What a beauty. I had a long time with sour shots when I got my machine. Then I stuck a temperature strip to the group and realised how long time it actually took for the group to heat up. After the machine has warmed up you have to pull the lever until you feel a "click" indicating that the

I am outnumbered

I believe your machine originally just had a Sopac pstat like this: {image} Eventually I wanted my Family to run a bit cooler and replaced the Sopac with a Mater. {image}

-- Just found this photo. My original Sopac pstat looked a bit pale in comparison. {image}

Wow what a crazy looking pressurestat you got there. Interesting to see if that thing works. What is the part that sticks out to the right of pstat? The pstat is screwed into a threaded boiler fitting. Should be easy to remove

It's the original boiler insulation. Didn't even consider it a health hazard. Looks to me like the mineral wool usually used in buildings

Developed my own little handy trick to remove the group screen. Take the piston out of the group. Drop some poker chips into the group. {image} They fit perfectly. Place the piston gently back into the group and out pops the screen below. It's only hold in place by the group gasket and 40 years of d...

Think it's pretty safe to say that you cannot take the piston apart without compressing the spring. With plastic strips or in other ways

I found the original PF very unbalanced. Very heavy chrome/brass part - very short handle. {image} A longer handle and the original PF is almost a pleasure to work with

I had a very traumatic experience with Penny bottomless PF. Since the Penny PF has a larger distance between the top of the PF and ears, I could hardly force it in the group. But I did for a while. Then I realized that because of the PF's smaller diameter it would only grip the group