Heh! World domination indeed

[Dr Jim]

Well, after months of huffing and chuffing, and getting out-sniped on Ebay, we are now the plowed - er, ah, proud - owners of this lovely 2-group commercial lever machine:



Which is a an early '80's Futurema E-81, with 58mm Astoria lever groups, what looks like a 10-litre boiler, and dual 220v/propane power.

A brief examination last night proved that it will accept standard 58mm portafilters, the lever groups move freely, the pistons hold pressure, and the boiler heats - it's dirty, and needs paint, but it sold for a shockingly low price of $75.

I don't have any more pictures yet, but will soon...

Cheers gotta go conquer the world

Cheers

Jim

[srobinson]

Wow I think you fall into super-lever with that baby. Makes some of our machines look quaint. Please post some more once you get it up and running. That is just the heavy machinery that the LMWDP needs to really take on the masses. Please take a number.

[Dr Jim]

OK - here's a picture of our first, aborted, attempt at making a shot with the Futurema:



Note that the power light does come on, the red fill switch works and fills the boiler, and that we've got about .98 Bar of pressure.

Unfortunately, the right group head leaked like a sieve - with hot water spurting out of the upper joint and from around the lever - it's really hard to control a shot while you're getting scalded ...

So, we pulled the grouphead and disassembled it, finding a fair amount of crud lodged under the upper piston gasket, but that (mercifully) the spring, clevis, bearings, and the cylinder appear to be in excellent shape. Much to our delight, we discovered that ESI (Espresso Specialties Inc) the importer for Marzicoco and Franke actually stocks the correct piston gaskets for this grouphead - so we walked the 250 yards from our Lab to ESI, paid them the magnificent sum of $3.68 and are busily cleaning and rebuilding the grouphead this weekend.

We do have a wiring question, the power cord has 4 leads, a Red, a Brown, a Blue, and a Green/Yellow - I am assuming that the Green/Yellow is chassis ground, the Blue is neutral, and that the Red and Brown should each take a 110V single-phase feed to make a nominal 220V connection - is this correct?

The 220V service box in the Lab has Black, White, Red, and bare copper wires - I believe that Black and Red are each 110V legs, White is neutral, and the bare copper is true earth ground - is this correct also?

The whole machine is filthy, the paint is faded and peeling baby-pooh brown, and the chrome is somewhat scratched and discolored - but since it heats, steams, holds pressure, and neither the steam wand nor the hot water tap leak, I'm pretty optimistic that I can bring it back to life fairly quickly.

Cheers

Jim

[HB]

Wow, seventy-five bucks + a gasket for a two-group lever, score! To your questions about the wiring... I'm not an electrician and have never installed non-US 220V equipment. That of course doesn't stop me from searching the Internet a bit (e.g., "standard wiring colors us"). One of my recent favorite references, the Wikipedia, has this to say about electrical wiring in the UK:

The colour change has been controversial and was delayed for three decades, because the colour blue which was previously used as a phase colour is now the colour for neutral, and the colour black which was previously used for neutral indicates now a phase. While confusion between these conductors could be dangerous, the combinations of colours used usually resolves ambiguities. It has also been suggested that the new phase colours are difficult to distinguish in low-light conditions, but the same can be claimed for most colour combinations, including the old British phase colours. A mnemonic advantage of the new colours is that the first two letters of "brown" and "blue" match the corresponding positions on the socket face: "bottom right" and "bottom left".

No easy answer, eh? It does include a table of the insulation color coding; its links led me to this very nice drawing from the Electrician's Guide, 4.6.2 - Identification of fixed wiring conductors. In case you haven't had enough of insulation color coding, the tables in Wire Color Coding covered both US and UK. Despite the online reference, my advice is to ask the technician's at ESI about proper wiring. Internet advice is cheap, but when it comes to electricity, it's worth having an answer from trained and certified professionals. You're lucky that ESI is only steps away.

[blong]

Yesterday I bought a second hand pre millenium La Pavoni Professional 16 (mint) apart from missing filter baskets. I paid £10 that's about $18!!

I knew nothing about espresso machines yesterday but I'm learning fast. I can hardly wait for the replacement baskets I ordered from a supplier to arrive.

You have every right to hate me because although I like nice coffee I've never been one to frequent coffee shops or drink coffee at home. I am or was a "Tea Jenny".

That is someone who drinks a lot of tea. Generally I only imbibe coffee when on the continent.

I am not very appreciative of the new coffee shop phenomena... bit of a cynic you see. It seems too much like a marketing scam.

But I always liked old school family run British/Italian cafes. Magical places of my childhood which were full of strange smells and strange whooshing noises and steaming gleaming contraptions covered in pipes, gauges, chrome and brass.

I've got one of my own now.

Honestly I do appreciate how lucky I've been in getting the La Pavoni.

You may think the Pavoni is wasted on me but it isn't.... I promise you.

Soon I will have the knowledge... you can't stop me... no one can...stay back one pull of this lever and the world is mine.