New baby lever

borat123

I was looking to get a Caravel for camping duty, but ended up getting one that I'm going to use for both home and camping. Found this one one on Ebay, and at a reasonable price.

Here's a few pics from the ad. Apologies for the crap quality.

With a bit of luck it should be here within a week or so...

Brett_H

That looks awesome Borat.

borat123

I thought it looked in pretty good shape too. Hopefully it needs only a set of seals, a bit of cabling and it will be good to go. Looking at Francesco's site, it's a 1960 first series (v1.1) - The one with a higher quality build, heavier stainless and better fitting body parts. It should also have the hole in the face of the piston. Shame it didn't come with the dosing spoon.

galumay

Nice one mate! The earlier ones like this are definitely the more desirable models. It looks in good nick too. The dosing spoons are next to useless anyway, better to get a dosing funnel from Orphan Espresso IMO.

Koffee_Kosmo

Well done Borat :thumb: Great pick up We have all seen your restoration work with your current machine and if the Caravel receives the same treatment it will be better than new when you are finished KK

UNM

You will be needing a new tamper. My tamper is 43.4mm, but I could probably have gone for 44mm. A dosing funnel is on my list. Small basket is kinda fiddly. Your caravel looks identical to mine.

borat123

I was going to tamp with my custom fat thumb... 😉 Any ideas where I can get a small tamper that would suit?

hiphipharar

borat123 wrote:

I was going to tamp with my custom fat thumb... 😉 Any ideas where I can get a small tamper that would suit?

http://sorrentinacoffee.myshopify.com/collections/tampers

borat123

Thanks I'll check it out. Shame I can't just go out and buy this stuff locally..

borat123

UNM wrote:

Your caravel looks identical to mine.

Did you find yours on EBay? There was a nice old VAM that sold yesterday for four hundred something euro's...

Beanz

borat123 wrote:

I was going to tamp with my custom fat thumb... 😉 Any ideas where I can get a small tamper that would suit?

Hi Borat Sorrentina's tamper is no doubt an excellent product but the Orphan Espresso tamper I use on my Caravel's has one thing thing I particularly like and that is the fact that the thickness of the tamper lines up perfectly with the top of the basket when you have the correct dose giving immediate feedback on whether you have over or under dosed. If you are checking out Orphans site they also have dosing funnels for the Caravel basket which are excellent The basket is quite small and depending on your grinder it can be hard to get all the coffee where you want it, the funnel directs the coffee into the basket avoiding spillage. Enjoy the Caravel it makes brilliant coffee.

UNM

borat123 wrote:

Did you find yours on EBay? There was a nice old VAM that sold yesterday for four hundred something euro's...

I got mine from fellow crema galumay. I thought it wise to buy a known good, working one from someone I trust. Very happy with it so far.

borat123

Good to hear. eBay can be a bit of a gamble sometimes.

C-man

very cool, I hear great reports about the shots they produce What size tamper do they take?

borat123

Beanz wrote:

Hi Borat Sorrentina's tamper is no doubt an excellent product but the Orphan Espresso tamper I use on my Caravel's has one thing thing I particularly like and that is the fact that the thickness of the tamper lines up perfectly with the top of the basket when you have the correct dose giving immediate feedback on whether you have over or under dosed.

Was it the stubby handle tamper that you bought? I need some seals as well so it makes sense to look at getting everything from the one place.

Beanz

Yes I did buy the Stubby Handle. Orphan also have a rebuild guide on their site that is worth scanning before getting started. I also puchased a set of seals from Francesco. His seal kit produced a tighter seal, he provides an O ring which you can add under under the lip of the main seal, it provides some additional resistance. I used that on a second model Caravel. Not sure if you have seen his website but there is some useful information especially the seal configurations and dimensions for different models.

UNM

C-man wrote:

very cool, I hear great reports about the shots they produce What size tamper do they take?

UNM wrote:

My tamper is 43.4mm, but I could probably have gone for 44mm.

galumay

I have a different source for the seals in Europe, will post the contact then I dig it up, his are the best of all I have tried so far. Here we go, http://www.trukaffe.kurtaugustyns.com/cms/?p=75 Kurt is really helpful, drop him an email with what you want.

borat123

Thanks, I think I also saw his ad on HB. I've ordered a set of seals from Kurt, and yes he was very helpful. Nearly $50 (plus shipping) was a bit steep I thought, but hey, if they do the job then I guess it was money well spent.

borat123

Still waiting for the Caravel and the seals - I think both are shipping from Italy today. I haven't quite made up my mind yet what I'm going to do for a tamper...