Absolutely fantastic, Paul. Another jewel in the making. Your restorations would make fascinating television. Ever thought of approaching a TV production company?

Beautiful job on the bodywork! What are you replacing the old lead solder with? Silver solder or a modern No (low lead) Solder?

As for the "reality" TV show idea you'd need to bring in at least one other person so that there is someone to yell at. To get the ratings you need to argue about something, blow up & storm out at least once every show.

Good question on the lead. In the areas where it does not touch the water I think I will tidy it up, probably just melt it and put it back on again. At least then the original technique of how they made the boiler will still be there. But certainly on the parts that touch the water I will think about changing it for lead free solder or silver solder.

Actually I still have not yet finished descaling the boiler completely and the exposed lead parts are covered in scale. I read up on household water pipes and the general theory is that once lead pipes get covered in scale they are pretty safe. Anyone has any theories feel free to chip in. I have some test kits on order anyway so we can see what is happening to the water.

Lead from leaden waterpipes is primarily dangerous for infants (<1 year), I suppose that the small amount of exposed lead in the solderings will not release a lot of particles (unless huge globs of solder are exposed to the inside of the boiler and pipes, which seems unlikely as solder normally is used in the smallest film possible in order to make a strong bond and seal).

That, combined with the expected low consumption of espresso made from the water which will have only a very small lead content should pose no health issue imho and I'm not sure what the composition of the alternative would be but some lead free solders contain metals like cadmium etc so the question is if the alternative is much better.
My view would be that if you keep toddlers away from the espresso all should be fine as it is as most lead solder appears to be outside the water boiler.

First off keep in mind that "Lead Free" solder is really low lead solder. It does contain lead but the amount is low enough that it meets the letter of the law which was probably put together with the "help" of industry lobbyists like most consumer laws.

I've worked with products containing lead for most of my adult life including lots of paint jobs before automotive paint became lead free. Lived in old houses with old water lines most of that time. A couple years ago (I'm 64 in 2 weeks) I had my doctor test for lead when they did my annual blood work. I expected to see some build up but absolutely nothing out of the ordinary was found. Most of the lead horror stories you read about concern small children consuming lead based paint chips or dust.

I used regular solder when I redid the plumbing in my house & installed new copper water lines. I tried the No Lead version & it was miserable to work with. Done properly you should end up with very little solder in contact with the water & that will soon be covered by scale, sediment, ect. From what I've read the fumes from the flux are more dangerous then the lead in the solder so either wear a respirator or have a fan running near you when soldering & welding.

Paul,
Always beautiful work there!

Lead oxide looks alot like scale on lead. I definitely don't have enough experience to tell the difference, but lead oxide will leach alot of lead into the water I think. Just make sure you know what you are looking at.

We do naturally rid our bodies of lead, but it's very slow. Repeated exposure is usually what shows up in blood tests, and not so much long ago exposures. Still, anyone with a developing brain should avoid lead exposure where possible, because that's where it does the most damage.

This thread is equal to reading a good book, great craftsmanship.

Hopefully I will be dropping this lot off tomorrow or thursday. I have done a final inventory of all parts and all parts have been prepped for chrome. Last jobs over the past few days has been making a few missing screws to match the originals and removing dents and scratches from the various fittings caused over the decades by vice grips, vices and the wrong sized spanners.

Foe example these are the sight glass nuts, all dented. No point sending them off to chrome like that otherwise they might come back looking the same - but shiny.



After a bit of work.



Same with this..



After removing the big scratch



Yes this is a bit excessive but you may as well do things properly. Once you add up all the nuts, screws and valves the work soon adds up. These are all the steam valves and sight glass bodies for example.




The steam valves close and seal the same way that the small Pavoni machines do, metal on metal between the tapered end of the shaft and the inside of the steam valve body. All the valve stems on this machine are badly pitted so my only chance of getting them to seal is to try and refinish them to get a seal, they will not be chromed so I can do this now. So I tried one.



I now get a decent seal but would like to try and clean up the inside of the valve as well, where the tapered end of the shaft mates. What I would like to try is some valve grinding paste, I have used it before and it should work. The only issue I have is that I should probably do this now before chrome, as they might get scratched if I try and do it afterwards and I will need to give them a good clean as well, that paste is quite dirty. Oh and I shall have to mark each valve and shaft in their pairs so they can be paired up again later.

I did a bit of work on the boiler, just cleaning away the dirt so I can see what I am left with. Very overwhelming to be honest. I shall certainly have to farm this out to have the soldering work done properly. But you have to love the old school construction techniques, this is the heating element flange, looks like an old diving helmet. Amazing stuff.

Looking great!

To stay with the TV show theme, I'd yell about the soldering you discovered...what a whack-on job...

What I would like to try is some valve grinding paste, I have used it before and it should work.

That's a daunting task . . . maybe use a "dummy" valve without the threading and check the seating with some Dykem.