I was fortunate enough to locate and purchase this original Faema E61 2 group machine recently in Italy. It was a 8 hour drive each way from where I was living just to buy it, and I was chuffed that it turned out to be the son of the original owner who was selling it. I was even more chuffed when he handed over the original documentation relating to the purchase of it from 1966, together with the original manuals.

I'm not sure if it is wise; however I plan to restore it for personal use.

Some initial pics below, including some of the paper work (I have removed name and address details of original owner).

Overall it appears to be relatively complete and in o.k condition. It doesn't appear that there have been any modifications from original.

Beautiful score! And to find it so complete, you're a lucky man. Please share more thoughts and pictures as you go along.

Nice score!

I've got my eye on that pretty red Lambro in the background!

Congrats!!!

I agree with Jack about that red Lambro in the background .

Very nice!

A new to me sandwich shop here in Montreal is using one for all it's espresso....let me know if you want to touch base with the owners and next time I am by will get you the info!

Thanks for all the comments.

spentpuck, thanks for the offer. I may take you up at some point once I get further into the machine.

At this stage I'm trying to determine if I can connect electrically to get it up and running and determine what works and what doesn't (for an initial parts list).

Currently there is a 4 core cable connected (3 core plus earth), with one core direct to heater, and the other two cores connecting through the mercury switch to the heater. I'm wondering if there is a way I can use 240V to at least run it up as is, but the heating element is 380V 2600W. I'm looking at using 240V, by connecting the active to the two wires running through the mercury switch, and the neutral direct to the element terminal. This should give me 240V to each terminal of the two resistive elements of the heater; albeit with lower output of the heater (around 1000W total); which I would have thought would still allow me to run some tests after the longer than normal heat up period?

Ok, so I measured the resistances of the two elements on the heater at 112 Ohms each, so total resistance about 55 Ohms. This was in line with what I expected given the heater is stamped as 380V with each element 1300W. So if I connect 240V to the heater it seems that I should get about 520 Watts of heating per element (1000W total). If this is the case then it seems like it would be worth a try in order to just get it up to temperature for testing purposes?

The question I have is how best to connect the circuit. I'm thinking to connect the neutral direct to the element terminal that has the link bridge installed (per the brown wire in the photo below), and then to connect the active to each of the black and blue wires that connect to the incoming side of the mercury switch?

Happy to hear anyones ideas.

You're trying to "gear down" 3 phase power to 2 phase power. If you want to use a normal (10 amps) outlet your circuit is going to have to run active to one pole of one element (you can work out which poles belong to which element with a multimeter), neutral to the pressurestat, then from the pressurestat back to the other pole of the element. Otherwise you'll need a 20A outlet, plug and cord.

Running a single element and pressurestat circuit simplifies things a lot.

Alan

Thanks. Can you explain why a 20A outlet would be required if connecting both elements with 240V? So is my determination above incorrect? Based on 2 x 380V 1300W elements, I determined the resistance of the elements to be about 111 Ohms each (voltage squared divided by power). I also confirmed this by measuring the resistance of each element with a multimeter and got 112 Ohms So if connecting 240V to each element, power would be 518W per element (240 squared divided by 111 Ohms)? With each element drawing 2.15A? Alternatively, total current = V x (1/R1 + 1/R2), so I = 240 x (1/111 + 1/111) = 4.3A?

What have I done wrong with this calc?

I use the "Ohm's Law" calculator here http://www.onlineconversion.com/ohms_law.htm . At 2600 watts/220 volts you're pulling about 12 amps, which will trip your circuit breaker on any 10 amp max. system. Not to mention that normal 10 amp cords and fittings get dangerously hot.

Your pump motor may be set up for 3 phase power as well, in which case the easiest solution is to replace it with a single phase 220v model.

Alan