Another La Cimbali Junior at work - Thanks to Home Barista!
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Scott911
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 9 years ago
Hello everyone! Thanks to Home Barista, I'm the proud owner of a refurbished 2000 vintage La Cimbali Junior D1. It is a plumbed in, vibe pump with the mechanical/electrical water dosing box model.
This is a huge step up for us - going to a commercial machine from a home user Saeco and cheap grinder. The Saeco developed a leak in the water tank, and trying to find parts quickly made me realize that a step up was in order. After looking at prices for pro-sumer machines on several websites and then looking at used commercial machines, I saw the benefits of an older and simpler commercial machine that I could maintain within reason.
It was due to the extensive amount of material on Home Barista about the Junior - from reviews, restorations, tuning and tweaking and experimentation from lots of people that contributed - that I felt comfortable in jumping into this project, even though I have never worked on an espresso machine before. I do have a bit of mechanical experience and an engineering background, so decided that with the resources on HB that I should be ok in this project.
I found this Junior in Phoenix, AZ on Craigslist for a somewhat reasonable price, brought it home and tore it down. This is what it looks like after refurbishment - I still need to attach the drain hose.
My initial diagnoses of a machine that had been run but not maintained was proven with the rusted out floor pan that I rebuilt. Several of the piping connections had been seeping and not tightened, and the drain hose connection from the water dosing box had broken and not repaired.
Old vs new floor pan. New one is 12 gauge steel with 1.75 inch C channels on each side. It wound up being about 1/8 inch taller than the original floor pan.
After a thorough dis-assembly and cleaning with citric acid, then priming and painting everything went back together just fine. I had some concerns about the condition of the boiler as there was some calcium buildup at the bottom of the HX neck, but it was residue from the leaking connections above. Once cleaned and painted, things were looking like they should again.
I lost the factory feet to the floor pan corrosion and wasn't excited about the price for new ones, so elevator bolts were put into service as feet.
The only part that was beyond cleaning was the HX tube. Not bad considering what could have been wrong!
Fortunately, I employ only the finest Doberman engineer available. Jac helped me diagnose the holes in the HX tube after reassembly and pressure testing. I had hot water and steam, but when I tried to prime the HX tube I just kept pressurizing the boiler.
So now the adventure and learning truly begins! All in all, the parts listing was reasonable - new floor pan and feet, all new gaskets and seals, shower screen, etc. and a new HX tube. The original Ulka pump was gunked up but worked well after disassembly and cleaning - still had the original manufacture tag of 10/2000 and the Cimbali serial number tag on it. I've got lots more time invested than I could pay for, but what's a hobby for, anyway?
Midway through the refurbish project, our cheap grinder died. I did a lot of reading on grinders on HB and decided to get the Orphan Espresso Lido 2 due to space considerations and travel ability. It is nice to be able to dial in a micro adjustment with ease.
I've been very favorably impressed at the simplicity and robustness of the Junior, reminds me of the engineering and straight forward approach of my 911 SC. I'm currently using a Peruvian single farm coffee sourced through Coffee CSA out of Davis, CA and have loved it for a long time. The first shots after some initial tuning of pressures and timing with grind fineness were very smooth and mild, not what I expected. I still need to install a double gauge for boiler and pump pressure, but have gotten to a much richer, more complex and well-rounded flavor profile than I've ever tasted before. In doing some more reading about coffee origins more suitable to espresso, I'm looking forward to trying some varieties from different regions and tasting.
I want to offer a heart-felt "Thanks" to everyone who helped me with my project with your photos, comments and documentaries of your own projects - they really helped me and walked me through mine!
This is a huge step up for us - going to a commercial machine from a home user Saeco and cheap grinder. The Saeco developed a leak in the water tank, and trying to find parts quickly made me realize that a step up was in order. After looking at prices for pro-sumer machines on several websites and then looking at used commercial machines, I saw the benefits of an older and simpler commercial machine that I could maintain within reason.
It was due to the extensive amount of material on Home Barista about the Junior - from reviews, restorations, tuning and tweaking and experimentation from lots of people that contributed - that I felt comfortable in jumping into this project, even though I have never worked on an espresso machine before. I do have a bit of mechanical experience and an engineering background, so decided that with the resources on HB that I should be ok in this project.
I found this Junior in Phoenix, AZ on Craigslist for a somewhat reasonable price, brought it home and tore it down. This is what it looks like after refurbishment - I still need to attach the drain hose.
My initial diagnoses of a machine that had been run but not maintained was proven with the rusted out floor pan that I rebuilt. Several of the piping connections had been seeping and not tightened, and the drain hose connection from the water dosing box had broken and not repaired.
Old vs new floor pan. New one is 12 gauge steel with 1.75 inch C channels on each side. It wound up being about 1/8 inch taller than the original floor pan.
After a thorough dis-assembly and cleaning with citric acid, then priming and painting everything went back together just fine. I had some concerns about the condition of the boiler as there was some calcium buildup at the bottom of the HX neck, but it was residue from the leaking connections above. Once cleaned and painted, things were looking like they should again.
I lost the factory feet to the floor pan corrosion and wasn't excited about the price for new ones, so elevator bolts were put into service as feet.
The only part that was beyond cleaning was the HX tube. Not bad considering what could have been wrong!
Fortunately, I employ only the finest Doberman engineer available. Jac helped me diagnose the holes in the HX tube after reassembly and pressure testing. I had hot water and steam, but when I tried to prime the HX tube I just kept pressurizing the boiler.
So now the adventure and learning truly begins! All in all, the parts listing was reasonable - new floor pan and feet, all new gaskets and seals, shower screen, etc. and a new HX tube. The original Ulka pump was gunked up but worked well after disassembly and cleaning - still had the original manufacture tag of 10/2000 and the Cimbali serial number tag on it. I've got lots more time invested than I could pay for, but what's a hobby for, anyway?
Midway through the refurbish project, our cheap grinder died. I did a lot of reading on grinders on HB and decided to get the Orphan Espresso Lido 2 due to space considerations and travel ability. It is nice to be able to dial in a micro adjustment with ease.
I've been very favorably impressed at the simplicity and robustness of the Junior, reminds me of the engineering and straight forward approach of my 911 SC. I'm currently using a Peruvian single farm coffee sourced through Coffee CSA out of Davis, CA and have loved it for a long time. The first shots after some initial tuning of pressures and timing with grind fineness were very smooth and mild, not what I expected. I still need to install a double gauge for boiler and pump pressure, but have gotten to a much richer, more complex and well-rounded flavor profile than I've ever tasted before. In doing some more reading about coffee origins more suitable to espresso, I'm looking forward to trying some varieties from different regions and tasting.
I want to offer a heart-felt "Thanks" to everyone who helped me with my project with your photos, comments and documentaries of your own projects - they really helped me and walked me through mine!
