Hi to all at Home-Barista forums. It's great to be here among such coffee enthusiasts! I'm just registered and it's my first post. And I'd like to believe that you can help me with my current project. I'm trying to rebuild an old Faema Compact S espresso machine. It's a rather simple semi-auto machine, but it's the first time I'm doing something like this, so I want to be sure that everything will be alright. So let me ask different questions about rebuilding process in this thread. I'm sure that there are many experienced persons here and hope you'll help me with this project.

There are several thing which surprised me during the deconstruction process. And the first one is the main water inlet valve. I've seen many Faema Compact S machines in a web and all of them have the same water inlet valve, which looks like this one:



Here it is again:



But mine is different:



Please, would you be so kind to describe me my valve's functioning mechanism. And how to install and tune it up properly? Do I have all necessary parts or some parts missed? Should I replace any part? Here some more photos:











Thanks! Looking for answers from you.

Hi there from the other side of the world! I've just finished re-building one of those.Great machine to work on - well laid out.Here's a link to series of 3 articles i found very useful.Part 2 explains the water valve.I got spare parts from australia, hopefully you'll find some closer to home.If not i have a few parts lying around or could give you a link to the australia parts supplier i used

http://www.homeroasters.org/php/forum/v ... #post_2473

Good luck with the re-build

Whoops, sorry - just read your post fully and seen you have a different water valve.I haven't seen that one before! By placing it in the machine in its proper position you should be able to work out the water flow. There should be a water intake, Pipe to the boiler (heat exchanger) a pipe to the boiler fill, and possibly a pipe to the drain bung - my water valve had an over pressure valve in it. The rod opposite the water inlet is a manual boiler fill when its hooked up to mains water.The pipe above that will most likely be the boiler fill pipe. Hope this helps

Hi kitt, thanks for answer. I've seen the article you'd mentioned, but that man has another type of water inlet. I've found that my water inlet looks more like the one from Faema Star, but there are some differences:

1. I have a fitting where Star has a blind plug.
2. My Compact has a slightly different fitting than one on the Star scheme.
3. I have a blind plug where Star has a fitting.

Please, look:



What's wrong with my inlet? Please, help me to understand.

Hi Dan, sorry i can't be more help, but i'm not familiar with that valve.Maybe someone with experience with that water valve will post something.Was the machine working with that valve installed when you got it? I'm guessing that fitting no.1 in your pic is the boiler fill, No.2 is the o.p.v and the fitting above that goes to your heat exchanger/boiler. Maybe a repair person adapted the valve to work on your machine some time in the past?

Hi to all again!
I'm still working on my Faema Compact. You can see ongoing photo diary here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan-kay/se...839763062/ Comments and advice are welcome.

Dan,

Just checked your pics on flickr and thinking you have one heck of a job on your hand! Did the shipper insure the item so you can get the postal service to pay for the damaged parts? I can only imagine how difficult it will be to find replacement body panels.

I wish you the best in this restore!

Mike

Just finished going through all your pics. What a great job so far! The polishing job is excellent. This really shows pride in workmanship.

Can't wait to see the reconstructed machine with the new stainless bodypanels.

Mike

Wow, I just looked at your pics as well...

you did a phenomenal job at polishing.. what did you do? Rub everything with sand paper? What grit did you use and how did you manage to even do all of the threads?

Nice Work!

Thank's for your kind words guys. Mike, you see, there was a problems with our postal service. Shipper insured the item. But, as I was told by post officers, did not make special marks on boxes such as "fragile", "handle with care" and so on. So they have said: "Well... it's not our fault". Can you imagine how angry and upset I was? The new panels is the main problem now...

Talking about polishing... well, I've decided to do it due to several circumstances. First of all because I could do it and I like how the polished brass looks. Maybe it is unnecessary, because all this parts are inside the machine and could not be seen until you take off some body panels. But I'll know that I did my best with this machine, you know... Also I think that polished parts are more resistant to became dirty and you should only use a piece of hard wool to make them shine again. I'm not trying to make an ideal polished surface. And when you look closer you see little imperfections. I'm not trying to make this part's look like new, but, in opposite, like old and very-very well cared. Polished brass has a very warm and classy look. And it gives a touch of soul to the machine's interior look.

That's how brass polishing goes. First of all I scrub the parts with a little coarse file to correct technological imperfections or deep scratches. Then sand with 400 grit sand paper. 2500 grit sand paper goes after 400 grit. Brass is a very soft metal, so there is no reason to make cross sanding with numerous different grit sand paper (400-800-1500 and so on). 2500 after 400 is good enough. The final step is polishing with a special universal polishing compound (a little green nubbin in a black box). I've upload some new photos where you'll see the process.

I'd do away with the front body panel and show off all the gleaming brass. It looks too nice to cover up.

Well... I've had some ideas about panels from clear acrylic glass or something like this... but not sure...

All new wiring for my Faema is finally done. It's not a big deal maybe, because wiring for this little machine is pretty easy, but I'm not so good in electrical, so new wiring is an important step for me. Feel free to see new pics on my Flickr set

Trivia; all the blind plugs you see on that valve is typical for Italian manufacturers, old Weber carburettors for instance have the same thing, plugs and double levers, fasteners etc. It's probably what made them so popular with tinkerers like myself, you can adapt them infinitely. With Webers it's quite interesting, as the carburettors were designed for a specific model, but still they had all these extra fittings (which are kinda useless BTW since they use 13mm metric thread for hose fittings and such, nobody makes fittings like that), but for these valves it's usually meant so that you can adapt the valve to fit a wide spectrum of machines.

Hi Dan; Just wondering if you would care to post an update... you certainly have a project on your hands and the brass polishing is just amazing! I am working on a very similar Faema. Faema Compact A/1 rebuild & questions

I am particularily interested in how you made out fabricating body panels from S/S (I was checking out your flickr).

Hi, James.
My machine is not finished yet. Still waiting for some parts. Talking about body panels... well, one guy said he has original body panels for my Faema, so maybe I will go for originals instead of stainless. Good luck with your project! ))