Hi gents

Dan has been kind enough to upload some pics for me. The photos are as follows:

The polished rear panel of the machine. I'll have a perspex panel made and do some photoshopping for the design. I'm still deciding on the colour of the light. It's between blue and white???



One of the disassembled groups. The parts are presumably for controlling the flow of water to the groups.



The drip tray before it got an hour long's scrub. Lots and lots and lots of scrubbing!!



A pic of the polished and cleaned drip tray. Unfortunately the chrome of the tray is quite scratched, but I guess that's what you'll expect from an antique workhorse!



The frame before powdercoating. Luckily there was very little rust, so the frame is still in great condition.



Here is the frame after sandblasting and powdercoating.



Here are two pics of the element. It seems to be in good shape. It, along with all of the plumbing, is actually soaking in citric acid right now. Seems to be working. I have no idea if the mix is right...let's hope for the best!





Here is the boiler. Having never seen a boiler's inside before, I assume this is good?? I got some penetrating oil for undoing the bolts and paint stripper for the exterior. After I have done the exterior of the tank, I'll plug the wholes and fill it up with citric acid and water for a day or so. A friend of mine said that the acid might weaken some of the old welding on the outside, so it's better not to submerge the entire thing in acid.



Here are all the parts that I have done so far. It might not seem like much, but it was one hell of a job to get as far as this! Trust me, all of this polishing and cleaning etc. might seem easy and quick, but once you actually have to do it, it's A LOT of hard work!! I wish someone would have told me this beforehand!!



And finally, here are two pics of the reassembled machine. The upper parts of the groups and levers still needs lots of attention, so they might seem a bit dull. The grinder is also just there for the picture and is still in dire need of attention.

hi Neil

nice and tidy work. My only comment is that I think a nicely chamfered piece of toughened glass would look better than perpex

You're right Paul, glass would look better. I'll see what I can do. Do you think I can submerge the entire tank in citric acid or can it damage the welds? If not, what do I plug the wholes with to only fill the inside?

Boiler - Soak it in a big tub (I use a 55L fish bin) with 5kg (or more) citric and 50L hot water. Leave it there for a few days to a week, turning periodically. After all the lime has been dissolved give it a wash with clean water and leave to dry. A test of success is whether a finger streaked across the inner surface has chalky residue on it or not. If so, repeat the process.

With my first resto I plugged the holes. A wasted effort and hard to seal. Do it right the first time.

Hi Paul

After much effort, I have finally disassembled the valves. Do I need to grease then before reassembly?? With what? Also, is there an affordable alternative to the end rings for the boiler lids? I have broken 2 of them in trying to break the rusted bolts loose. What a mission!! I can always try to clean them and just use them as is, but I would like to have new ones made or bought. Is it affordable to have them made out of aluminium, should I use them as is or should I order new ones online?

Has anyone ever ordered parts from www.coffeeparts.com? Are there any other sites that you can suggest? I might have found a friend in SA with a Urania who has many connections in Italy, so I'll order parts with him if I can. Otherwise, I'll have to go the online route.

boom1 wrote:Hi Paul

After much effort, I have finally disassembled the valves. Do I need to grease then before reassembly?? With what? Also, is there an affordable alternative to the end rings for the boiler lids? I have broken 2 of them in trying to break the rusted bolts loose. What a mission!! I can always try to clean them and just use them as is, but I would like to have new ones made or bought. Is it affordable to have them made out of aluminium, should I use them as is or should I order new ones online?

Has anyone ever ordered parts from http://www.coffeeparts.com? Are there any other sites that you can suggest? I might have found a friend in SA with a Urania who has many connections in Italy, so I'll order parts with him if I can. Otherwise, I'll have to go the online route.

grease - yes, with a high temp food grade grease. Dow 111 or Rocol hightemp food etc
end rings - available new from many vendors, incl Pedro Lara at coffeeparts.
coffeeparts.com - these guys are the closest vendors to me and I've used them for many years. They ship same day and it takes about 5 days to get the parts in my hands. Pricewise, they are cheaper than some US places I've checked. On occasion (like once/yr), I place wholesale orders with Italian or Spanish suppliers but the minimum charge is between 200 - 500euro. They are about 1/4 retail price though.

boom1 wrote:Has anyone ever ordered parts from http://www.coffeeparts.com? Are there any other sites that you can suggest? I might have found a friend in SA with a Urania who has many connections in Italy, so I'll order parts with him if I can. Otherwise, I'll have to go the online route.

