That Lambro...nice pics by the way...looks to be fully redone, and a lot of work as well to get that mercury pstat so clean. A real beautiful job. Seems that you can just hook up to a hose and a drain, pour on the electrons and pull some shots. Super machine...nice thermosyphon and hx besides. Truly do not make them like this anymore, which as we all know is a shame. Your view of the shower screen points up the top job and difficult nature of such a restoration since the curved self packing screen is one part not available anymore....you have to go with a flat one so the person who redid this machine knew this and decided to keep the curved screen even though it shows some hole enlargement and wear. A real genius job in there....he should have signed it, a true work of art.
Group is the same as most all old Faemas....seals still available...takes a W on the bottom and a V ont he top but be advised......the group demands lubrication about once a month and if you hear rubber squeaking then get out the lube sooner and not later...pull the piston and lube the seals and cylinder since the lube skates off during the pulls and wears the top seal faster than the bottom...this causes water to creep into the group above the piston and rust the spring...you don't notice it since it evaporates while hot. The HX requires constant line pressure to work so while the machine is sitting idle but under line pressure water can pass the seal...particularly when the machine is cold but still has line feed to it. Another needed bit is a line pressure regulator to keep the feed at about 1 to 1.5 bar or you will get extraction at line pressure on the first part of the pull. The Faema seals are classic Italian rocks and are not high temp rated so keep a pair and a spare. I learned this all the hard way

Thanks for all the info people. I will buy some salt to regenerate the softener- the beads inside don't seem dry- they are amber colored- is this normal?

Doug- your evaluation is very encouraging. I wonder if you can see the asbestos like seal material poking out around the collar of one of the brass attachments at the top of the boiler? If this machine was recently overhauled I doubt they would have used asbestos- is there anything else that would look like this? You maintenance tips are also well noted. The lever action is very smooth at the moment- with no squeaks so I think I will test the machine before I remove the piston and check the seals.

I have one question though: you say the machine requires line pressure for the HX- however I am at a loss here: there is a tap on the water input- I thought the operating procedure was to manually fill the boiler by operating this tap- and looking at the water level indicator. But if the machine requires line pressure- does the boiler auto-fill? If so how does that occur? Also if it requires line pressure then I am guessing I cannot manually fill the machine by syphoning water in?

Also I though I read somewhere about someone having a manual fill Lambro?

Also can you get a line pressure regulator from plumbing supplies? They have pressure regulators which are used in gardening irrigation systems- would these do the job?

Forgive me if I am missing something obvious...

I am thinking of heading out and grabbing the required components to fire the machine up this afternoon.

I can't quite see the entire fill valve in your pic but normally the valve will be an always on line to the hx and when you pull/push the knob it diverts the water to the boiler for the boiler fill. If it is a dipper tube group the valve will be on/off and will fill the boiler and shut the valve completely when off. If your Lambro is the same as mine and others I have seen pics of then it has an hx which likely is "always on" and the valve fills the boiler on demand. This is the reason for the line pressure regulator valve....abd I learned this the hard way, again, that our line pressure is about 50 psi and drops to 20 before the pump kicks on so it is variable by a wide range and so the supply to the group on an hx is also variable...you want to control this for stability and once again turn back the clock to the simple dipper tube, or the Lusso for that matter and you get preinfusion at 1 bar, not 1 to 3 since preinfusion at 3 bar from a high line will actually lead to a lot of confusion in pulling shots and some extraction at very strange pressure levels.
I use pressure regulators, brass, made by WATT which are designed for recreational vehicles for filling the tanks from a hose at a controlled pressure.....the same thing is available in plastic, with and without gauge but a gauge is helpful, and yes, there are some drip irrigation controllers that can serve if you can get the fittings worked out.
What looks like asbestos on the fittings may actually be classic string and plumber's paste seals and if you were doing a really fastidious restoration instead of teflon one would use string and goop. This method of sealing is very reliable since the goop swells on contact with water and is self sealing in a way. All of the old Faeminas we have had use this method of sealing the steam wand valves and such since you can align the valves without having to do another revolution and therefore overtighten. AFter a while these string seals can look a bit fuzzy but it starts out grey from the plumbers goop can and can be confused for a lot of different substances. there really was no good reason to use asbestos for these seals anyway since asbestos would not really add to the seal in any way and since it is porous would only serve if it was used like a crush washer.

Doug- I am still a little confused- as mine seems to have just one water inlet line- which has a tap/valve lever on it- you can see most of this in the fifth picture on the previous page. I can't see how it can be diverted... the water line runs under the drip tray to the T junction which is at the base of the sight level assembly. There is a cover nut on there as well- which I assumed was the drain hole- but perhaps I have to plumb in two lines?... I will pull the back off tomorrow and make a full investigation. But I wonder if my machine is actually a HX?

here is a picture of Paul's Lambro from: http://www.espresso-restorations.com/Faema.html

the water inlet looks identical to mine?

Jack, I think you are right, it is a strainght on off valve.....same as used on the early E61 machines here is the same valve http://www.ascasoonline.com/catalogo/principal.asp with parts breakdown. Sorry for all the confusion concerning line pressure etc....but the concept is valid with an hx line feed group. Perhaps I'll get even more opportunities to confuse the issue once you get your Gaggia out of the crate!
Looks like a plug and play valve as otherwise there would be two outlests as you observe. Apologies for the confusion, I have too many machines lurking about in process at present

Edit...now I see the link to Ascaso does not work properly, but maybe you can muddle through and find the Faema diagrams for E61 stea, and water inlet valves.

