Gaggia Orione Lever Restoration of Epic Proportions - HELP!

[Brooklynshot]

Well here it is... Another restoration project. But this one is beyond anything I've ever attempted before! A friend and I recently acquired 3 awesome Gaggia Orione Lever commercial machines. Let me tell you they are both impressive and very much in need of help. Two of them have their boiler one one has no boiler at all. We will try to piece together 2 complete machines and make a home grown frankenstein machine with the left over parts. I will be posting photos of the restoration process here in the next few weeks (months... years?). I've done several restorations before and am ok with the electrical and mechanical challenges. But...Any help you all can provide, history, parts description, operational hints etc would be GREATLY appreciated. For now I simply submit the following. I will post more later but please let me know what in the world i am dealing with here. lever type? What are those glass pots? How much are they worth? They seem to have the GX lever or C type lever. Any help? Thanks!

[mogogear]

Those big glass pots are not for beans! Thats an innovative way to use them though-- they sure look to be a variation on the "bulk" coffee brewer as seen on some other models- Those appear to be heating elements in the base of each.

Where are those "big format" rebuilders? Paul, Cannonfodder - others! This fellow H-Ber has a lot of project time ahead-

['Q']

You can get some info from a thread I started awhile ago (here). It looks like it's pretty much the same machine except yours have two "coffee" pots and one group head each, and mine has two group heads and one "coffee pot." I haven't done much with it lately.

Good luck and let me know if you have parts you wanna get rid of, particularly those half-cylindar side panels.

Or, maybe I could be talked out of it too...

[Paul]

hi

I don't have much more info than that was covered in the previous thread linked by Q. Just wanted to wish you good luck. If you need suggestions for parts suppliers, let us know and someone will point you in the right direction.

[hbuchtel]

The one in the last picture appears to be one of the legendary Gaggia Super-Auto-Levers, with the built in grinders ...



Henry

[Brooklynshot]

Thanks for the information in the link. I saw that earlier after I made the original post. I will start renovations this week and will post some shots of what I find inside (or what I find missing). I do need some portafiltes. Anyone have agood source for 3 or 4 used ones? I see lots of new ones easily obtainable... but none used...any help? Do you happen to have a box of them laying around and want to give a few up? I'd pull the first shot in your honor!

[cannonfodder]

Not sure where I would start with that one. I guess I would tare it down to the frame, check the boiler to make sure it is not cracked (learned that one the hard way after rebuilding a two group Faema) and descale everything. The group will need taken apart and cleaned. New seals on the piston (new seals/gaskets on everything actually), and start putting one back together.

I would keep one machine whole, incase you forget how something went together you can check it on the assembled machine and take lots of digital photos and use lots of elbow grease.

[Brooklynshot]

latest update on the rebuild... After a few hours on the exam table we have determined that the patient(s) will live! After some cleaning, two will fire up no problem. We will do a descaling on the best two, replace all gaskets and put on new side panels. Unfortunately, not all the glass pots were intact. I will only be able to salvage 4 of the 6. That means the left over parts of the 3rd machine will go toward making a single lever frankenmachine as planned (with no pots). Anyone have a source for parts for the glass pots in case something breaks? Thanks again for the references and links... I will post rebuild shots later on.

[Bruce White]

I purchased a two group Orione about 10 years ago and have had it stored away. Now that my espresso machine repair/restoration hobby has fully run-amuck (and I am working full-time on espresso machines) I have decided to dust it off and put it into service. I am about to tear it down and put a parts order together. I haven't yet asked my suppliers about parts, but expect problems. Would appreciate knowing your sources, and I look forward to hearing about your progress.

Bruce

[Brooklynshot]

UPDATE 1/15/08.... Well I've gotten sidetracked as you can tell from the late date of this post. I hope to continue this restoration in the next two weeks. I had to finish a work project that took lots of overtime so I'll be back at these lever machines soon.
I am still looking for portafilters (gaggia) if anyone has some to sell or trade. I can offer some Reneka portafilters up to trade if someone has the need - I can even professionaly cut them to be bottomless if you want.
Anyway... more pictres and a progress report will be comming soon. These things need to move off my bench!

[rick meinig]

I have a Gaggia Orione that I restored in the early 1990's and to my amazement when I need some new O-rings this last January , the same supplier remains in business! You need to talk to Sergio-no email or web address at : "Deluxe, Inc, 9071 San Fernando Rd, Sun Valley, CA 91352. Telephone: 818-768--6300. The other invaluable resource is Tal Fishman in Denver at http://www.espressosmith.com. Tal just started a website for lever machines! http://www.leverlovers.com . Good luck and let us know if you part out anything---save it all!!!
Rick Colorado Springs

[rick meinig]

Attached is a reasonbly current picture of my Gaggia which is used at home. I finally replaced the knobs--bought in 1994!!

[Brooklynshot]

That thing is awsome! I have been able to source most parts and I appreciate the help with your reference. I'll be posting more pics this week. Based on how things go, I may just be restoring 2 of the 3 machines and selling the leftover parts including one complete lever group (sans boiler). I'll keep you up to date.

[Brooklynshot]

Here is the latest... I have made 0% progress on the Gaggia's. I will be resuming refurb work this weekend I hope. I got sidetracked with 2 other "quick" restroations and left these Gaggia's as is for a few months. I ended up doing a total refurb on an Astra Gourmet,
and a total overhaul on a La San Marco 85-16 Practical. These both turned out awsome and I'll post the refurbs on a separate post later. Stay tuned for pics of the Gaggia's after this weekend. Thanks for all your help and suggestions thus far. I've sourced a great vendor for all the parts I need and even found another boiler for the 3rd machine!