btw. the two large holes near 'the Bolt' are for the copper heat-probe -up and steaming wand -side but i can't see the bolt actually connecting to either of these // ah , unless there is some kind of heat exchange happening through the small hole between the boiler and the steaming wand and the bolt , short in that case , is supossed to regulate that

yellow_speedster wrote:Hi Coffeefrog,
I presume you are right. A year back I ordered all piston gaskets I could find at Nuova Ricambi. I never received the ones that look as big like these in the Velox. Only got the small ones, +/- 6-8mm thick.
But thanks for the tip, I will try to order them again.

Frank,
I was lucky enough to be able to take the old parts into Coffeeparts in Sydney and look at the replacements. I have a first-series group (the one with the curved group cylinder profile not the stepped one from the later models) and the W seal from the Zodiac group fitted and was something like the thickness of the V seal as I remember.

I have had to have seals made for the top of the piston rod (the early models have the spring in water and the seal at the top of the piston rod is an odd size), they cost me about AUD70 for three (the minimum quantity). I've wondered about getting a seal kit together for these early machines, but Faema's obvious tendency to change the design in some small way roughly every day could make that a nightmare.

Greg

akabe wrote:can somebody confirm that the seals available will fit this model. ( it looks different from frank's though it does look similar to the zodiac one) . // my big concern now is the state of the cylinder ,( posting higher rez pictures ) . it is pretty corroded . will it leak ? guess the best thing to do would be to order new seals and actually try it out. ideally i'd like to intervene as little as possible on the machine. so, should i try it as it is and if it doesn't leak just keep it like this ? should i just sand it as smooth as possible? this would make the corroded end a bit wider than the rest of the cylinder . it actually already is a bit wider . would the rubber seal be able to handle this difference in width and is it a sensible thing to do ? conversly , if i machined the cylinder even by a fraction of a milimiter would the seal still work or will it just fall through ? what sort of tolerance do these things have . Evidently you can only really answer these questions by trying out different things but i'm wondering if anyone has had any experience with this.

...snip...

does anybody have or know any pictures of the heater plate and the group body opened, separated. this is one of those times i wish for x-ray vision . i'm particularly curious about the profile of the two parts where they are joined. not necessarily this generation and probably an urania, president etc would be equally useful. i'm wondering if it makes sense trying to knock the cotter pin out which could probably be done from the inside with the right L-shaped tool , otherwise it could be drilled out.

Alin,
If you don't need to take the plate off the back of the group, why mess with the cotter pin? Is disassembly needed? On my Urania there is no separate plate on the back of the group.

The corrosion on the cylinder is pretty bad. I'll begin by saying that I've not tried this. I'd avoid sanding the cylinder though unless you were planning on polishing it afterwards because a sanded finish would be hard on the seals. There is some tolerance in the seals but you would need to suck it and see. Personally I'd try the replacement seals without working on the cylinder, and if they don't work, see of you can smooth the bore a bit with some wet and dry and then some polishing. Machining the bore would be a last resort and whether you needed a different (non-standard) seal. or could still use the stock ones would be a matter of experiment.

Greg

Great to see a challenging restoration in progress. Your Velox is different from ours with the odd mystery bolt and cotter setup but the group and piston looks identical. It uses the Zodiaco w and v seal as pointed out....also fit other Faema groups (ditto).
I had the same experience as Francois with the spring...the Zodiaco is too long but the original was rusty at the bottom 1/3. The Zodiaco spring is the same outside and inside diameter and the number of coils per inch is the same as well as the wire size so I cut it off to match the length (hacksaw) and finished the end flat with a grinder. Made a huge difference in the shot quality.
If the mercury switch is shot (and you do not seem to have the temperature probe that goes in the top hole) it is a fairly simple notion to PID the machine...using the top hole for the thermocouple. This is my plan if the current thermostat ever fails.
Many of the seals for the machine have to be hand cut, except for the piston seals. the Velox boiler seal is a real challenge to make as the original has a stepped profile although the right size and cross section o ring could work.

I would clean sand the cylinder with 400 grit wet sand to smooth it out a bit and see if it will seal with dow 111 to fill the voids. Otherwise a brake cylinder hone would knock if fairly smooth followed by wet sand polishing. this may increase the diameter of the cylinder enough to lose the piston seal but you can always bump out the seal a bit by shimming the piston seal race with some teflon tape, silicone tape, or even metal tape....it often does not take much of a shim to bring it back to sealing and if you apply the shim tape in known amounts (the thickness of the tape is generally a known value) without stretching it you can control this process fairly reliably.

Seems that if the element works and the piston is OK that stuck bolts become the major issue and they are basic machine shop projects. Looks like a winner! We have used our Faema Velox every day for a year, for perhaps 10 shots a day. Descale once a month and lube the cylinder once a month as well, sometimes more often if I hear rubber squeaks...once the seals begin to drag the Faema factory seals can get cracks and splits on the edges if you don't keep them lubed up.

Thank you again everybody. I feel I have pretty much all the information to carry this right through now.

However , for the time being i'm still descaling. As I was saying the buid-up was epic ; basically the whole chamber was one big ancient-looking rock. Not being able to open it initially i sunk the hole thing in a bucket using various manufacturers descaling chemicals as well as well as pure citric acid. then i realized it's more efficient to do it with the element pluged in and eventually decided to seal the chamber and only have the citric acid solution inside . again with the element plugged in , rinsing the whole thing and replacing the fluid every 2 hours or so. The big bulk has been removed . the only deposits now seem to be between the coils and on the surface of the coils . particularly on the sides and at the back where i can't reach with a brush. SO the problem now seems to be: with the chamber closed and not having a proper water flow through it and not being able to reach much with a brush i have come to the point where whatever scale i manage to remove redeposits itself by the time i'm trying to rinse it out. If there is progress but it is painfully slow and at this pace i will probably be doing this for weeks . ( the good thing is seeing the heating element become more efficient; although it's a 220 heater and i'm running it at 110 it's acyually boiling the water - which makes me think i might be able to run the machine without a transformer) . does anyone have any suggestions as to how i should handle these later stages of the descaling process ??

Doug, thanks for your long reply . I do have the copper temperature probe and the whole probe-mercury switch seems to be in good condition, though i havn't had the chance to test it. will do so and post some pictures as soon as i get to that stage.

i thought i should post some pictures of the progress.
i havn't ordered any seals and parts yet. think i've finally managed to descale the whole thing completely .

here's a picture of the machine being tested in its current state . it's leaking severely but it seems to be only at the main piston seals which i will obviously replace. otherwise everything , including the mercury switch seems to be in working order.

and here is an erotic image of the group.