Tech Tips

by Ruel "Bong" Juachon, unless otherwise noted.

Bong "Fully-Loaded" Machine

100-Top side (Sep-2022)
101-Under the hood (Sep-2022)

A-Mods/hacks

57-Mods/hacks - video (07-Feb-2021)
59-Mods/hacks - table (09-Feb-2021)

B-Maintenance

20-Inverted machine work mode (27-Sep-2020)
30-Base maintenance (13-Nov-2020)
50-Base hole mod (17-Jan-2021)
68-Pulycaff & critic acid (13-Mar-2021)
69-Easy alternative grouphead backflush (24-Mar-2021)
71-Pulycaff/Cafiza reaction on plastic sleeve/piston (25-Mar-2021)

C-Tools

3-Leveler, distribution & clump breaker tool (21-Nov-2019)
32-Self-aligning shaft tool (17-Nov-2020)
36-Tool to take apart, mount & tighten piston/shaft (25-Nov-2020)
38-Gen1 sleeve removal tool (05-Dec-2020)
42-Boiler holder jig (13-Dec-2020)

D-Grouphead

5-Gen2 water-heated grouphead mod V2 (12-Dec-2019)
8-Mass of 4 different GHs: Elektra MCL, LP Stradivari, LP Gen 3 & Gen2 (12-Feb-2020)
11-Indestructible grouphead brush (23-Apr-2020)

E-Steam wand & assembly

18-Anti-burn rubber for steam wand (17-Aug-2020)
19-Loose Gen3/4 steam wand (14-Sep-2020)
28-Valve lapping to fix leaking/dripping steam wand (03-Nov-2020)
29-Steam assembly removal & hole repair (05-Nov-2020)
53-Another dented boiler on steam assembly mount (21-Jan-2021)
62-Introducing Steam wand extender/concentrator (19-Feb-2021)
66-B-push valve adjustments (08-Mar-2021)

F-Lever

7-Lever pressure (pre-PPK) (30-Dec-2019)
15-9 bar pull is a torture (24-Jul-2020)
16-Weighted pressure test (25-Jul-2020)
17-Low volume/spongy pull (02-Aug-2020)
26-Lever rod hack (23-Oct-2020)
34-Loose lever fork (18-Nov-2020)
35-Tight Lever fork (19-Nov-2020)
58-Removing the lever c-clips (07-Feb-2021)

G-PID

4-Double PID (25-Nov-2019)
22-Double PID end game for LP temperature management (08-Oct-2020)

H-Sightglass

9-Sightglass highlighter (23-Feb-2020)
52-Removing/recovering La Pavoni sightglass (20-Jan-2021)
56-Aligning the sightglass mounts (01-Feb-2021)
60-Sightglass highlighter for slotted steel glass protector (10-Feb-2021)
67-Sightglass removal & mounting - wooden tool with bamboo chopsticks (12-Mar-2021)

I-Bong Isolator

21-Bong isolator fill tube tip (28-Sep-2020)
61-Isolator update: watch out for the number of L-pipe threads (16-Feb-2021)

J-Portafilter

6-Portafilter quick release - 3-way valve (22-Dec-2019)
10-Basket support (09-Mar-2020)
27-Enlarging bottomless portafilters (25-Oct-2020)
44-Falling basket hack (20-Dec-2020)

K-Electrical

24-Checking the health of heating element (16-Oct-2020)
25-Ground line - hidden danger (18-Oct-2020)
46-Pro live demo wiring (08-Jan-2021)
47-Pro wiring diagram mod V1 (09-Jan-2021)
51-Installing thermal fuse on old Europiccola with 2 heating elements (18-Jan-2021)
55-Diagnostic light indicators (31-Jan-2021)
64-Steam switch mod - TSw version (20-Feb-2021)
65-Glyptal or high temp resin for heating element terminals (24-Feb-2021)

L-Boiler pressure, safety valve & pressurestat

1-Anti-vacuum & safety valve discussion (19-Oct-2019)
12-0.85 bar boiler pressure (15-May-2020)
23-Restoring a pressure gauge (10-Oct-2020)
31-Lowering boiler pressure to 0.6 bar for machines with high-low switch (15-Nov-2020)
39-Steady boiler pressure (08-Dec-2020)
43-Testing your pstats (17-Dec-2020)
48-Stock pstat adjustment (10-Jan-2021)
70-Choosing the right cut-off temperature for the resettable thermal breaker (24-Mar-2021)

M-Puck

14-Gen2 puck hole mystery solved (20-Jun-2020)
63-Small puck hole/indent (19-Feb-2021)

N-Experiments

13-Effect of RO on water PH (07-Jun-2020)
33-Thermometer setup for brew water temp logging (17-Nov-2020)
41-False pressure demystified (09-Dec-2020)
40-Actual brew water temp vs GH pull temp (09-Dec-2020)
49-Actual brew water temp vs GH pull temp (10-Dec-2020)

O-Other

2-Grinder with doser - zero retention (12-Nov-2019)
37-Bong bean cellar (01-Dec-2020)
45-Gaggia Achille coffee tech guys dream hybrid machine (25-Dec-2020)
54-Grind concentrator (29-Jan-2021)

Created 13-Sep-2020 | updated 30-AUG-2022 | BCP