A few things I've made for the espresso machine, one of them very much more than it needed to be.
The aluminum bronze funnel (November 2024 to January 2025)
I always enjoy casting, and on my birthday in November 2024 I decided to try making some aluminum bronze for an espresso funnel. This is the sand mold, with a 3d-printed ring-shaped pattern pressed into it.
And the pour, at night in the backyard. You can see the glowing crucible, the furnace and the molten metal in the mold's pour opening.
It looks like it was a success: here's the casting freshly shaken out of the sand.
A couple of days later I started cleaning it up on the lathe. The aluminum bronze looks amazing as it cleans up. It's just 90% copper and 10% aluminum, and one application is propellers. It's really pretty.
A few days after that, I'd gotten in a bit of machining over lunch. Plenty left to do. The top is faced and the inside is bored, with some casting pits still remaining.
In January 2025 I finally finished turning the espresso funnel. It's totally ridiculous, but I wanted to make something out of aluminum bronze, and the 3D printed one I'd been using was unsatisfying. This one weighs like three pounds, which is very satisfying.
Here it is next to the purple 3D-printed one it replaces. I really should thin it down some more, but it's amusing me as it is.
Steam handle (August 2025)
A quick 3D print project: an add-on steam handle for the espresso machine, clamped to the steam knob with a small socket screw.
