1975 La Cimbali M15 Lever Just Arrived! - Page 4

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LaCrema (original poster)
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#31: Post by LaCrema (original poster) »

Since my last post I've been inundated with a multitude of various projects on the Homefront, but I have made some noticeable progress with the M15. I'm writing this from my tablet so I won't be posting any pics within this post, but an update might be a good place to start.

I dove into the disassembly, carefully taking pictures along the way and sticking all removed bolts and screws right back where I found them to keep from losing anything along the way. I researched the different methods for descaling, finally settling on using a solution of 10% Citric Acid and heat to speed up the reaction. The majority of descaling is complete other than a few parts such as the steamer and hot water controls along with the water level fittings. The overall results were impressive, even though the mineral buildup was extremely established, the rxn quickly dissolved away the deposits and left all the surfaces relatively clean. Unfortunately the leftover gasket material continues to be a headache, I'm finding it extremely difficult to remove since it's more bulletproof than the mineral deposits! Using a razor blade slices into it, shaves it, but it's difficult to remove all traces and most of the time it's just too stuck on there. I have read to use a heat gun to soften the old gasket material, but that didn't really work too well for me. Burning the old gasket material seemed to raise too many smells for an indoor project and it's now getting cold here in Minneapolis, slightly above freezing for daytime highs. I have read about using sandpaper to remove the excess material, I might try using a 220 grit or finer grit but I'm not quite there. I was also considering using a wire brush on my drill, but I'm thinking the steel brush would scratch the delicate copper and that's no good.... Any suggestions?

So I ordered lots of parts from TSE out of Germany, the second half of my shipment is in New York and will hopefully arrive by Monday. I ordered almost every possible gasket, copper washer and extra goodies for this machine, I plan to take all the parts and group them by section with their respective "exploded views" provided from the TSE website and bag them together to keep from forgetting something and having some spares just in case.

I consulted with a friend of mine that's an Electrical Engineer, we tested the current 380v element and determined that it would be significantly underpowered at 220v. I was bummed out so I ordered the 230v version from TSE, unfortunately it wasn't the same bent design as the original and it's a 3 piece element versus the two on the original. I was only going to use two of the three sections of the element which would have given me 1800w versus the original 1700w, but now that I just rechecked their website they added the correct 1700w 230v bent element that I needed AFTER my order date, my timing sucks! :? To return a €71 for a €65 part with shipping both ways is going to make the cost of the replacement stratospheric, what to do?

I'm now frazzled, but at least the option for the correct element has surfaced so there is some good that came from this. Just wait until you find out what I'm proposing to do for temperature control. :wink:

Pics to come soon! The M15 project is coming along and I figure I'll be making some shots hopefully before the 2015 year is over!
"Outside the box Barista."

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LaCrema (original poster)
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#32: Post by LaCrema (original poster) »

Some more restoration pics...

Quite the mess...


Gas boiler setup.


Lots of parts...


Disassembly of the boiler. Check out that gasket material from the grouphead!










Descaling the boiler in 2 parts to protect the aluminum rings from the 10% Citric Acid solution.




10% Citric Acid solution with no heat...


10% Citric Acid solution WITH heat...


Descaled part ready to go.


Kind of a "before" and "after" shot. I'm planning on buffing out any visible parts later on.


My parts will be arriving from TSE tomorrow and I'll take the contents from the first and second shipment and divide them into groups to make sense of all the parts. I will be ordering my element later next week along with a bunch of other parts for a LaCimbali Junior project I'm doing for a friend.

I'm still having difficulties removing the old gasket material. I'm thinking about using a fine grit sandpaper to remove the old stuff, scraping and heat isn't cutting it. Does anyone have any good suggestions to get rid of the old indestructible gasket material left over?

Thanks!
-Eric
"Outside the box Barista."

ira
Team HB
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#33: Post by ira »

Auto parts stores have or used to have gasket remover. Don't know how it would work on an espresso machine, but maybe it will work.

