Astoria 1 group renewal - Page 4

[Robbert]

hi all,

finally my astoria is once again operational.
got the parts a month ago, but the holiday season stopped me
from attaching them to the machine.

in the end, even after all the tricks my old procon could only
be turned with a big spanner, so in the end I ordered a new one,
I spent 25% more to get one with a built in
filter. I hope it will pay off in the long run.

the machine is now functioning, but not paneled up.

making foam with this machine took a few goes,
the first three times I just boiled milk very quickly.
quite a change from a krups that needs to heat up for
about a minute then taking about half one to steam.

apart from my lack of a digital camera,
the internal state of my machine,
compared to the vast expanses of polished metal
on dj monkeyhater's, doesn't merit showing.

question:
I have read a lot about preparing a machine for storage,
but what about the pump?
blow with unoiled compressed air?
as i will probably be away for a few months this summer.

cheers,

J

[SLuette]

hi all,

i'm new here in the forum, this thread is very interesting for me because i own the same astoria then djmonkeyhater. the only difference is that mine has an electronical controller.
at the moment it'll be professional cleaned from the limescale. a complete revision will be done in near future.
i run it since 5 years with 380V and djmonkeyhater - this is real fun . our new apartment has only 220V (standard in germany) and so it'll be rebuild to 220V.
I'll provide you some pictures when get it back.

regards,

SLuette

[SLuette]

sorry for the delay, but here it is :

regards,

SLuette

[bremms]

Hi I'm new to this Forum. I sold Astorias back in the early to mid 90's
sold all my stuff a while ago. Kept my 4 group La Marzocco for bout 5 years
sold it when I moved. In any case, I am renewing an Astoria Lady from about
1990 (picked it up for $200) It needed a few parts. New gauge, relief valve for group head
(somebody broke it off!!) The poor thing was not well taken care of and very poorly repaired.
After taking the machine apart I found that the heat exchanger pipe had ruptured. Yet another part!!!!
Everything else looks good.

THE best thing to clean these with is Phosphoric acid (BY FAR) eats scale, lime and corrosion without
dissolving any metal!! MUCH better than HCL.

I'll try and get some pics. It's not a PID Marzocco but it will still make a great shot!!!

[networkcrasher]

I want to replace the motor and capacitor with a standard carbonation motor and move it under the counter.

Quick question - why would you use a normal carbonation motor instead of the typical espresso motor that has a capacitor start on it? I assume you're not worried about the motor coming to full speed initially for a sort of pre-infusion?