I managed to get a 1964 La Pavoni Europiccola at an ebay auction. It arrived a couple of hours ago. It was not filled with either calcium carbonate or calcium sulphate like so many used ones seem to be. It is in amazingly good condition. I filled it with tap water, connected it to the power and turned the heater to max. Water came out around the bottom seal of the sight glass. It was not broken, but the seal was not in good condition. I replaced both seals with O rings, but was unable to get the thing assembled with the shield in place, the sight glass is built onto the boiler in these, and there is no opening on top, the glass must be put in from the side. I filled it again, connected the power again, and again turned the heater to max. Suddenly there was a near violent release of water from the pressure relief valve, with water spraying around. I turned it off, disassembled the pressure relief valve, cleaned it, and started the machine for the third time. It came up to pressure, and I turned it to low, and it gently released steam like all pre pressurestat Europiccolas do. I ground come coffee. It was perfect!

Amazingly this 50 year old machine's seals, except the one on the sight glass do not seem to leak at all! The finish on it is near perfect. Apparently it has been in storage most of the time since it was built.

The portafilter and baskets are compatible with the 1974 to 2000 group and Elektra MCAL ones, they are quite different than either of the type that came with 1974 to 2000 ones.

Anyone have any ideas about how to get the sight glass in place with the shield on it?

I was idly watching that auction. It looked like a beauty. In the guitar/amp world, it would be called a "closet classic".

Glad it went to someone in the family. Congrats.

Pete

Congrats! Was watching that one too now, show us some pics

This morning I connected this machine to the power and turned it to "max". It heated up quickly. When it started to hiss I turned it to "min" and let it softly release steam his whilst I ground some beans. I pulled the shot and it was great. I let it cool down and repeated the procedure with a different variety of beans. The thing is great.

For some odd reason the handle was covered with rust. The plastic end of the handle seemed too small, so I remembered I had once made a brass handle for my 1999 machine. I put this on instead and put the original in my box of spares. I think I should sand off all the rust from the handle and paint it with metallic paint.

The machine is missing the rubber sub base. I will try to fabricate something for it some day soon. Here are two images. Note that the sight glass cover is not installed. I think the problem is that I used O rings for sealing it, and they are too thick to permit pushing the cover up far enough to get it into place.





In many respects it seems superior to new machines. It seems to have less tendency to produce "spongy" pulls. The quality of the portafilter seems far superior to later ones. It is also better to have a heavier base rather than one that flexes under load.

La Pavoni SHOULD get together a collection of all of its old machines and design a new one with all the best features they have ever had and get rid of the bad polymer parts on new ones.

Robert,

Thank you for those photos of an early Europiccola in such great condition! In his notes on these machines for sale, Francesco Ceccarelli writes that these early Europiccolas with the brass sleeve were the best made by La Pavoni so that it is "impossible to make a bad espresso." Yours is a version 1.4, the very first model with a drip tray and grate. His site says it has an aluminum base. This page shows one like yours with a series of photos documenting his restoration. One detail appears different on yours. There is a sticker on the side of the base opposite to the switch that appears to be OEM. Could you please show us a closer view of it? Congratulations again on finding such a wonderful early machine!

Here is an image of the peculiar decal on the side of the machine:



The serial number is 2898.

I need to determine a way to fabricate a sub base for it. I also need to do something to improve the cosmetics of the group handle. I think I will leave the brass part for the hand grip. The original is too short, and it also is made of a different material than the other polymer parts. It was not completely dimensionally stable over the last 50 years.

The portafilter handle thread seems to be made of stainless or something else that does not seem to have corroded. The plastic used for the grip is high quality, unlike later grips.

It is still amazing how it is in such extremely good condtion, and how well it works.

Thank you for that photo. That sticker is not on the Ceccarelli restoration photos. The 110 v. black marking also may originate at the factory. I wonder if yours was one of first in its series for the U.S. market and it was marked that way as a requirement for importation?

Francesco has a method for fabricating a substitute sub-base:

http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/La_Pa ... ma_eng.htm

I have a 1963 and a 1980, and definitely prefer the shots from the 63. The brass sleeve group makes spongy pulls very rare indeed.

I went to an auto supply store and got some of the edge covering material for the bottom of the base. It was easy to install. The image below shows it in place.

The rusty group handle was peculiar thing. It is apparent on close inspection that the it never was chrome plated, one cannot see tell tale remaining chrome, even near the threads. The metal under the rust was not even slightly pitted. I sanded it, and the rust came off evenly. It looks very good, but strange reflexions make the image of the handle appear mottled, which it really is not. I coated it with Renaissance wax. If the rust return with the wax in place I will try something else, but it apparently took 50 years to get the thin coating of rust it had.



The espresso from it is so good that when one sees it sitting there, one is tempted to make a cup!

Last night I discovered that the drain tube from the pressure relief valve was plugged. I cleaned it out with a long thin drill bit. It is difficult to see how it could have gotten plugged, but the machine is 50 years old.

I also managed to measure the boiler pressure. I once made an adapter that connects a pressure gauge to the M6x1.0 thread at the end of La Pavoni steam wands.

I had thought that the 1964 steam tip was soldered in place so that I would not be able to use this adapter. When I attempted to exchange steam wands with the 1978 one I discovered the steam wands are NOT interchangeable, but when I had the 1964 one off the machine, I noticed that the steam tip was NOT soldered in place, and it has M6x1.0 thread like the later ones! So I used the adapter. The steam release begins at about 0.7 bar with full power on. When it is on just the small element it falls to about 0.65 bar which corresponds to about 114 degrees. It is very stable.

It makes amazingly good espresso and is definitely much less "fussy" than later La Pavonis. La Pavoni should have kept this group design. I now have everything working perfectly, as far as I can see.