Here is part one:http://www.home-barista.com/espresso-machines/three-group-la-pavoni-rebuild-t3483.html

I've really enjoyed all the feedback received regarding this machine. One contributor who seems to enjoy remaining anonymous has really schooled me. I won't use his name unless he posts here but everything in the following five paragraphs are from his e-mails and really interesting so I want to share them. Try and identify this HB member.

"This model launched about mcmlxxxviii/lxxxix and was only offered as a two group and a three group. It has the earlier of the two Pavoni eclipse replica groups. This is the time when all the e61 replicas launched because of patent expiration. Italian patents granted for a term of fourteen years and can be renewed once. The e61 patent was mcmlx, adding the twenty-eight years yields mcmlxxxviii.

"The j.r. muggs chain had these in all of their locations at one time."

"local (Edit: The Bay Area) espresso equipment salesman Steve Grossman used to work for Jim Glang at crossroads. He told me this was Pavonis best group/machine at that time. He subsequently left crossroads to work for Mr. Espresso and then it was on to Acorto.

"I like the look of the "mark I" Pavoni eclipse replica groups as found on your machine better than the "mark II." for the small differences see the Ascaso & Grimac parts drawings at vendors like coffeeparts.com or espressoparts.com one curious thing about the Pavoni version is that la levetta works "backwards" from the original. With Pavoni up is off and down is on. La Levetta permits the operator complete control over the pre-infusion."

"An interesting bit of history about the relationship betwixt Mr. Squarepants (Edit: My Astoria Lever Machine) e signore Desi (Edit: The Pavoni):
There used to be a bay area espresso equipment distributor called "espresso bar and bean" on the peninsula. They went out of business in mcmlxxxi and one of their salesmen, Jim Glang, began his own distributorship called crossroads. Jim sold a nello machine called cafethema (from e.s.i.) and Brasilia. After about one to two years of operation he dropped them to go exclusively with Pavoni. The nanosecond he dropped the nello Carlo Di Ruocco of Mr. Espresso picked it up. Hence Mr. Squarepants' matriculation plate, and of course Desi is a Jim Glang machine."

I learned a lot, did you? Our knowledgeable friend is going to be in Reno this May and hopefully will visit. I want to have a Lever VS. Pump machine shoot out (shot out?) it would be kind of boring to get all wired comparing shots alone. So the company would be welcome. Anyone else in town around then and interested should drop me a line.

Ok, the History is History, on with the rebuild

I used a 45 minute hot citric acid soak for the passivation of my Astoria boiler after media blasting. For the Pavoni I'm trying a Six hour hot 50/50 h20 and vinegar soak.
The Astoria boiler turned bright purple after a few dozen heat cycles and after a few hundred is a nice golden brass color, I'm curious if the Pavoni boiler will eventually be a different color.



Ice chests have great insulation (what a grasp of the obvious I have) and the boiler fit inside perfectly so I put the ice chest inside the bathtub (when the wife was at work of course) and filled it up with the solution. After the boiler was done and rinsed off I put the tub drain plug in, filled the tub with fresh hot water and the used vinegar solution for an hour. Our tub has not been this clean since it was new. The smell did take a few days to totally disappear though.

Every piece I put back on this machine makes me happier. I cannot believe what a great looking chunk of metal it is. At numerous stages I thought it looked perfect and wanted to hook up the wires and start pulling shots. Who needs a cup-warmer, side panels or a group backing plate? I want to put open headers on this thing and drive it around town.



The exterior color scheme is stock, Red and Black. The rusty unpainted upright frame and the sight glass backing plate I had powder-coated silver. I also had the Aluminum half round boiler end brackets done in Black to try and prevent future electrolysis. The boiler supports I had done black as well.






I finally got bored trying to remove the micro-scratches on the polished stainless. Its one of the "Patina" elements I'm going to live with.



In part one I was pretty cavalier about re-assembly and how easy it would be. Oh how I suffered getting the HX intakes back on. For future multiple group machines I'm going to scribe #'s on every single fitting, compression nut and bracket.



I knew I was missing the pipe going from the top of the level tube to the boiler and went un-successfully looking for parts today. Hopefully someone in town has something that will work. I have two compression nuts the correct thread pitch and could go with 3\8 copper tubing and ferrules but only found 10' lengths available; I need about 6".

That's it for part Two. I'll try not to drag re-assembly out forever but there are tons of little fiddly things that are eating up time.

Thanks again for giving me a forum to show off my project and get advice.

Impressed and most delighted! Thanks for the show (pleasure without the pain - nice!); and the 20/20 hindsight strikes many a chord on other adventures in the past!

Here's hoping you follow through and post the Restoration Complete party pictures too!

nice work. Your friend sounds pretty bright . What colour are you going to refinish the bodywork?

nice work

Thanks Paul.

I'm planning on Stock Red for the sides and back panel. I was going to drop them off with the frame until I noticed minor differences with the side panel tabs and think I may have mixed the body work with the other "identical" machine.



After I compare all six pieces and am sure the sets are correct they will get painted (Powdered?)

Yes our HB friend is very knowledgeable. No guess as to his screen name?

