1954 Victoria Arduino Supervat Restoration - Page 14

Equipment doesn't work? Troubleshooting? If you're handy, members can help.
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JohnB.
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#131: Post by JohnB. »

Paul_Pratt wrote:I can confirm that it has lifted in places due to limescale creeping under the joints. Obviously in order to have the boiler soldered back up properly I will have to have to get rid of the limescale.

I don't think citric will touch it. I have not used HCL for years so I will try and find some.
I do my descaling in my bead blast cabinet. If you have one you could clean up the surface in a couple of minutes.
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Paul_Pratt (original poster)
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#132: Post by Paul_Pratt (original poster) replying to JohnB. »

I do that a lot, but on this occasion I worry about generating lead dust from the lead solder. I do use a respirator with p100 cartridges but won't take the risk. Also the blaster won't get under the solder like acid would.

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leicaism
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#133: Post by leicaism »

Paul. I got a Supervat souvenir from ebay.it. It looks so cool, then I am happy that I own a three groups Supervat now. :P



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Paul_Pratt (original poster)
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#134: Post by Paul_Pratt (original poster) »

A long overdue update. I managed to clean off most of the old lead solder from the fittings both on the outside and the inside. And then bead blasted the boiler, to end up with this.





It was decided that after all this effort I would do it properly so all the lead has gone, and the idea is to get a safe boiler at the end of it. Safe as in no lead, but also with nice brazed seams as well.

I dropped it off at my welder yesterday and will get it back in a few days time.

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TomC
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#135: Post by TomC »

Wow. Looking good. How's everything else coming along?
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crazy4espresso
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#136: Post by crazy4espresso »

Looking forward to seeing more updates and pics! If I should ever have the funds, I should like to purchase one of these old gals from you! Great work, as always.
"I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless." — Napoleon Bonaparte
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Paul_Pratt (original poster)
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#137: Post by Paul_Pratt (original poster) »

I picked up the boiler yesterday but did not have time to have a good look. The good news is no dramas and it supposedly went ok. I'll have a look on monday, I was busy on the Saturday doing coffee for my youngest daughter's Kindergarten party. I took my Cimbali Rubino this year with a modern grinder.



I have not used this machine much at all so it was a great chance to learn a bit more about it. It worked very well off a Flojet bottled water pump. For a drain, the drain pan is fairly deep (around 2cm) so I was able to use a silicone bung to plug the hole and use the drain tray as removable drip tray and empty it from time to time.



The coffee was not too bad. The photo above is the only one I took and that is towards the end of the shot. The only real issue was with milk steaming as the heater is only around 1kw. To counter act the slow recovery time I made sure that the water level was well above the middle of the boiler, I would say it was 2/3 full. That way I was able to meet demand for back to back 8oz milk drinks.



The steam wands do not have a valve as such, but the wand itself is the valve. Nice easy on and off action. It was good fun, I think I did 100 milk drinks and shots in 3 hours. Only once did I have to wait for the machine to recover steam pressure.

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Paul_Pratt (original poster)
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#138: Post by Paul_Pratt (original poster) »

I did a bit of work cleaning up the boiler after brazing with silver solder. So this was the end before with the lead:



And now replaced by silver



And an example of all the other joints. There was a lot of work. The welder I used did a phenomenal job.



I will not be able to test this until the new year, I have a couple of Faemas I am finishing up first. I plan on testing it with compressed air to look for soap bubbles.

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cuppajoe
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#139: Post by cuppajoe »

Nice work on the boiler, big improvement.

I do like that Rubino, are they somewhat rare? Also like the image of a bunch of caffeinated and well sugared kindergarteners running around. (I presume the espresso was for the parents)
David - LMWDP 448

My coffee wasn't strong enough to defend itself - Tom Waits

Sansibar99
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#140: Post by Sansibar99 »

The re-soldering is fantastic work!
I'd be very interested in measuring the lead pollution in some of our old machines. I just had a chance to meet the head of our local water plant last week, and he told me, a simple lead analysis would only be ~15€ each.
But I am not sure, if even more lead comes from brass fittings (old originals or cheap new replacement from (forgive me...) China)?
Any ideas on that?
Paul_Pratt wrote:I have a couple of Faemas I am finishing up first.
Understatement of the year !!! :mrgreen:

BTW: I just spotted a Franken-Urania: First Generation Faema Urania with the double-curved Eureka-levergroup ... looks special 8)
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