OC'ing my Gaggia Classic
- Thread starter Bossk128
- Start date
Oh yeah, I agree but I've always found that it can't make really fine foam to try and pour art with it, there's nearly always a very small layer of frothy looking milk on the top of the rich thicker stuff.
Fine if you want a supermarket style frothy coffee though, which I like more often than not
.http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1126833848/0
This is what I want to do. Just need to get the correct thing first.
This is what I want to do. Just need to get the correct thing first.
Caporegime
cool
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:
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:
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.
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.
Last edited:
Caporegime
I love it !
Associate
Could someone send me the direct link or a picture of the correct silvia arm so I can order one in New Zealand. Need a picture of the full arm? Thanks
Soldato
You revived and ancient thread that includes the information you needed to ask that? Well done. :/
Not only that, they signed up to do so lol
Caporegime
Lol, easy on her, first post, just read up kiwigirl 
Caporegime
Associate
- Joined
- 10 Mar 2011
- Posts
- 1
Excellent write up. Thank you so much. I made the modification and overall I'm very happy with it. Much much better foam now. The only problem is that when I tighten the bolt that holds the wand on, I can no longer rotate the wand. I think the rim toward the top of the wand is a bit bigger than the old one. I did sand the end of the wand down, which made it possible to get the bolt on at all. Anyone else run into this problem? My local roaster suggested I use this H2-rated like of lubricant, but I'm not so sure that's going to do it.