OK- No worries... given that the machine is manual fill only- will I still need a pressure regulator? I have no idea what BAR our mains pressure is at.

Also I am not sure but from what I can understand this Lambro is still some type of HX/Thermosyphon combination?

I ran a salt treatment through the water softener- and the water now runs through and tastes clean.

I have run hx and non hx with and without a pressure regulator with no problems either way. Again, sorry about the confusions, but the point is that IF you have an hx then the line pressure DOES matter for consistent shots.....I think you can just hook up the Lambro, fill the boiler, turn it on and see what happens, which should be a pretty good result by the looks of the machine.
What may happen is that when you fill the boiler the pressure will turn off the pstat so open the steam valve when you fill it....it is a lot like false pressure but from the air in the boiler building up pressure on the first fill.

As far as the softener......you could study Jim Shulman's insanely long water FAQ and possibly skip the softener if you can calculate your water hardness, rate of scale buildup etc.....we have pretty much done the calculations and decided to do a preventative descaling every 30 days. The tank is nice since you could use it as a system to introduce descaler if you don't like the resin softened exchange water.

To find out more about your city water hardness, you can do the following cheap home test.
Make a soap solution; take one part of liquid soap and add five parts of clean rainwater or distilled water to this, shake the mixture well to desolve the soap fully. ( if possible use pure soap, rather not washing-up liquid.)

Now prepare a small clean and clear glass 300ml bottle, put 100 ml of your city or tapwater into the bottle, now add 10ml of the soap solution and shake the bottle well. You keep on adding 10ml of the soap solution until you get a soap foam on top that will last for at least 30 seconds.
If your tapwater is really hard you may need to add as much as 200 - 300 ml (write it down) or more of the soap solution to get the 30 seconds of foam.

Next prepare another clean clear 300ml bottle fill with 100ml of water coming from your water softener outlet, you add 10ml of the soap solution to this bottle and shake, if your softener works well you may find that very little of the soap solution is needed.

To make this test any useful depends largely on the precision of your measurements.

Thanks for the tips on the water softener- however unfortunately I already know the answer- the water here in Adelaide is notoriously hard. I have heard international ships stopping in port here will not take it on- as it so damaging to their water systems... Having cleaned out the softener I plumbed it in- but am a little concerned that I don't know its history- and how much use the crystal things have seen. I may do your test just to see how much the water is 'softened' by the filter.

OK- I fiddled around all day- plumbed the faema in- added a plug- flushed a goodly 20 liters of water through the boiler and then fired her up.

No on light to let you know anything is happening but after ten minutes the P-stat started to rise. Bled off the false pressure- and the machine settled in right on 1.2 BAR.

First two shots- dishwater- too coarse- old testing coffee. Ground some fresh roasted PNG Wahagi fairly fine with a good tamp- excellent pour- perhaps a little quick. Good volume. Taste was quite good- and nice persistent crema- but a little off somewhere... . Tried a notch finer and choked the machine- terrible bitter shot. I turned her off for the evening...

Not happy with the taste of the water coming out of the boiler- has a distinct taste of iodine? Not sure if this is from the water softener or the boiler?

Little concerned about the old electrics of this machine and am considering having it rewired with modern p-stat, etc. Feel bad considering this as the mercury switches seem in fine order- what do the readers think? Should I leave it all original or add a few modern features? Certainly think an on light and safety cut off of some kind would be a good idea.

I have an espresso tech friend looking at the machines next week- and may just ask him to 'pimp' the internals.

I also have a superfluous PID and probe hanging around... I wonder if I could add it somewhere?

One thing stands out immediately- This machine is huge - yet the clearance under the PF in tiny- made for small espresso cups only. It is crazy but wonderful to have such a large machine to create such tiny beverages.

The iodine taste makes me think of chlorines in your water, the watersoftener does only remove Calcium and leaves absolutely no taste.
I would advise you to still do the soapy water test, only to see if your softener works.
I have been using the very same type of softener for many years now, never had a taste problem, and never had to descale.

About your safety concerns, I have had the same concerns about my Gaggia and have replaced the old Pstat with a new Sirai Pstat, also the weighted down pressure relief system has been replaced by a current type safety valve.
In addition I have installed a vacuum breaker on the boiler, this wil prevent that the boiler pressure gauge gets damaged during cooldown.

The original parts are being stored just in case the machine has to be brought back to the original state.

The only real concern remaining is the Butane gasburner.
When I first opened the pannels of my Gaggia, I noticed severe corrosion on the chassis, bolts and nuts and some of the pannels.
Now I believe that this has been caused by extended use of the gasburner.

Let me elaborate on that:
When you first start up a cold machine using a gasburner you're bound to get condensation on the still cold boiler and other metal parts, this condensation will only stop once the boiler and other parts reach the temperature above the dewpoint of about 60 degrees C.
Although Butane gas nowadays contains a minimum on Sulphur the condensation will after time become very corrosive.

A possible solution could be to start the machine, when cold, using electricity untill the point that the machine has reached the temperature above dewpoint.

Perhaps some of the you have some good ideas to set my mind at ease.