I've been to coffeeparts a couple of times. Pedro at Coffeeparts is extremely helpful and knowledgeable, but very busy.

The problem is that Urania parts are hard to come by but Pedro has some knowledge of what substitutes work. The group gasket for example I think is from an Astoria. The sight glass seems to be the same as an E61. The seals appear to be the same as were used in the Zodiac group. Tap washers are different and I ended up modifying some that I think came from an E61. I made the boiler gasket myself out of a piece of PTFE that was sent to me as a sample (the second guy I spoke to about getting some thought that I wanted too small a piece to be bothered charging for it).

When you say valves, do you mean the pistons? The bottom piece, the actual piston itself in mine, which is older than yours, unscrews and there is a tool to do it with which would help in putting it back together. In the case of the older piston, the holes around the circumference of the rotating collar the the top of the piston are too small for a DIN standard pin wrench, but an adjustable pin wrench (I think 35mm to 60mm is what I ended up with) has the right combination of tiny pin and big diameter to go with the tiny hole and big diameter on the piston (pin wrenches are a little obscure, but they save a certain amount of swearing and damage to the brass). The older group has some extra sealing that required some trips to o-ring places to get right.

Greg

Hi

this is my first post here, but i read a lot in past.
sorry my bad english, but normaly i'm german and google- language tool must help me a lot ...

i'm very happy to see an other urania grinder, i have one too. it was hard work to restore it, but doing this work is important - they are beautifull and rare and have to rebirth/collect and work for the next 50 years!

after replacing/new-wrapping the motor and replace the aluminum grid-ring to one in brass(aluminium was compleatly out of order), a lot of polishing and replacing the burrs the grinder works great. there are only two edges away from the cover, but i can turn it and we can't see it.


a lot of courage from switzerland
nils

Guten Tag Nils

Glad to see that there are other Urania grinders out there!! Mine still has a very long way to go, but it will get there eventually. You did a great job on yours. I think I will also have to re-wire the motor ("new-wrapping" as you said). The one thing I still can't figure out is how to get the doser and burrs loose from the machine. The entire front part needs to come off, but I can't find any screws or bolts to loosen! I'll find a way eventually!

Wiedersien
Neil

Hello Neil

re-wire is the right word...

if you can get off the grid-ring it's great, otherwise you have the same problem as me. only with a lot of patience i had to drill of the old ring in 4 parts. aluminium on steel is a very bad thing after a few years. it was like welded. no oil, heat, ice or superhuman force was helpfull. the aluminiumring was like a sandpaper, i couldn't turn 1mm after weeks...

finding the screws for the upper grinder-part is not a big problem. First you have to remove the holderplate with the under burr.
you can remove it like shown on my photo. a screwdriver stops the plate between one of the 3 teath and the hole for grounded coffee. better you go in with the screewdriver from doser side, because the 3 teath are stronger on the lower side. a wrench(?) turns of the screw-brass-piece.
often there is some old coffeefat between the plate and the axis, thats like glue and a little bit tricky. with a big screwdriver you can go through the hole from doser. turn the screwdriver carefully between the heavy upper part of the grinder and the plate. turn the plate and redo it some times. a bit of heat from a hot hairdryer soften/losen coffee-fat - that's very helpfull!
if there are no more problems, it's done in 5 minutes.



under the burr-holderplate you will find 3 screws in the dirt. this screws hold the upper, heavy part of the grinder, incl. doser (it's one piece). be carefully, the upper ball-bearing for the motor is in this part. thats no problem, but needs some attention.

good luck, let me know when you did it
nils