I'm about to embark on a new restoration project - a 94 Laurentis SME/1N that I just picked up on ebay. And let me just say, I recognize how lucky I am to have a wife who encouraged me to buy another project machine. Life is great.

My first restoration was a 2 group Pasquini that was too large to be practical in the kitchen, so it's relegated to my basement workshop. I wanted to find a single group project that would eventually find a home somewhere in the kitchen. The Laurentis auction photo was small and fuzzy and there was virtually no description, but I decided to chance it. Thanksgiving miracle, I won the auction.

It was a local pickup auction, so I got a chance to chat with the owner a bit. The machine came from a local auction and was represented to be in working order, but was never hooked up by the owner. Hmm, we'll see. The size of the machine threw me. For a single group, it really was quite large. (I'm trying to picture it in the kitchen and having some difficulty.) Well, if it's too big, after the restore I can sell it and try another. My wonderfully supportive wife helped me load it into the car, and we headed for home. Sloshing water sounds from the boiler. I'm hoping the HX is intact. (If it has a HX, that it. I don't know much about this machine.)

Once the machine was in the workshop, I started taking the "before" pictures. And away we go...

The machine had an external motor/pump and included a water softener (bonus - didn't know that was part of the deal). The pressure gauge looks shot - same pegged needle as I had on my Pasquini. The jar of cleaner came with - I'm getting a kind of a David and Goliath image.



Here it's obvious that the gauge is toast:



Oh, the horror! Why would someone do this?!



The power to external motor was unceremoniously snipped. I removed the pump - after a quick turn with some pliers, the pump turned easily by hand - good sign. I stripped the lines to the motor to test it out, and it ran nice and quiet. Pump and motor might be thumbs up. (Motor label is Zecchin - VI)



In addition to coffee slop, the back has paint drips on it. This machine got no respect.



The side panels are attached with a knurled knob. It's a pretty solid mechanism, but unfortunately, it's right behind the water dispenser wand valve on the left and the steam valve on the right. It's not coming off when the machine is up-to-temp without some burned fingers. However, with an external pump, there's less need to have the sides off, I guess.



The boiler looks like its seen some action. There is so much baked-on scale, I can't tell where the leak(s) originated. I did connect a temporary water line, put some (more) water in the boiler and turned on the machine to see if the heating element worked. Success - the boiler started to warm up. I checked the dosing buttons while I had it powered-up. I could hear the Gicar relay clicking, but not the 3-way solenoid. No big deal, it will all be disassembled soon.



So, there's the first look. Much more to follow, I'm sure.

That's a nasty boiler! Did you find the leak when you fired it up?

Ross Leidy wrote:And let me just say, I recognize how lucky I am to have a wife who encouraged me to buy another project machine.

Ross, does she have a sister?

You are quite a lucky guy. I'm looking forward to this restoration and know that I will enjoy it as much as the one performed on the Pasquini.

Stuggi wrote:That's a nasty boiler! Did you find the leak when you fired it up?

Looking at it I am guessing it would be easier to find the spots that were not leaking and list them.

Stuggi wrote:That's a nasty boiler! Did you find the leak when you fired it up?

I ran it only long enough to determine that it was heating and then shut down. I plan to do a complete tear-down, so any current leaks will be moot. I'll have all new leaks to chase once I get it back together.

uscfroadie wrote:Ross, does she have a sister?

You are quite a lucky guy. I'm looking forward to this restoration and know that I will enjoy it as much as the one performed on the Pasquini.

She does have a sister, but I got the good one.

This afternoon, I started the disassembly. My goal was to get all the copper parts into descaler. I started by draining the boiler, made convenient by the drain plug on the bottom of the boiler. The cap came off easily, but I had to poke through some sediment to get the water flowing. The cap had a nice little plug of scale in it.




The inside of the boiler looked to be in pretty good shape. Some scale, but nothing like what I had in the Pasquini. I felt around the HX and it appears to be intact.



All of the brass fittings separated fairly easily. Only the 3 hex head bolts holding the boiler to the frame really put up a fight, but they eventually wearied of the battle and let loose. After removing all the bits and photographing each as it came off, it all went into a bucket of descaler.



If anyone has a copy of any of the pdf manuals for this machine or similar CMA machine, I'd sure appreciate a copy. Please email if you've got one to share.

Looking horrible at the start, no where to go but up!!!

Can't tell from the pictures, but don't soak the ends of the heating element in case water gets into it. Occasionally causes failures from what I've been reading on this forum.

Mark

BTW: Some have also recommended using bug spray in some of the spots if you even think there might be creepy crawlers that were living in the warm insides. I did an entire tear down outside and found toasted remnants of roaches in my T1. Luckily (I think) they all died while the machine sat in storage before I bought it.

Mark

That is one guest you do not want to come with a machine.

I'm a bit ambivalent here, what would you rather prefer, lot's of crap inside or outside the boiler? I can't really say...

Fortunately, I saw only one spider web and one spider carcass. Perhaps the bugs were too disgusted with the interior to make it a home.

mhoy wrote:Looking horrible at the start, no where to go but up!!!

Can't tell from the pictures, but don't soak the ends of the heating element in case water gets into it. Occasionally causes failures from what I've been reading on this forum.
Mark

I did take precautions with the heating element. The coil only is sitting in another container of descaler. The mounting plate has a lot of grunge on it that won't touch the solution, so I'll need to a brass brush to it to clean it off.

I found another part that needs replacing. The 3-way solenoid is probably toast. One of the contacts for the coil rusted-off inside the connector. I haven't been able to remove the solenoid from the group yet - the nut is rusted-up. I sprayed it with some WD-40 last night, and I'll try again this evening.

I have a question about the switches on this machine. There's the heavy-duty rotary switch in the lower left above the drip tray, which I assume is main power. And, there's a red rocker switch on the front panel labeled, "Dispense". What is that one for? I could understand if it was a semi-auto, but with the programmed dosing buttons I couldn't figure out why the extra switch. Someone enlighten me!