There are already a lot of different ways to brew up a decent coffee at home, from the humble saucepan to the elegant vacuum flask. In an office environment the choice of coffee-making technique can have a major impact on workplace harmony—how can people be expected to work happily when the kitchen is filthy with grounds and the coffee is always stale? “Someone have mercy,” [Christian Finger] lamented, “and boil a pot of fresh.”
In the end he took extreme measures, building a machine that grinds whole beans, measures out a dose, brews a cup and self-cleans. He used all sorts of odds and ends to put the thing together, detailed in his long and hilarious build log (english translation—and check out the dude’s sweet ride). Refer to his shockwave animation for a summary of the intended operation.
The end result is an extremely impressive Goldbergian contraption—download the video from the build log. It is pretty noisy and probably energy- and water-hungry, but that wouldn’t stop us from using it every day, if given the chance. Hell, this here could form a major part of your next breakfast machine.
We’re sure that there is further potential in this, because to get the really freshest possible cup of coffee you’d want to roast the coffee beans just before grinding them. Then you’d be well on your way towards something else entirely: a delicious breakfast machine.
http://www.finger.de-web.cc/kaffee2/kaffee2.mpg
I thought I have seen this one long time ago.. (not sure if it was from HaD)
I see 80/20! Awesome stuff :)
NoNoNoNo! You most definitely would not want to roast the beans just before brewing. They need time to out-gas and to get a bit oily. Much better after 5 or 6 days. But don’t wait too long.
Home brew? Home BREW? is this some kind of joke HaD?
Pretty cool project though, kinda like the breakfast machine from a few months back.
Home roast yes, I seem to remember it in fully sensor loaded, microprocessed, countertop size setup. Either HaD or some science site I don’t know where, about 2 years ago.
I saw on discovery or something, a pre-war newsreel of a chap being woke up by a complete automated b’fast machine. It had a above range chicken to lay on time! Holeywood does Rube Goldberg.
That was no newsreel, it was comedian Snub Pollard in his 1923 comedy It’s a Gift, a film packed with lunatic inventions including a novel magnetic powered car.
You would never want to brew with freshly (on the same day) roasted beans. Leave them for at least 3 days!!
stupid mpgs…
who hasnt heard of youtube besides these guys???
anything with coffee is a good thing
but i am waiting on the download while typing this so i cant even properly comment!!
oh, theres the video
i want 1…must be hell to clean and if anything breaks.. gotta make the part from pop bottles, duct tape and paper clips EACH TIME, if only this wasnt so stupidly complicated!
Wow, rube-Goldberg coffee maker. Wallace and Gromit would be proud!
Why does he not use a train steam whistle to announce the coffee is done?
@HackerK:
Im pretty sure I’ve seen this on hackaday long time ago.
BINGO!
http://hackaday.com/2007/07/18/automatic-french-press-coffee-brewer/
This is a repost!
@sankaku,
damn… I guess we miss some occasionally. Good catch!
The reason he uses .mpgs is because the site predates Youtube by years.
Needs a milk frother
This reminds me of Narbonic.
Heyyyyy this is a repost, in any case… is good to remember such a good hack, sometimes I wonder where does this ppl get so much free time from!?
@Caleb Kraft
My spider sense did the work for me.
Freshly roasted coffee beans are at their flavor peak between 24h and 72h after roasting.
I don’t know anything about roasting coffee beans but I have a clean cup with a splash of half and half in it just ready to go when that next pot is ready, ‘kay?
Good hack.
Coffee!
It’s also somewhat Brobdingnagian, but don’t tell Sheldon.
Haha the text is even more hilarious and clever than the machine itself! The automatic translation (I checked) sadly does not even remotely live up to the wordplay and absurdity.
I was laughing my ass off, all these little remarks, pure gold!
Love it!
After roasting I belive the bean has to rest for a certain amount of time before grinding, but you could probly set up some sort of perpetual cycle for that.