When I rebuilt my Faema, the stainless group backing was scratched to pieces as well. It looked like they had been using scrubbing pads to clean the machine, when they cleaned it.

I clamped the SS backing onto my workbench and used my car buffer to polish it. I started with polishing compound, moved to polishing compound and finaly wax. It got most of the scratches out.

Hi Cannonfodder,

I read your rebuild with interest as it was being posted. I used your techniques on my Astra project.

It went from this:



To this:



I did not have the same success with the polished finish on the Pavoni. It really needs to be done on a polishing lathe with the proper rouge.

How is your 3/2 group? I am constantly thinking of it as I pray the HX's are ok on this machine.

It is a 2/1 group. It still runs like a champ and pull wonderful shots. I have actually semi retired it. Since it was essentially a 12 liter single group machine, I decided to clean her up and drain the boiler/hx and put it in the basement for time being. I got an Elektra A3 to take its place and my shots are better than ever. I also got a foot and a half of counter space.

One day I will remodel the down stairs and may put in a wet bar and bring it back out for old times sake, unless someone wants a good deal on a rebuilt commercial two group.

If you look at the SS, there is a grain in the metal. When I buffed it out I made sure to buff with the grain. It does make a difference, but there is only so much you can do without a real polishing rig.

The machine look nice. You will a real winner when you get if finished.

cannonfodder wrote:snip
If you look at the SS, there is a grain in the metal. When I buffed it out I made sure to buff with the grain. It does make a difference, but there is only so much you can do without a real polishing rig.snip

Hello,
I have had some luck refinishing Stainless by getting Ultrafine sheet abrasive material and setting the original part flat with some thing flat and hard to come to the level of the surface at each end. Then with either 600grit scrubby (3M) or the abrasive sheet I start the pass along the grain from one dummy (on ramp) and go smoothly across the good piece and stop after completely passing over the part with the grain and onto the other dummy ( off ramp.)
Called straight lining. Some have success using a non-woven scrubby type wheel on a grinder. Some use belt sanders with a special non-woven surfaced belt.
FWW
sincerely
richard

Ahh the freakin Pavoni rebuild, where do I start for this, the penultimate update.

Lets start with the good news. By bugging John-K with rambling diagnostic e-mails and pictures like this:


I finally got the auto level system working, the leaks have been downgraded to a drip system from a Las Vegas style fountain, My Franken-pump/pressurized holding tank set up works fine but needs a line pressure reducer, I get Nine bars of pressure from the pump, It looks just as good with it's bodywork on or off, the element heats up and the P-stat works, Sounds great you say? Let's see those shot pictures you say? Well the sad truth is that I did not heed sage advice about bench pressure testing given to me by HB members and it has at least one HX leaking into the boiler . AAArgh. My heart, it is broken.

So much for not using parts taken off the second machine. I'm off to strip the boiler and some other bits I've been eyeballing and will continue in a new post titled "Replacing a La Pavoni boiler" or "The quest to fix a welded in ruptured HX" If the second boiler leaks as well.

Why did I skip such an important step? I 'm just an optimist I guess, the boiler was kicking around my basement for a month and would have only taken an hour to rig up and test. Next rebuild I'm all over it.

I will pressure test the boiler in question just to be sure but it looks like I have the 3/2 equivalent of CannonFodder's 2/1.

I'll post some pictures of the flawed beauty later, I'm too sad to even look at it right now.

Edit: OK I'm over it. Here are some pictures. I'm still missing two valve handles but scavenging the other machine hooked me up. I decided not to paint the side panels just yet. I cleaned them up and can always coat them later, stock paint vs. fresh argument going on inside my head still.


Sun faded but shiney

Right I forgot to touch up the badge paint, aren't pictures great.


Enough posing for the camera, time to take it apart and replace the boiler.

Quick update, I pressure tested the #2 machines boiler and found no leaks, huzzah! So am going to swap them until I find a welder to sweat out and repair the bad HX.(hopefully not a big deal, I have been told It's bread and butter for a boiler certified welder.)


For testing I left the group heads attached and pressurized the whole HX system from the HX intake. I had one leaky group, switched the group head with one I knew was ok then got zero leak down. I used a cut down tubeless tire valve stem hose clamped to the HX intake. I'm going to use a rig like this when I check out used machines in the future. Conveniently my hand pump reads in Bars.

The donor





I was correct that this was the better of the two machines. It has had allot less use since it left the factory, but a much worse water softener. I swiped the; feet, drain box, plastic upper corner pieces, heating element, water level copper tubing and the boiler, It's like a Pavoni flea market.

Sean-

A recent post for another Pavoni rebuild leads me to ask... did you finish?

I ran out of snow.

My espresso machine projects are done in winter when I'm trapped indoors. I'll be pulling them back onto the bench in a few months.

I almost stayed away cold turkey from HB for the duration but John asked me a question about his new machine, I pulled some old emails from JohnK and Paul Sack to answer him with validation and finally broke down. HB really is a honey of a user group, I miss you guys.

In short No, it's not done and thanks for keeping the post alive until I get back!