pretty basic but I made myself a less mess espresso basket prep ring thing.
pretty basic but I made myself a less mess espresso basket prep ring thing.
It'a detained by magnets so it doesn't get in the basket and interfere with spreading out the grounds. Needs a clean up with a lick of sandpaper, pretty stupid but these things cost like 50 bucks /shrug
EDIT: appreciate all the concern for my health, it touches dry coffee grounds. I agree that if it got wet there'd be health problems but unless it gets real humid there's just no opportunity for decay. As for random leaching same diff, without heat and wet it's not really a concern.
That said I probably will seal an improved design, this is just a test piece.
Please keep in mind that you need to seal that print before you use it with food. Because of the layers, there’s are a ton of places for dirt and bacteria to hide that are impossible to clean. Additionally, depending on what kind of nozzle you used, heavy metals can end up in your print which you don’t want to then leech into your coffee. General advice is to just not use 3d prints first good, but if you really want to you should coat them in a food safe epoxy before using.
This is good advice.
On the bright side for OP, his part should (hopefully) only come into contact with dry coffee grounds so some of those concerns are lessened.
In other applications -- sealant or not -- I can only imagine pouring hot coffee over a PLA part would not be a recipe for success...
I don't imagine the microplastics are great either tbh.
Honestly, instead of all that, the general rule should be don't use 3d printed stuff with food, period. Cause everyones focused on what can leech into the plastic and cause nastiness, but no one focuses about what could leech out of the plastic. Especially in this era where every month theres some new recall of some product that has something terrible in it that shouldnt be there.
and even if you do manage to find and buy a filament that claims its food safe/food grade, your printer is not. The materials used in 3d printers are not food safe, the lubricants and greases are not food safe, the previous filaments that you've printed with and have left buildup isnt food safe, and theres probably a lot in the average printers hot end that is not food safe.. Not to mention the bed, and any adhesives you might use.
Its just not worth the risk to yourself or potential loved ones, So don't even try it in all honesty.
3d printers are great, fantastic even. Mines saved a lot of money by letting me design and build replacement parts and tools to do obscure jobs specific to the situation, and even some pretty nice gifts and other stuff. Its great at a lot of things.
but it will never be good for anything to do with human consumption. Don't let 3d printed materials touch your food, drinks, or be involved in prep areas.
Microplastic speed run
He could just run a flame on it to melt whispy plastic strands down
Do you really thing that coffee grounds brushing up on something sheds significant amounts compared to like all the plastic you touch and then eat after not washing your hands? Or the Teflon in the rain on our crops? or storing food in plastic containers particularly during heating or freezing?
I'd be more concerned about takeway coming in shitty plastic containers that stain (indicating mixing on a molecular level) than coffee grounds touching a piece of PLA.
Yes, absolutely. Coffee grounds rubbing up against rough 3d printed plastic is going to act like little grinders pulling off bits of of plastic directly into the grounds.
Not to say that we all haven’t already lost the microplastics speed run. I am concerned about the things you listed, but yeah, I wouldn’t want anything 3d prone to be so close to so many small hard moving pieces of food.
3D printed parts are NOT food safe.
In general, yes. But the contact here is minimal. I wouldn't be worried.
So usually id agree that 3d prints shouldn't be used for food, but this is a coffee hopper, they're made from plastic already and I guarantee you the ones we used at Starbucks didn't get that clean either, it's fine, just sand it and get rid of those hairs
3d printing vs injection molding is a huge difference, so it's not fair to say "they are both made of plastic".
Yeah you need moisture for decay. Tiny fines might eventually go rancid in tiny pores and taste or smell a little bad but idk. She'll be right.
Like it's not like I clean the burrs that grind the beans much so if rotting was a problem I'd be dead already.
I use some supposedly food grade filament with a stainless nozzle and dedicated extruder, and after initial finishing they get a dip in food grade epoxy. I only made star wars and penis shaped cookie cutters though.
I've been meaning to make one that molds to my grinder to prevent grinds flying all over the counter.
Just FYI, you can find metal dosing rings with magnets for as low as $3 on AliExpress. I'm sure yours fits better though!
Huh, didn't consider aliexpress. I have an old lever machine with a non standard basket size (49 mm or something) so idk if they exist for it. I can see one with a brief search, but it protrudes down into the basket to locate itself which is a bit inelegant.
I know it's probably sacrilege, but I avoid the need for one of these by grinding half a dose, tamping a bit then grinding the rest and finishing the tamp. I'm using a Breville Barista Express so couldn't (easily) use one of these even if I wanted to.
I'm curious how you retain the magnets in it? Are they printed in, or mechanically added later? (I know very little about 3d printing, this just came up in my top-6-hour feed)
I haven't done much with magnets, but I saw one model where you pause the print halfway through, drop magnets into the holes, then continue the print and they get sealed in Amontillado-style.
Super cool! Great job. You can eliminate that seam by changing the position to random in Cura.
Hey, that's neat! I use a scrap piece from a previous employer. It's a 2inch tall stainless steel combiner ring. Definitely not as cool as yours and definitely not light enough for magnetic holds. You win lol
You can find dosing funnels for ~$12 on Amazon. Still overpriced but eclipsed by the investment you made in the espresso machine.
I have a non standard old timey portafilter.
Pet peeve, a coffee machine isn't an investment. Not in the literal sense and the creepy corporatisation of language is weird. It's just an expensive toy that makes me like life a little more :) I actually got an old europiccola because no electronics (bimetal strip and heating coil aside) means I can keep this thing working indefinitely.
A lighter will tidy up the stringing without making the mess that sandpaper will. Just don't linger too long or the part will warp. It should take less than a second to make the strings disappear with a lighter.
Hot a air station, if you have one, will also do wonders here. I suspect an adjustable hot air gun would also probably work, but those things can put out some serious heat so be careful.
I actually use a Lexivon torch, and move quickly. Lots of heat in a precise location for a short amount of time.
Pretty cool
Heads up, make sure you use food safe filament for this. And I would still be rather wary of excessive micro plastics in my morning brew
How does it do with fine grounds and static? IIRC one of the reasons for magnets is to fight static cling from the finer bits.
A dash of water on the beans before grinding eliminates the static buildup