Got it, thanks everyone for the help

So I took it apart again and looked at the boiler, man that citric acid does a job. The heating element, bottom plate and sides are pristine.





And after a little finessing, had to use a utility knife to get between the HX rim & boiler, I now have the HX tube off and it is descaling as we speak



Am now waiting on the replacement gaskets to get here and then I can report on the final assembly

I may try and find some replacement screws that attach the boiler to the frame, mine are still all rusted

My boiler-to-frame screws were quite rusted too, in fact, I had to use thread-loosener then apply heat (heat-gun) to get them to break loose. I then soaked them in WD-40 to get rid of the rust. After that, they were good to reuse. If you do replace yours, most likely, the threading is metric. A good hardware store will have what you need.

The parts look good after descaling!

And here is the HX tube





I may try and resoak the boiler, there is some minor scale where the HX sits and since this thing is all apart again why not.

Now just waiting on some new gaskets and we can piece it back together!

Orphan Espresso shipment came in Saturday, thank you Doug & Barb!, so the HX is now set and the machine is almost ready.

I have having one final issue.

I was getting good steam but at the same time had a small water leak where the safety relief nut screws into the top bar, I tightened that down and now that top seal is fine but am getting almost no steam and a very small water leak at the same spot but now the back side of it not the top. The spot is marked in the picture below:



I seem to be fixing one thing and then something else in the system is set off a bit and so have to go back and diagnose

Everything working except getting low steam power and a steam leak off the top cap, cannot screw it down enough to contain the boil properly with the top cover on.

With cover off, I can cinch it down, but that still leaves me w/ low steam for some reason

I forgot there was even a fitting there. I had to go take a look on my machine. During my rebuild that fitting never came loose, nor did i try to get it loose. Does yours actually turn? can it be removed completely? If so, a good cleaning of the threads on the fitting and the bar might help. I know some of these fittings really have to be tight. Wrench and hammer?

yeah, it turns and i have it tight so no more leak. you have to tighten that fitting then reattached the aluminum arm to it

i still have low steam for some reason, will have to poke around some more

Peter,

Looks really nice - also glad to hear it's mostly up and running. I'll also look tomorrow at the location of your first-mentioned steam leak... Not quite sure what you're dealing with there. As far as the top-cap leak, isn't there a not underneath that top plate? I seem to remember there is, and it may need to rotated into the boiler neck, a half turn more. If that top insulation is too thick, you may be able to cut a slightly larger diameter hole for the neck. I'll see about digging up a picture of mine with the lid off tomorrow.

apple2k wrote:yeah, it turns and i have it tight so no more leak. you have to tighten that fitting then reattached the aluminum arm to it

i still have low steam for some reason, will have to poke around some more

Did you replace all the gaskets? Both the boiler cap gasket and the bibb washer in the steam valve can get very deformed over time. I've seen boiler cap gaskets where the area where the top tube seats was pushed almost to the level of the back of the gasket. Likewise on the steam valve, the bibb washer that actually blocks or releases the steam can form itself around the valve seat over time to the point where it may block steam even when open. Both of these are often victims of overtightening- when they are in good shape they just need to be snug to perform their job.

Otherwise, I've had the lower entry for the sight glass get blocked when a bit of scale came loose and wasn't dissolved by descaling. We have excessively hard water here and if scale is left to build up a bit some of it seems to build an armor plate that neither Durgol nor citric acid will take out. Not too likely for the steam valve since the tube comes off the top of the boiler, but still possible (some folks like to turn the machine upside down for a moment when descaling to get every nook and cranny).

If the bibb washer is very deformed but still somewhat pliable you might get by until a new one comes by reversing it.

I agree. It looks really nice. How is the coffee? I've been enjoying one of these machines for a couple months. I find Velton's Colombia Monserrate tastes really really good out of the PL/OM group.