What an impressive work !
Thanks for the link to lamacchinadelcaffe, they have much interesting price than coffeemaker-spareparts or Stefano's. Sure that Francesco is another good reference for parts.

An update: this evening, I received a few more parts, and I can rebuild the complete group.
Tomorrow, I'll post some progress.

Alas, some basic parts such as the boiler flange and the heating elements I am still waiting for.

BAD NEWS: lamacchinadelcaffe.com does not have any more fine thread flanges in stock. And, will not receive them any more from La Pavoni, which replied that it has no interest in manufacturing a run of these to service "pre-millenium" machines (to be honest, I've never heard of any boiler flange failing, so the only use for them would be updating 1970's machines...).
So the sole source I presently know of, that keeps them in stock, is Coffe maker in Germany Moderator Note: Make sure they have stock before you order.
http://www.coffeemaker-spareparts.com/L ... :4273.html

I purchased one to test it, and will report on it as soon as it arrives.

Dear pizzigri

Thank you for your unconditional sharing your knowledge and skill! Keep up the good work

Nice thread.

What did you do to clean and polish the chrome?

Did you soak the parts in something first and then polish? Did you do the chrome polish by hand or with a buffer wheel? Did you use some sort of compound or polish?

And what about the brass parts? Were they soaked in a chemical to clean/brighten the brass?

The reason I ask is that I'm soon going to tear down and rebuild my '74 with brass sleeve insert.

Thanks!

Q

CoffeeBar wrote:Dear pizzigri

Thank you for your unconditional sharing your knowledge and skill! Keep up the good work

+1 Great documentation.

kellzey wrote:Nice thread.

What did you do to clean and polish the chrome?

Did you soak the parts in something first and then polish? Did you do the chrome polish by hand or with a buffer wheel? Did you use some sort of compound or polish?

And what about the brass parts? Were they soaked in a chemical to clean/brighten the brass?

The reason I ask is that I'm soon going to tear down and rebuild my '74 with brass sleeve insert.

Thanks!

Q

First of all, thanks to everyone for the kind words.

For the chrome, I actually used a suggestion found in this forum, although I can't remember where I read about it (maybe in DrGary's threads?).
I just crumpled a bit of aluminum wrap and used water! no polishing (any polishing compound will cloud the chrome). Of course I cleaned it very well with a non aggressive degreaser and lots of microfiber first.... then I placed it in my kitchen's dishwasher! I used it with my copper and tin cooking ware (very expensive and I love to cook) without damage using specific Finish brand detergents.

The brass parts, well, I used mild steel wool, taking care not to damage the sufaces or the edges, and brass polish (didn't want the mirror finish, just to be Ubersmooth). Took a lot to clean the polish away. There are some specific cleaning chemicals for yellow alloys (brass etc) but I do not like harsh chemicals - they are all acid based.

I'm still waiting for the parts, and anyway it's been raining the whole weekend, so no nice pics...

For cleaning chrome I've seen the oldest U.S. La Pavoni dealer use the finest steel wool. Because it's ultra fine it won't scratch anything. For polishing chrome and steel I regularly use Simichrome, and it does a great job.

Oiled 0000 grade works well.

http://steelwooldirect.com/grades-and-applications/

Good suggestions for the chrome, I'll try them out!
And now, an update.

I've had time to work on the base. After I cleaned it out with an abrasive wheel, I've used fine grit sandpaper to smooth out the surface and then I passed to very fine mild steel wool. After that, it was the time to use 800 grit wet sandpaper, the one used to finish paint on automobile bodies.


I then used black stove spray paint, the same you would use to finish your cast iron Franklin stove, to coat the insides of the base, to protect it from corrosion. Remember to bake it in an oven or use a hot air gun to cure it.


I did the same for the area that holds the boiler gasket, because this area may have water coming from the brew or from the steam wand to seep and cause corrosion to bare aluminum. Remember, this version of the Ultimate EP will have a naked aluminum base. Nothing against a nice powder finish, it's just that I like the bare aluminum, it gives it an even more "vintage" look. To take care of bare aluminum, it is important to be sure that only exposed parts (i.e. that you can wipe clean!) are bare aluminum; everything "hidden" must be protected.




Here's the base before polishing with cotton wheel and abrasive wax compound.



An let's move on with another topic: the antivacuum OPV.


Here's the La Pavoni body valve part no. 396751, including both the part that is fitted to the boiler and the body that contains the valve spring and plug, and the anti-vacuum kit - valve plug, part no. 396754 R, and Spring, part no. 311407.


See how different the antivacuum OPV body valve is from the one fitted to an old, standard steel ball OPV.


The hole is much bigger to accommodate the special brass valve plug with O ring

Of course I had to screw up sometime, so at least for now this is where I did so!
I already did upgrade a few machines with a complete antivacuum OPV assembly, and some of those EP even had an aluminum base. What I did NOT remember, is that they all had the flanged group... silly me.


So, I realized - the hard way, I had already bought the parts - that the threading of the post 1974, no brass sleeved groups, use an OPV that is threaded through the boiler and is fastened with an inner hex bolt.
Of course, the diameter of the OPV base is different, as is painfully obvious looking at the pictures.
What to do?
Modify the original OPV base, of course!


The Antivacuum body valve base next to the original, modified body valve base.

I used an Emco Maximat Super11 lathe to modify the OEM valve base. Any hobby lathe will do, however. The orginial hole has to be enlarged to 6,5mm inner diameter, and a raised rim (about 1mm tall) must be machined, to provide a seal for the red gasket in the antivacuum valve plug assembly. Sorry- I forgot my camera, so no images of the machining. It was a 10 minute job! It took me over an hour to drive in the country to reach my lathe, however...




