Turning your own wooden handles for la pavoni - Page 2

[r-gordon-7]

The boiler cap on the Gaggia Factory is indeed male into the boiler...



No idea how the Gaggia cap's plastic is attachted to the cap's metal thread. The pressure relief valve is internal to the cap, so that woluld likely complicate replacement of the plastic with wood, but then as, except during filling, the Gaggia Factory's cap is covered by the "Tinman" hat, there's really no need...

r-gordon-7

[Spresso_Bean]

If your cap has the name elebac on the bottom of the plastic it may be similar to this Cremina cap. The Vinyl center pries out with a needle or the tip of an eXacto knife.

I just checked my 60s Pavoni and both the boiler cap and the steam knob say "Elebak" on the underside. Thanks for the info on how to remove the center cap - it looks like I could just replace that upper section with a wooden piece if I ever get around to doing that. With the elegance the wood gives the machine, I might have to make it a point to try turning some soon. I have a bit of instrument-grade wood (Honduras mahogany, highly figured maple, Indian rosewood etc.) from a while back that I've held onto. This is a great thread.

[espressme]

I have had a problem with splitting and glue joins parting in the high heat of a boiler cap. I made a disk of brass with a square hole and two slots to accept and allow movement of pins glued into the wood. This will, I hope, give torque where it is needed and relieve the pressure at the core of the wood.

YMMV
Cheers
Richard

[da gino]

I confirmed with a friend who has the wooden knobs on his machine that the boiler comes with a wooden knob, but the threads are plastic (or perhaps bakelite).

Hugh

[da gino]

The project is finally done - well until I decide I want to go back and try a few different things. I turned the knobs and handles and obviously bought the chrome drip tray online (I really like the added heft that makes the drip tray a little more stable, but mostly I thought it would just look better).

Here are some photos of the machine...



For some reason the next picture comes up right on my computer, but 90 degrees off as I post it here,
but it gets the idea across...



Here is the boiler knob solution I used.



I cut the square peg out of the bakelite knob with a chop saw and then used a drill and a chisel to
make a matching hole in the block of cocobolo.


Hugh

[espressme]

Hugh, You done real good!
Sincerely
Richard

[codpiece]

Wow! Looks fantastic. Are you taking orders? Seriously.

[da gino]

Wow! Looks fantastic. Are you taking orders? Seriously.

Thanks so much for asking and you made my day, but with a 1 year old in the house, I think my wife would kill me if I made another set, but there are others on this board who are far more qualified than I am who might be interested. Richard (espressme - who posted on this thread) does these professionally and if you look at Steve Robinson's thread about restoring an Olympia Cremina, http://www.home-barista.com/lever-espresso-machines/restoration-of-olympia-cremina-t464.html?hilit=restoration%20cremina
you can see the handles he got from Thors' tampers.

I should add that I couldn't have done my project without lots of advice from Richard and I think he has a good idea for a better/ more sophisticated way to do the boiler knob than the way that I did it.

[codpiece]

Cheers for that. I completely understand.