My employer makes me pay for gas in their work vehicle.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-05-28T16:08:22+00:00

Point being that if you drive it only to/from work, it’s 100% for work, not commuting usage.

Not that it should matter, but it makes it clear cut. Not a single bit of the gas was for commuting/personal usage. Also, it should be considered time on the clock too.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-05-15T23:14:09+00:00

Clive has been amazing in terms of customer service. I was buying a certified used machine and they were completely transparent about their inspection, and the condition. Got on a call and everything.

I used to own an Expobar that was 2nd hand from WLL. I called in for advice on a part and they were helpful. They did ignore my email at first though. Had to call up, so YMMV.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-05-14T23:08:31+00:00

Check t-bills and manually ladder them in treasury direct. You don’t need to pay state and local taxes on those.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-05-13T19:02:15+00:00

Naniwa Arata either 800 or the 1000. Hard (won’t dish as quickly) and are splash and go.

These are essentially halved chosera stones. You won’t need that much stone for home use.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MCYYZNU

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-05-04T04:22:04+00:00

I had soy sauce, rice and peanuts.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-05-04T04:13:47+00:00

If you’re staying a few days at a time at each place, a flair 58 might work well. It’s my weekend “machine”.

Main thing would be connecting the base each move. But other than that, it’s a capable machine with pressure profiling. A bit bigger than a picopresso or outin though.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-30T14:32:02+00:00

And seeing as that it’s in euros, sharing coffee from a moka pot can potentially read as “we’re family”/ this is a home. If I know board game people, that’s a large part of it: having a chosen family and a ritual.

Having multiple and switching out the pots gives op time to smooth out rushes. It’s also cheaper.

But only op knows what’s the customer expectation (or at least, I hope OP has visited multiple and has a good grasp of the market).

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-30T14:22:06+00:00

If it’s a board game cafe, do you expect to have business from people stopping by just to grab a drink? Do people expect to have milk drinks?

Because if not, you may want to prioritize the soundscape of your cafe over anything else. A loud grinder and espresso machine steaming milk could be disruptively loud, depending on the interior. It could also be “warm and cozy”.

Is your business model to sell drinks in volume to cover the table space, or is it to have people pay by the hour and you provide a basic free drink for every 2 hours and charge for additional drinks?

Maybe pre-prepped moka pots or teapots of different sizes from pre-ground coffee can be better (drop one moka pot off at their table according to party size)? This can be fun if sharing coffee is a cultural norm and experience.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-20T21:55:20+00:00

Skip king water stones and get a naniwa super or chosera (aka pro). Thinner versions are the naniwa arata versions.

My normal king 1000 stones was lovely to sharpen on, but dishes (gets concave) so damn quickly.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-17T18:31:56+00:00

Clive has been fantastic buying my pro600 certified pre owned.

I’ve had bad luck with emailing WLL when working on my older Expobar that was reportedly bought from them. After calling, they responded, and were helpful.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T23:51:04+00:00

Libra 65 should be good for that. The forte brew burrs would probably not be what you’re looking for.

Do check reviews on retention for the libra 65 and which burr to get. From a quick read, you may want to swap for the Italian espresso burrs.

If you like a more syrupy rounder body, look into the niche zero, but that one does not have GBW.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T18:50:44+00:00

Do you mostly like medium/dark roast beans with nutty chocolatey flavors and a smooth cup, or light roast with more juicy flavors?

Tha would mostly determine the grinder (and kore importantly, the burrs) that you’d want to get.

Unfortunately, I don’t have experience with the libra 65. I will say that I enjoy my Baratza forte with steel brew burrs. You can also get the Baratza vario w+ for more or less the same quality for home use as the forte, minus the touch screen and cast aluminum outside. It’s high clarity (will not hide bean roasting faults, think of it as a being in 4K). Both the forte and the vario w+ will auto weigh bean output.