How the new antivacuum assembly interacts with the modified OPV body base

I'd like to remember that the antivacuum body valve part no. 396751 assembly has to be purchased anyway, even if we plan to modify the original OPV base and scrap the antivacuum OPV, because the body that contains the valve spring and plug is also quite different.

One last thing. I understand that the mod for the AV OPV may not be easy to do by someone that has no lathing skills (and you DO need a lathe to create the plug rim on the valve base). If you guys want, I can post a tech drawing with the correct dimensions for the mod. I am also willing to mod a couple (just a couple!!!) original OPV bases FOC for the first couple guys who asks with a reply to this post, provided you are not in a hurry and pay for return postage to wherever you are- sorry, I'd do more but really have little time for what is essentially just a hobby!

Edited to add a few things

this update will deal with the flange ring, more specifically that single spare part without which nothing detailed in this thread can be done.
My purpose in writing this post was to share something that COULD be replicated by anyone, also pointing out which sources were available for the very difficult to find parts. I have seen that in the US there are many businesses that help out with those really difficult to find parts; some are also partners of this great forum. The one part no one seems to stock is the flange.
So, I strived to find a commercially available source, because it would have been so easy just to say "...and you put the fine thread flange here... what? Nahh, I had a few and once they're gone, tough."
Nope!
So I found a possible alternative source since my usual spare parts shop finished this particular item (and most probably was the last one to actually stock them to this day).
Coffe maker in Germany
http://www.coffeemaker-spareparts.com/L ... :4273.html
stocks a newly manufactured part. It's visibly different, for one thing La Pavoni proprietary wrenches will not work, since it lacks any notches (it's just a smooth ring), it does not offer any threaded earth fastening holes and it's... massive! Moderator note: Make sure they have stock before you order.


This is the Coffe maker flange mounted on my Ultimate EP.



Of course I got one, and I must say the first impression is excellent. The thing's HEAVY, its one big slab of brass, and it's quite well finished.
I believe that it also possesses great thermal inertia, and that it's going to do good, being so near the HE.



The Coffe maker flange compared to a present day, Millennium ring.

It is obvious that the Coffe maker ring has been manufactured using the present day post Milleninum flange as a model, as the outside diameter is perfectly equal to the theoretical circumference measured over the three "lobes", the height of the flange is identical, and simply replacing the coarse thread with the pre-millenium 1.25mm "fine" thread.

As a first, I placed the Coffe maker flange on the aluminum base.

How it looks


An original flange


And immediately realized that the Coffe maker ring "wobbles" in place; more specifically, it had been made to present day dimensioning specs, meaning that the ring expects itself to be placed in a pressed steel or brass "modern" (post 1974) base, which has lots more room around the ring.
A solution is to dremel a bit the aluminum in the places where the ring touches the walls of the base.
Now, the manufacturer (Coffe maker) could bevel one side of the flange ring a bit more, 1,5mm more will be sufficient to avoid this problem completely.

I have tried to contact the manufacturer to offer my free collaboration and obtain a second flange to experiment on (I own a lathe big enough to do such things and a milling machine) but no one answered my email. I will try to call Coffe maker up - especially because there are a couple more issues.


Now I have tried a present day, current spec steel HE with the Coffe maker flange. As could be expected, it works perfectly; the hole align, but... they align exactly as they should on a post millenium machine, which, we all know, contains specific and imperceptible, subtle changes to make everything that came before uncompatible. One such tiny mod is the hole placement in current flanges. They are one mm narrower that previous, pre mil machines; the SS HE are still compatible because they feature elongated holes, which allow mounting on both flanges, old and new, but it also cuts off the use of second hand, brass and copper HE in your post mil machine.
On the other hand, the Coffee maker flange is built using this pattern, so once you mount this ring on your machine, you HAVE to purchase a brand new, overly expensive SS HE.
Too bad, because there are a lot of single coil, 1000W, pressurestat ready brass and copper HE out there, and I personally prefer them - more silent and thermally better, in my opinion. Although the SS HE should be quite robust.
Essentially, LP enforced the policy of preventing the use of brass and copper HE in post mil machines. I found on the bay a couple of such HE, and bought them for a fraction of what a new one costs:


this one costed me 30 Euro, around 40 $. No, the pre-mil flange did NOT come with the HE.


And of course, it is not compatible with this ring. See how the holes are narrwer on the Coffee maker flange


Another detail, comparing it with a pre-millenium flange ring, stacked on over the other


This is important, because, let's say we have a 1960-1974 machine, and the HE (oh, the horror!) burns. Screw in elements are quite hard to find. We want to have the double HE to maintain wiring and Zen-like use of old EP; so we go and ask how much does a steel 800+200W part costs. And we find out that's quite a LOT, going for a couple hundred dollars!!
So we find one for cheap on the bay, like mine. And here's where this brass ring would have came really handy, IF it had the old, wider threaded hole spacing. Because we now need to find one of the old flanges (which, to be fair do come up every now and then, with prices that go anywhere between 50 and 100 $).

One last thing wold be height: trimming one mm would help the use in older machines that featured the screw in HE without having to remove one of the base gaskets to retain sufficient headroom to mount bolted HE, and it would not hinder structural integrity (considering how overdimensioned this flange is!)

Since it would maintain compatibility with current HE, I would advise the manufacturer to modify slightly the design to be more friendly towards pre millenium HE and machines, and correct the few quirks to an otherwise magnificent product.