Congratulations to the Coffee Kitchen in Cockermouth, our favourite local coffee shop! They won, Best Newcomer in the recent Cumbria Life Awards.
In celebration I've highlighted my coffee themed paper projects below.
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| Too Much Coffee, Paper Animation Kit | Make Your Own Caffeine Molecule | Hot Choc Sprinkles (Works on coffee too!) |
Hot Choc Sprinkles is free for everyone to download, the other two are free for all members.
Have fun!
Right, I'm off for a coffee :-)
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As a regular reader of robives.com you'll be aware that this blog is powered mainly by double espressos washed down with the occasional americano, so you'll understand my distress when my beloved Rancilio Silvia coffee machine started making weird noise and producing less than delicious coffee.
In the circumstances I felt that time spent fixing the coffee machine would speed up production of the flying cow and future projects so would be time well spent. It turns out that the process of trouble shooting and fixing the Silvia was both interesting so I hope you'll indulge me in this non paper based post.
In the past I had fitted a pressure gauge to the machine. Checking the gauge I saw that the brew pressure was 5 bar rather than the usual 9 bar.
Time to crack open the case.
The first sign of trouble was the rust on the bolts holding the boiler shut. There are six bolts holding the boiler together which I duly undid.
The boiler is made from two large brass parts sealed together with a rubber gasket. When I took the gasket out I thought I'd found the source of the problem. I replaced it and put the machine together for a test brew. The slight weeping at the edge of the boiler was gone but the pressure still wasn't right.
With the machine on the work top I could hear a continuous hiss which I eventually tracked down to an overflow pipe connected to the boiler.
Inside the machine the boiler is connected to the brew head via a pressure relief valve. If the pressure is too high, excess water is released through an overflow pipe back into the water reservoir.
I reckoned that the pressure relief valve was source of the hiss so that was what I tackled next.
Taking the valve apart I found this spring powered plunger with the obvious culprit at the end.
I ratched around in my box of useful things and found a rubber tap washer roughly the same thickness as the existing washer. I trimmed it to size with my scalpel and popped it into place in the end of the plunger.
I fitted the plunder back into the valve body. By screwing the plunger in and out the pressure at which the overflow operates can be changed. The further in it is screwed, the tighter the spring and the higher the pressure. Once the pressure is set the lock nut stops it moving
Inside the pressure relief valve.
I fitted the valve back into place and reassembled the coffee machine.
It worked! I just need to tweak the pressure up from 8-9 bar.
Ready to brew!
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Here's a little something for you to try. I made this for my true love's hot chocolate. I'm sure she won't mind if I share!
It works fine printed onto thin card and its even better printed onto paper and run through your home laminator.
Enjoy your drink!
I've got a couple of ideas about extending this into a proper project so if you haven't heard anything about it for a while - remind me.
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I've had a productive morning today - designing a coversheet for the Too Much Coffee model.
The idea being, from a users view point, downloadable models are fun and convenient but not good to give as gifts. Hence, the Gift Cover. An A4 size sheet to download and print out. To create a gift for a friend, you'd just need to print out the parts, the instuctions and this Gift Cover. Then pop the parts and instructions into an large envelope and paste the cover to the front . Easy Peasy. Let me know what you think.
Click the picture to go to the download page.
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A slight diversion from my usual creations. To go with the Too Much Coffee model I've designed a T-shirt, featuring the same caffeine molecule design as seen on our character's chest.
Fabulous!
You can order your own here.
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access to all the models in the showcase.See the Membership page for more details.
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An accurate 3D model of a caffeine molecule for you to download, print-out and make. More refreshing than a double espresso and smoother than a cappuccino with spray-on cream!
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Become a Member for free
access to all the models in the showcase.See the Membership page for more details.
Already a Member? Log in Here
You've reached your sixth espresso of the morning and are feeling pretty wired. What you need is to burn off a little energy.
What better way than by vigourously cranking the handle of this delightful cardboard creation.
Check out the YouTube video of the model in action here.
Too Much Coffee is an paper animation kit for you to download and print out on your own computer. You'll need some thin card (about 230 micron is fine), some scissors and some white school glue. A cutting board and asharp knife will also come in handy.
Too Much Coffee is supplied as two files, a full set of illustrated, step by step instructions and a separate file containing all the parts that you will need printed front and back on six sheets of card.
So settle down with another cup of coffee and download, print out and make this delightful model.
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