan Espresso
and their (Barb & Doug Garrott's) rebuild Video Vault
which will undoubtedly soon be followed by purchases of a Cremina 67
Full Rebuild Kit, a stainless group rebuild hw, some DOW 111 (Dow
Corning Molykote 111 food grade lubricant), and perhaps some Joe Glo.
- viewing
James
Hoffman and
Lance Hedrick
reviews of the classic lever machine.
And read, read, read... the
original owner's manual, the
current manual, and the numerous Reddit entries on the
topic.
And perhaps,
- visualizing a
Naked
Portafilter,
grouphead piston pressure kit,
boiler pressure kit,
Smart
Profiler,
or some combination thereof, in your future as if it were a direct download from the
diagnostic mind of
Gábor
Laczkó.
-
After that, the learning that follows, as it is with anything, is about putting in
the
time-- something i look forward to upon awakening each morning. Some initial additions are
inevitable; borderline non-negotiable:
- 0th are good quality beans, freshly roasted with love. I'm exploring local
roasters,
and
would encourage you to do the same... thus no links here, at least for now.
-
arguably neither incremental, nor optional, despite my initial disbelief and
attempts to dismiss all advice to the contrary. In short, after changing out grouphead
piston & portafilter seals as part of the rebuilding... a decent burr grinder, with
extensive fine adjustment, will
dramatically vary the grouphead
pressure in practice such that one can, or can't pull a decent shot. My numerous initial
attempts to continue using one of several old blade grinders i had was met with nothing but frustration and
failure, leading me to double-check the proper
grouphead
seal orientation
(which was emphatically not the issue).
- I found these digital thermometers
a
cheap and
easy
way to keep a watchful eye on understanding and managing grouphead temperature.
- arriving at and maintaining concious consistency of dosing weight via
a
simple yet competent digital
scale is also crucial to pulling a reproducible shot.
(I
tried another
moderately fancier model to assist
with auto-calculating dose:extraction ratio, and brew time, both which are key to a
reproducible production profile; though in this particular
case of pulling a shot with a lever machine,
the UX flow of this scale i purchased without much forethought is better suited to
brewing with a
French Press, or 'Pour Over'
brewing
with the likes of a
Hario V60,
Melitta, or
Kalita, as best as i can tell from
reading though i have no personal experience with this method.)
- Other incremental purchases are of less import, yet nonetheless making the whole ritual of
pulling
a great shot that much more repeatable, not to mention a guilty pleasure include:
-
a portafilter/puck screen. I
will
note,
even as i add this i am somewhat reticent not to include it in my prior numbered
list.
While i don't tend to see 'the pros' consistently using one in their videos (perhaps
to
simplify the process for the sake of the video?), i have found it invaluable,
along w/consistent pre-infusion time, @ consistent grouphead temp & dose weight, to
consistency of perceived pressure felt on the lever (despite my not 'yet'
having
proven
that, given i've yet to add a piston pressure guage-- ya see where i'm headed here)...
which
in turns leads to repeatable pull
time, and overall profile (pressure/time) consistency, leading to a great &
reproducible
shot. I've sent
some screens to my friend Pat
in
Seattle. On staying with him and Cam, while packing out prior to our XC drive, he
aided
and abetted my proclivity toward such a morning ritual obsession by giving me the
honors
of pulling morning shots on his dedicated bench
(albeit
i am blocking much of it in this view, you can get the idea that he was far more
serious about it at time of
this photo than
i. And, as
Billy Currington says, i'm pretty good at drinkin'
beer. But I digress-- and yet the
fact remains, he hadn't yet tried using a
portafilter screen; though now on writing this, i can also speculate if you hadn't
manually felt the pressure
differential between portafilter packs, you might not have been stirred to experiment
with this).
-
mini spray bottle; prior to
grinding, 3 sprays (at .1g/spritz) is a nice way to start avoiding static cling
clumping
in your grind.
-
dosing funnel; a rounding
error
on the price of a proper grinder, yet an accurate way of insuring what you ground
gets
into and stays in the portafilter.
-
post-grind WDT (Weiss Distribution
Technique) tool. I made one out of a wine cork and some fine copper wire.
-
distributor.
-
tamping mat.
-
tamper. (You do need one of
these,
though i'm assuming you didn't obtain the machine to begin with without one that
matches
its 49mm diameter portafilter, which in itself is somewhat smaller and uncommon
relative
to the rest of the field. The original accessories that came with the machine
included a
brown plastic tamper which i have, since upgraded as shared.)
-
knock box.
- my meager reference library at present (1st 2 books gifted by Pat):
-
how to make THE BEST COFFEE at
home,
James Hoffman. You just have to watch one of his videos to know he's forgotten more
about
coffee than i'll ever know, but this is a great summary of many topics all in one neat,
easy
go to read. After my first pass i've got a dozen post-its marking sections i use as
reference (eg. on roast level and corresponding brew temp, water alkalinity v. hardness,
comparitive tasting, etc).
-
Coffee Art, Dhan Tamang
-
And 2 websites chock full o'Beans: https://CoffeeGeek.com/, and https://www.Home-Barista.com/.
-
The Truck
While the coffee fixation may get there, the truck... well, if it doesn't warrant its own page after the 30+ years i've had the privilege of shepherding
her, then i don't know what does.
So that's the story. These are simply some things i find useful and enjoy putting to good use. I've been thinking
of hosting a
Marc's
Products
page for
years; finally got around to it.
Hope you'll find some corner of it interesting as well.
Note: This page contains affiliates links for hours of quiet games
fun. So yeah, as official disclosures go, so you know... "As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying
purchases."