They will be - when he gets off the apomorph.... that's going to take several bits of surgery to resolve still - 2 down and lots to come.... Proper boots might well have saved that.
http://asapsteel.co.za/ I have bought a fair amount of 5mm stuff from them - easy to deal with and they cut and deliver - perhaps go and visit them and check out their offcuts pile with tape measure and cutting list in hand - you may well be lucky.
I am using a Camelback KUDU - this has a back protector in it which I have tested... and a 3l bladder - I like it - they do come in length and capacity sizes, so you have some choices to make.
The auber instuments kits are so good you can easily do it yourself - easily.... good luck asking most SA coffee machine tech's to do an install... can't see that working well.
I usually entertain at home with about 8 - 10 people in total - so it has kind of come from that - and the frustration of being away from the group for extended periods. I cheat a LOT when doing big numbers of coffees on my single group.... no proper doubles.... but I use a triple basket so they are about 1.3 - 1.5 singles... and I have been known to supplement this by using my super auto in parallel... And a super fast grinder - 3.5 sec for 19g..... The other cheat is to use a big jug for steaming - saves a lot of time if you can steam for 4+ cups at the same time - especially if you can do it while brewing at the same time (volumetrics have saved me many times... ) That said - I prefer to use the 2 group I have at the office for lots of coffee - although the grinder is a tad slower.
You will understand when you do it... I used to have a machine with a similar sized boiler (200ml) and after adding in the PID it was a lot better - surprisingly the biggest benefit was being able to raise the steam temp up a bit over the standard thermostat - gave much improved steaming - as well as the thermal stability was improved - and it's easy to play with temperature changes of 1 or 2 degrees to see if you can get flavour improvements (and you can) Kind of a no brainer for the small machines in my opinion - they go from annoyingly unstable to fairly usable (and I am not a fan of sbdu machines) - but they still don't compare to good commercial standard machines which can steam 1 liter of milk fairly easily. The gold standard of machines imo is being able to deliver coffee for 8 - 10 guests and have them all drinking coffee at about the same time - NEVER going to happen with a sbdu machine - take at least 35 - 45 minutes to deliver 10 cappuchino's - maybe an hour. That said it will still be tricky even with a e61 based home use machine (but possible)
I would put a PID temp controller in that... makes a huge difference www.auberins.com have a few kits... take the most expensive one for the sylvia that has pre infusion and brew timers.
Light sandblast to get the grain proud and a solvent based ebony stain - assuming this is a soft wood like pine. Did an old bed like this and it came out better than I thought it would.
I have a KUDU 12 - and landing on it with a full bladder and the back protector in is a big step up from just a hydration bladder - saved me a few times.
