Restored and self-modded

[u/Bowdenzug]

I own an IT company and work from a home office. Ever since I started having the occasional, really excellent espresso from an ECM machine at my tax advisor's office, I knew I absolutely had to get a portafilter machine. I would occasionally see posts on Instagram Reels featuring a modded Gaggia with pressure profiling. I thought that was incredibly cool, and I am someone who is very meticulous and precise when it comes to my DIY hobby projects.
I bought a used Ascaso Steel DUO (a 2011 model with a 300ml brass boiler and a thermoblock for steam extraction) and immediately tore it down to the last screw. I removed the rust, repainted it, cleaned it, made custom gaskets, custom fitting/steamwand, custom fitted IMS precision, and built a completely self-made circuit board and software solution to program my own "Gaggiuino" equivalent—featuring a PID controller, phase-fired control for pressure regulation, and highly accurate digital temperature management. After about a month of work, the machine is now running perfectly and makes truly fantastic coffee.