In the workshop

After making the first part of the handle for the espressomachine, I wasn’t done yet. I also had to make knobs to go on the handles of the machine.

For the knobs I also made a template with a bolt in it. In the wood that was going to be the knobs I screwed a nut.

After that I made the template and placed the bolt in the wood. Now it was time to start turning.

A few photo’s during the turning process.

And the final result.

I had some wood left, so I made a matching pen for the customers, just a little present.

Luckily they send me photo’s of what their espresso machine looks like now with the wood handles and knobs. They are very happy with the result and let’s be honest. This looks a lot better then the previous plastic handles did.

I got the request if I wanted to make a wooden handle for an espresso machine. They people in question wanted a dark wood and Iron wood was the first one that came to mind. Eventually I picked out Curaçao de Negro. I found it at the timber in Akkrum and it’s much harder then Iron wood. It also has a very deep and rich dark colour which will darken over the years.

The second challenge was to got the original handle of the cupholder. I put it in hot water and used an allen to screw it loose. I used the right size bolt (m12), but had to cut it. After that I drilled a hole in the wood and made it fit the cupholder.

After that I made a template with the right diameter to use on the lathe (the white piece of wood on the photo) and screwed the wood on top of it. After that I made the first trial handle.

This one was slightly of centre, but that didn’t matter. I knew now that my method was working.

This is what the second handle looks like. It fits perfectly and it’s centred.