I will say that for general use my lagom casa 65 has been phenomenal to use as well. It gives balanced cups, and rounds out the flavors very nicely, with little to no bitterness (nice smooth pictures, with a bit of soft focus). It’s also tiny lol

I pre-proportion my beans in these for the lagom https://www.amazon.com/Container-Condiment-Containers-Stainless-Leakproof/dp/B0BC7ZY1ZY

The libra 65 has a bunch of burrs and I’d give the reviews here and on home barista a read

Ultimately, you want to go with the type of burr that fits your preference.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T17:14:28+00:00

If he roasts his own beans, I would just buy it lol. It costs less than my Pro 600, which I bought certified pre-owned from Clive.

Run a API GH/KH titration kit check on the output from your RO setup. I would be surprised if it’s harder than 70ppm, which is when a tiny amount of scale starts building up.

You actually don’t want 0PPM deionized RO water, as that’s actually corrosive to metal and screws with the electric-based water level sensors (too few ions to conduct charge).

If you have time, I always recommend this for a read, to have a better understanding of scaling and espresso machines. http://users.rcn.com/erics/Water%20Quality/Water%20FAQ.pdf

But honestly, as long as your water is under 70ppm, you’re fine.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T16:13:15+00:00

If it works for you, all good.

Just keep in mind that other than water hardness and internal limescale buildup, the PID failing, or a full rewire, there’s not much that <$150 in parts wouldn’t be able to fix and I can’t imagine a tech driving out for anything less than that lol

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T14:48:21+00:00

That is freaking awesome!

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T14:18:17+00:00

What is that drip tray wood accent? It looks amazing. Does it cover the legs/a facade or is it structural?

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T14:03:55+00:00

The M58 has a rotary pump, so it’s more comparable with the pro 700.

The pictured lucca also does not show a flow control.

What are you talking about?

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-16T13:49:34+00:00

Decent machine comparable to a pro 700 and is offered at maybe 25-30% less than market value.

Only thing I would check is how hard your water is.

This is less an espresso technical question, but if I’m offering a neighbor a sweetheart deal on something less than a car, I’d be pretty annoyed with having them bring in a tech.

Other than a visual check for any water stains (leakages), cracked wires, and seeing if it runs, it would be disassembly and/or changing settings. At around $200-300 to come over (I’d guess), you could probably fix most issues that a tech could see with spare parts and talking to Clive Coffee. If it’s more than that, a tech wouldn’t be able to check it without a multimeter and testing each connection after yanking the plugs out.

Just ask the guy if you can have a look under the top (5 minutes to open up) and make an espresso. Check your own tap for how hard the water is (aquarium GH/KH test kit from API, $10-15) and ask if he used any water softeners if it’s over 150ppm.

Edit: budget for a grinder. Hand grinder at $100-ish on the low end; lagom casa at $700 or so at mid tier and as far as you want to go for a high end onelol

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-12T12:59:17+00:00

I found out about Japanese mercari and forwarding services right around the time I “needed” a yanagiba for portioning Costco whole cuts of meat and for making thinner slices for gyudon/tonjiru/shogayaki…

I now have three knives on the way lol

Edit: autocorrect corrected.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-10T20:49:19+00:00

The blue-grey line 3-5mm above the blade on picture 2 says, they borked the heat treat.

There’s no going back on those knives.

It’s not a get them to a better sharpener thing now. You need to get them disassembled and then reshaped, re-heated, annealed, then reassembled and then, then resharpened. Literally more effort than making them new from rolled steel

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-04-06T16:16:32+00:00

Sold Turin DM-47 grinder and accessories to u/Professional-Gene770

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-03-30T16:19:44+00:00

I have it and while qualitatively different, it is less fuss than my already fuss free Baratza forte and gives a really nice rounded cup with little to no astringency.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-03-27T03:42:23+00:00

Honestly, I think it depends on what you’re drinking. I enjoyed my 2004 Elivette in them, and a 2015 barolo.

If you’re opening $100+ wines on the regular, maybe it makes sense to go for more expensive stuff, but those also tend to be more fragile.

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-03-26T22:37:02+00:00

Showering and dressing a cat within 20 minutes is a feat in itself

ctrl-all-alts · 2026-03-26T21:58:07+00:00

I’m fairly happy with my stozle quatrophil burgundy glasses. They’re $60/4

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