OC'ing my Gaggia Classic

Bossk128 · 10 Apr 2008 at 16:23

Sort of!

I'm going to attempt to do the Rancilio Silvia steam wand mod, but am having trouble tracking it down for a fair price. Is item XR5600 at Drury Tea and Coffee the right one? I've found it at Happy Donkey, but it's £28 before VAT and delivery

Bossk128 · 10 Apr 2008 at 16:58

I don't like the steam wand. I'm having trouble getting rich foam in my milk (oo-er) with the black plastic thing, and if it's removed the Gaggia wand is way too short to go into a jug. I've read the Silvia arm fits well, and is longer/has better angle for foaming milk.

Bossk128 · 10 Apr 2008 at 17:11

Sorry- I know there are a few coffee types here. It's a coffee machine- I want to modify the steam wand for better frothing performance, but am unsure which part to order.

I'm not really overclocking it.

Bossk128 · 11 Apr 2008 at 09:27

Flibster said:
I bought the one from Happydonkey

However, you may well need to bend or saw the old steam wand up to get the nut off. It's a bit of a git.

Haven't done the switch yet because of that exact thing.

Yeah, I saw the Happy Donkey one - it's a little confusing as there are two differetn Silvia arms, one in the Silvia section and one in the Gaggia section. The Gaggia one is £10 dearer than Drurys one.

Bossk128 · 11 Apr 2008 at 14:40

Raymond Lin said:
I've read complaints on the frother before, have you try asking www.coffeegeek.com and see what they say on there?

I've posted in CoffeeGeek UK, and it's a bit slow.... I'll report any of my findings.

Bossk128 · 11 Apr 2008 at 14:41

kai said:
What the hell some of these coffee machines are like excess of nearly 2k of that donkey site, i can get married to a thi bride who will make coffee for a lifetime for less than that.

I think the super-dear ones are designed for shops/offices, for many cups of espresso per day.

Bossk128 · 11 Apr 2008 at 14:50

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1126833848/0

This is what I want to do. Just need to get the correct thing first.

Bossk128 · 15 Apr 2008 at 17:29

I've ordered the one from Drury, it posted out today. I'll keep the post updated, and maybe try to take photos when I do the mod.

Bossk128 · 22 Apr 2008 at 14:23

It's alive!!!!!

Before I start, please take a lot of care if you are doing this. It's not difficult, but just take sensible precautions. Unplug from the electricity, and don't do it if it's still hot. Obvious. Also, when screwing the new wand back on it should be obvious that it fits ok, and it should be tight enough. You don't want steam escaping from the seal (the steam is still controlled by the knob, so it won't leak while steam is off). Test it first with a jet of water immediately after powering up (before it's hot) by opening the steam knob and pressing 'brew' and 'steam' at the same time.

Just take responsability for your own actions- if you're unsure, don't do it! The internets did not make you do this.

Here's my journey in pictures.

Here's the old steam wand still attached:

A comparison with the new steam wand, which had a bolt and two washers I removed:

Here's a slightly blurry close up of the fitting. The brass nut that's inside the machine holding the wand can break easily:

So I used a handy Ikea flat hek and an appropriately sized spanner (12):

Got the old wand off really easily, with no snapping of brass!

The old wand:

The old wand needed to be bent out a bit to get the fixing nut off- I used pliers and elbow grease, with some protective kitchen towel

p) in case I put it back on:

Bossk128 · 22 Apr 2008 at 14:23

New wand slid right in! Note that the rubber washer from the original wand stayed in the fitting, so I left it there and didn't use the Silvia supplied washers:

Although it was a good fit, it was a little too tight once fitted up to rotate smoothly- cue 10 minutes sanding on 400 grade. Really, it was just enough to remove the finish of the wand and not much at all:

Tightened up just a wee bit, didn't even use the Ikea thing:

I decided to keep the rubber 'handle' on the bend despite it's naffness- after trying to move the wand when it's well over 100C I think it's the right thing to do:

So I'm happy so far. Done some milk, it now swirls which is great (the old wand only kind of agitated the milk), and I don't see me running out of steam per cycle with only two of us max wanting foamed milk at once. All good.

Only down side is that the arm doesn't really hang snugly at the back of the drip tray- no problem really.

Bossk128 · 11 Mar 2011 at 08:51

The wand can be too tight to rotate, you just need to sand more. I doubt lubricant (ensure it's food grade) would work as the heat involved would probably melt it away after a few uses.