High pressure, high forces, long lever arms…all of that meant heavy and strong (read: expensive) parts which I was not looking forward to having to fabricate. Instead, I settled on the simpler idea of harnessing the power of compressed gas. Instead of using a high mechanical advantage lever to push a piston, compressed CO2 would be dispensed from a small and inexpensive 12g or 16g cartridge which would then generate the requisite pressure to properly extract espresso. This concept is not actually novel; both an unsuccessful kickstarter and a now-defunct handheld espresso maker (with a fanatical user base) employed this mechanism.

    • AdamEatsAss@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I think part of the appeal of the espresso maker this guy DIYed is that it has no pump/electrical components. Less points of failure and cheaper to make, cost seems to be a driving factor in his design. A bike pump is a fairly common thing for someone to own.