La Marzocco portafilter - can it be modified for E61 grouphead?

#1: Post by **coffeedude55** » January 8th, 2014, 4:33 pm

I know this has been covered before, but I wonder if it will work for my particular machine. I would like to put a rubber handled La Marzocco portafilter w/open double spouts (the original lion head brass/chrome one, not the newer stainless model) on an Expobar Office Lever. Some say it's possible, if I go from my factory 8.5mm brew gasket to a thinner 8mm gasket. Another way is to sand down the top lip of the pf. They did this by hand sanding, with a large sheets of sandpaper. Others file, or grind down the ears. Just wondering if the gasket trick is all that's needed, or do some machines (like my Expobar) require sanding, or grinding? Thanks!

#2: Post by **wsfarrell** » January 8th, 2014, 5:22 pm

That should work. The order in which I would do it, from least to most visibly invasive, is

1. 8mm gasket

2. sanding the top lip

3. filing/sanding the ears

I've never had to go past step 2, and step 1 alone has worked for Marzocco portafilters, though I haven't tried it on your particular E61.

#3: Post by **contraflow88** » January 8th, 2014, 6:06 pm

The LM portafilter is all stainless steel also so you don't have to worry about exposing the brass like on traditional portafilters when filing and sanding.

#4: Post by **damonbowe** » January 8th, 2014, 6:09 pm

What is the gasket you are referring to? Is it on the E61 brew head?

#5: Post by **stefano65** » January 8th, 2014, 6:40 pm

contraflow88 wrote:The LM portafilter is all stainless steel also so you don't have to worry about exposing the brass like on traditional portafilters when filing and sanding.

note there are all stainless steel one (arm and a leg $$$$$$)
and the traditional one chrome brass as usual

#6: Post by **deity6667** » January 8th, 2014, 6:46 pm

damonbowe wrote:What is the gasket you are referring to? Is it on the E61 brew head?

Yes it holds the shower screen in - have a look at your rocket's grouphead.

To the OP what about Cafelat XT PF? http://www.cafelatstore.com/products/co ... filter-set

#7: Post by **cannonfodder** » January 8th, 2014, 10:44 pm

Those stainless LM portafilters are well over $100 as I recall.

My Scace is built on a LM portafilter. To get it to fit my Elektra I just filed the locking lugs down a hair then polished them so they are nice and smooth.

#8: Post by **JmanEspresso** » January 10th, 2014, 1:03 am

An LM Portafilter on an E61 has always been one of the many things Ive liked about having the E61 group. Ive had three different E61 machines, and always had LM Portafilters for them. Specifically the rubber handle, angled ones. Great PFs IMO.

The way I always got them to fit, was both an 8mm gasket(_and currently Ive got an 8mm "soft" gasket I got from EPNW), and sanding down the basket lip. I actually have never needed to sand down any material off of the lugs. But, even though they're all "e61", each machine is gonna be different, so, YMMV.

#9: Post by **TomC** » January 10th, 2014, 2:17 am

My Duetto ( standard E-61) had a LM portafilter on it during its entire time I owned the machine. The only mods to it were to make it bottomless which has no effect on what you're concerned with. I only used the stock PF's for backflushing. No ear grinding or basket lip mods needed.

January 25th, 2014, 11:50 am

I just got my La Marzocco 15° rubber handle brass portafilter. They go for over $100 bucks new, but I scored a nice used one on eBay for only $55.

I measured the La marzocco portafilter (bottom of ear to top of lip distance), and VS. the Expobar pf, it was about 1mm thicker. So I thought I might need to replace the gasket to loss about .5mm, and sand the lip of the LM pf to loss another .5mm. For a total of 1mm. That was the game plan.

I ordered an 8mm brew head gasket from espressoparts.com. I exchanged the 8.5mm Expobar gasket for the new 8mm one. There was very little if any difference in portafilter lock-in angle. I then sanded off the lettering on the 8mm gasket to get it even thinner. Still little or no difference. I went back to my Expobar gasket, because I have used it for a month now, it's broken-in somewhat, and actually fits a little better in the brew head.

I did get some 120 grit, and 400 grit sandpaper from my local hardware store. So it was time to sand the lip. It actually took very little work, because the brass is soo soft and sands down quit quickly. I used the 120g for the bulk of the work, and fine tuned it with the 400g. I just kept sanding and testing the fit, till I got to about 6:30 o'clock angle of the handle. I didn't want to go to far, as the gasket will wear over time, so it should hit right at 6 o'clock once the gasket is fully worn in.

So, I guess the gasket trick doesn't work with my Expobar Office Lever espresso machine? It could be that a different gasket might have worked better? In any case, sanding the lip down did the trick.

Update: (I checked out the "CREM international" website, makers of Expobar. It showed a photo of my gasket. It turns out that my machine was shipped to me with an 8mm gasket, not an 8.5mm as some sites have said. I am not sure if this is a new design with the 2013 office lever models? This is a quote from the CREM webpage: "8mm Long life group head gasket used as standard on all new machines.")

http://www.cremtechnical.co.uk/C75000081.html