Rancilio Silvia PID Conversion
I’ve finally reached a point where 50% of my pulled shots no longer suck, so I thought I would go ahead with the PID conversion for my espresso machine. I actually had everything for the conversion in my office, except for the enclosure which I picked up from Newark for $18 (Hammond enclosure).
I followed the steps from http://www.murphyslawonline.com/silvia.html for the most part, and also found http://www.gumbrell.com/archives/2005/02/pidd-silvia-uk.html useful.
The deviations were mostly with regards to the thermocouple mount. I had a bare bone thermocouple, put a gob of thermal conductive paste on it, and stuck it underneath one of the screws on the boiler. It seems to work OK.
I used velcro to mount the enclosure, but it doesn’t look very stable, so I’m going to have to figure out something else. Otherwise, we shall see how it influences my shots.
More photos here.
