I purchased this espresso machine from a small town coffee shop a few years ago. It was built in 2002 but it hasn't really been used all that much from what I could tell. It also came with a nice water softener unit. I thought maybe the scale would be okay but our water is pretty hard so I knew I would have to tackle this project eventually. I remember reading a few of these over the last few years so it gave me the confidence to go through with it. I figure I would pay it back. So here's some photos. Enjoy!
Eric

any suggestions for upgrades? I would love to throw a PID on this.

A PID on an HX is minimally useful.
Have you considered mucking around with variable preinfusion time? A delay-on-make relay is an easy addition.

<edit> ah, maybe not so easy on a semi auto....