Ira

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LaCrema (original poster)
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#34: Post by LaCrema (original poster) »

I might consider using a chemical to weaken the bond, then remove the excess material and clean with Dawn detergent. I'm wondering if steam would work?

I received the second half of my parts order from TSE in Germany, hopefully this pic won't be too large since I'm trying to post a pic from my tablet for the first time...



The portafilter is the wrong type for my M15, but it was listed for my machine. I think it will work on a multiple group machine if the group head design is different than mine? My M15 group head accepts a portafilter that resembles my Junior, but the tabs (ears) on my M15 maybe thicker? I'll be happy to sell the new portafilter to anyone who could use it for cheap since I have no need for it.

I plan to continue stripping down the machine, clean the frame and have it powder coated soon. I might fabricate a new bottom pan out of stainless steel, but I'm not sure yet. The galvanized bottom pan and heat shields for the boiler look rather gross, I'm trying to research a way to clean them without damaging the zinc coating.

Since I never plan to use the gas block to heat the boiler, I might insulate the boiler for now, that will keep it much more stable and save electricity like it did with my Junior. I have to thank all who have posted that excellent advice in the forums on this site...THANKS!

More to come...
"Outside the box Barista."

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LaCrema (original poster)
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#35: Post by LaCrema (original poster) »

Life has been keeping me quite busy so I had to take a break from working on the LaCimbali. So I had the gaskets tested for asbestos and the lab concluded that they were over 60% asbestos in composition so I had to proceed carefully with the removal of the gaskets. Scraping with a razor blade removed some of the material, but the stuff left behind was like concrete! I tried several different ways to remove the remainder of the old gasket material, but made little to no progress. Hmmm... So I'm standing in my garage at my work bench thinking about different ways I could take more aggressive measures, but also concluded many of those could really do some damage to the soft copper. I looked down and saw my Wagner "Paint Eater" and it then dawned on me, be gentle and let's see what happens. All the remainder gasket material came off in seconds, no deep scratches to the soft copper I ended buffing out the area I used the paint eater with this really cool 3M abrasive brush and so here are the results.

Here's the Wagner "Paint Eater"



The results after buffing them with this 3M tool.



The finished edges:




I then took Dawn dish soap and a couple brass brushes and went to work removing this brown tar like substance from the aluminum frame.





So after thinking about this machine and it's history, I concluded that I should embrase the fact that this machine was used in a cafe for a number of years and why not preserve this thing in it's former glory? This machine served so many, why erase it's deeds by fully restoring it to "New" when I can enjoy it's patina? I could repaint it, spend a bunch of money on really making it look like new, but I think that would take some of the fun of owning it. I have a lot of new parts for it, enough to make it run like new or better! Repainting it would mean losing some of the graphics on the front of the machine, it would also require me to really take every other part of the restoration a whole lot more serious. I figure I'll improve on what I feel should be improved, keep any pieces I decide to replace and just enjoy the machine!


Here are some "start" pics of the rebuild. I'm going to clean all these frame pieces and remove the little rust areas before actual assembly. I could have some of these parts re Zinc coated, but that might be a bit spendy. I will probably remove the rust from the frame and maybe clear coat those areas or something, I heard that might be difficult to find paint that adheres to Zinc?






I prepped the area to have the factory boiler specifications and manufacturing plate rebraised to it's original position.


Just an FYI, I plan to wrap the boiler with insulation once the test runs are complete in an effort to help better regulate the boiler temp and reduce electricity consumption. The gas components will be cleaned and reinstalled and only serve for aesthetic purposes for my needs.


I'm going to be working on the ends of the boiler in the coming weeks. All the fittings need to be removed because I have all new replacement gaskets to replace them with, unfortunately everything is quite a bit stuck so here comes the penetrating oil to help remove those stuck fasteners and fittings! Stay tuned!
"Outside the box Barista."

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