Jitterbug, Thanks, there has been a lot of part-scrubbing and wrench turning thus far, but it has been very rewarding. It will be even more so when I pull that first shot. My friend and I took apart the control box and discovered a blown trace and a flaky relay. I'm not sure if these were

I'm going to lead with questions so the casual reader doesn't have to deal with the whole story. Please do read the whole thing if you are so inclined, whether you know how to help me or not. Does anyone know why the control box would not engage the heater except if: 1) The P-stat had disconnected it

I began this rebuild about four weeks ago in Feb 2011. A friend of mine had an old Formula/Wega Mini (which later became the Mini Nova line) in his party barn in central Texas. He had to move and told his friends everything in the barn was up for grabs. And so this little beast became mine:

Technology is awesome. I just got my frame back from a friend who runs a paint booth. It took a long time to expose all the rust spots and bead blast those clean. This frame is powder coated which makes matters even more fun and so I chose to just leave those unaffected sections alone and paint

Wow, That is a lot of rust on the frame, it looks like the nuts that hold the boiler in place are completely covered. The pump that mine came with is mos def different that the one you have in the photos. I've got a fluid o tech 70W Vibratory Pump and I need to replace it

I understand that without the Pstat the heating element will continue to boil water ad nauseum until something blows, but could I not get away without one for a while, so long as I closely monitor the pressure and switch the heater off once it reaches say 1.2bar? JD

What I've found fits perfectly with what Terry said. Nova parts appear to be what I've got and the only other identifying mark is 7/91 stamped on the brewgroup, which I assume is a date. The one I've got is missing several parts, does yours have a water tank that fits next to the boiler on the side

Ted, I have a machine that looks just like this one, well not really. Mine is actually in far worse-looking condition, but only for now. My rebuild is moving along quite nicely, I'm hoping to have all the busted parts replaced, broken parts mended and all the dull parts shining and be pulling shots ...

Good advice Mark, I pressure tested the HX by plugging two of the three ports, put compressed air into the third, then submerged the whole boiler in water. Sure enough I got a steady stream of bubbles coming from one of the welds. It should be an easy fix, thanks a million for the heads-up. JD

If the cost is the same I like the replace idea too, plus the having extra parts benefit. However, I wonder if (and this is only to be attempted under close supervision, and preferably not while drinking) I could keep an eye on the pressure gauge and as my own pressure stat? At least at first... And