Smoothing out E61 brew lever movement

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C6H8O3
Posts: 25
Joined: 11 years ago

#1: Post by C6H8O3 »

I've had my Vetrano going on 12 months now. The brew lever has always had rough travel and it was always difficult to get it to go from pre-infusion position to brew position. It always "stuck" a little.

We have very hard water where I live and I installed a Chris' Coffee water softener system when I bought the Vetrano. I decided to check the mushroom for scale and service the entire brew group. The good news is that the water softener system is doing it's job well. No scale.

As I inspected the valve push rods and the lever cam, I did notice that the brass contact parts were never polished. There were also a few raised, rough places. I believe that I found my rough spot in the lever travel!

I got out my Micro-Mesh set and polished the brass pushrod ends and lever to a mirror shine. I serviced the seals and re-assembled. The brew lever travels very smoothly now.

I thought I would share my experience, just in case there are others out there with stiff/rough brew lever travel on E-61 machines.

Here is the Micro-Mesh I used:
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/p/3/- ... ishing-Kit

And pics:

(sorry, I did not take pictures of the polished ends of the pushrods)

Here you can see the rough brass



1/2 way through polish job



Polishing Complete
LMWDP 702

D'Laine
Posts: 68
Joined: 11 years ago

#2: Post by D'Laine »

I have the Quickmill Alexia with a rough spot or two on the lever. Silicone grease didn't help at all but now that I see your photos, I try to polish the cam.
I suspect that the micro-switch button position is a bit off (too low) on my unit as well for holding the lever at pre-infusion by itself.
Thanks for the tip.

Dave