Hello everybody,

some weeks ago I decided to buy a 1-group commercial lever-machine. The machine looked quite good and seemed to be in a good shape. But after some testing the first major problems appeared and so I started to overhaul the entire machine. It took more time and money than expected and in between it looked like a complete disaster. Additionally I have to say that it was my first ever restoration project.
When the frame came back from the powder coating I started to make some photos of the rebuilding:








Now the machine is working very well, producing a tasty espresso. By the way I was surprised about the temperature stability of the machine.

Philipp

oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

beautifullllllllllllllllll

Nice job, even for a newbie!

I'm jealous.

Nice job!, even for a seasoned rebuilder- big lever machines and stability, you just have to love it!

Wow, nicely done, very inspiring!

Henry

Hello Philipp,
your machine really turned out very well. You are lucky that the side panels of your machine are skewed, that makes the machine looking less bulky. It is only a shame to cover that nice group on the machine. I remember that a user from this forum modified the case in order to make the groups visible.

Regards, Julius

Oscar Peterson wrote:It is only a shame to cover that nice group on the machine. I remember that a user from this forum modified the case in order to make the groups visible.

when I started with the restoration I thought about a new design for the machine, but as the project became more and more expensive and time-killing I decided not to modify the appearance of the machine until it would work without any problems.

Philipp

WOW! It is truly beautiful.

You've set a high bar for us other restorers. And only in weeks, that's impressive.

Thank's for the feedback

A short history of the restoration:

A photo showing the damaged cylinder of the brewing unit:



There was no chance to get this part leakproof. So I had to buy a new cylinder:



But that wasn't the only part being in a defective condition. I had to change the steam and hot water pipes and the complete steam valve. I bought new silicon cables to exchange the old ones. I exchanged the spring and all gaskets of the machine. Then the boiler wasn't leakproof because of a damaged flange and boiler cap. I repaired the flange but had to exchange the boiler cap. Several bolts were replaced. And then a nightmare: The powder coater damaged the frame by dropping it. Several weld seams were broken and the frame was skewed, but a friend of mine was able to repair it. After that I gave the frame to another powder coater. He sandblasted it to remove all the rust and old paint. He also removed the paint and rust from the chassis. The frame was powder coated in silver-grey whereas the formerly blue chassis was painted in red. At some point I thought that this restoration is a never ending story, but then everything went well. In this context I have to say thanks to some members of the german Kaffee-Netz forum for their support and Paul Pratt for his advice to use some Loctite 518 on the boiler flange. In the end I'm very pleased with the machine and I think it's working well now.

Philipp

Hello everybody,

after making espresso with the machine for a few weeks now, I have to say that I'm very pleased with it. In other words: the machine rules ! By the way I made some better pictures:




Philipp

A very nice one group indeed! I like the proportions of that machine - lower and deeper than the Bez B3000 gracing our kitchen. Is that an LM portafilter sitting in the group?