Here are the internals of the original machine. Pretty dirty. Lots of scale. Sometime I'll find the older pictures showing the amount of scale on the heating element. It was pretty bad.


Here's the heat exchanger removed from the machine.


So first order of business, I dismantled the machine and put all of the parts in hot citric acid for a few hours


They came out looking pretty clean.


Here was the leak culprit. That weld had failed and the threads that hold in the pipe were completely disconnected from the actual boiler. I have never brazed anything before, which is why it looks so bad. I used Stay-Silv 56, which melts at 1200 degrees F, and oxy-mapp torch. I will clean it up at some point but for now I'm just trying to see if I can get it making espresso. It's definitely not leaking here anymore.


Here are some reassembly photos.





I had to take the boiler out and braze a new fitting with threads to the top of the boiler because I accidentally stripped it. That joint actually came out looking pretty nice, but I'll have to upload photos of it later. It took a couple of tries to get everything to the point where it wasn't leaking, but I think I've got it now. The steam pressure on this thing compared to my gaggia classic is awesome. Also on the eventual to do list is to clean up the frame. For now I've got just about enough time to get it working, so I'm starting there.

It's now working for the most part, but I'm getting water that just doesn't seem hot enough, and the pressure gauge looks dead. I'm not sure if the gauge is inaccurate or my pressure is really that low. I do have plenty of steam pressure, I've successfully frothed latte milk with it. But I have a very sensitive tongue, and I can drink the "espresso" that comes out of it with no discomfort (which means it's definitely not as hot as it should be). It's hot bath/shower hot, not almost boiling hot. I put "espresso" because what comes out has almost no crema, likely due to low temp.

I'm guessing that the Sirai pressurestat on it either needs to be adjusted or replaced. Does anyone know how I would know if it's working or not? I can hear it (and actually see it) switch on and off.

The only reason I am not 100% certain it's the pressurestat is that sometimes I can hear a very faint hiss, but I can't figure out where it's coming from. It doesn't seem loud enough to be a major problem, but obviously will need to be fixed. I put my ear up to the anti-vacuum valve and it seems to not be the culprit. It does hiss but only until steam fills the chamber and then it closes as it should. It seems to be coming from the other side, near what I think is the safety valve (it has a thing sticking out of it and a spring inside and sits on top of the heat exchanger).

Regardless of the hiss, my thinking is that if the pressurestat was working properly, it would never switch if the pressure was unable to reach the right amount of pressure due to some leak, so it must be at least part of the problem. However, all the reading I've done says that the way to tell if your pressurestat is bad is if you're just not getting any heat. In my case I get heat, it's just not hot enough. Anyone else have any other opinions?

Hey, Great job with cleaning this beast !

I have the exact same machine which has also gone through a thorough cleaning a few months ago and it is a keeper.

Only thing is then I was removing the pipes going in the group (thermosyphon) I heard something fall and I had so much stuff on the area I was working, I could not identify what fell and if it came from one of the pipes.

My question is, when you removed both pipes, did you notice if there was a restrictor in one of them? do you remember if one of them had a smaller diameter at one end? and if so, what was that diameter?

Let me know how your machine turned out and if you need any assistance with anything.

Thank you so much for the help

Sam

A good way to track down steam ghosts is a small inspection mirror. Just poke it around seams and fasteners.

Keep hoping a Wega Mini will fly under the radar someday, as I'd like to check one out. The SS boiler is interesting and they seem to be well made little machines.