An update.
But only to say that, NO, I'm not dead and still very much alive. And that Life has a strange habit of coming round and biting hard on the ass, especially when you least expect it. I need to sort out a few things which absolutely must have all my attention, and that will be at least until beginning of March. I have all images of the next steps in this thread, but have no mind or time to post ... I apologize.

A heartfelt Thank you to everyone that found my posts useful!

Franco

This is too great a thread to remain incomplete. I hope Franco will return to continue his photos and commentary. But if that doesn't happen, I've just acquired a perfect project machine for this, thanks to the generosity of our sponsor Stefano Cremonesi (he doesn't have more of these, so please don't ask). It's a version 1.6 Europiccola with a removable shower screen and sightglass screw. Introducing Europiccola B6021, who needs some love and a new heating element. It may be awhile before I dig into this project, but it's one I look forward to. My plan includes adding a sightglass manometer, a modern 110v heating element with a PSTAT and a group thermometer. I'll try to repaint with something close to the original hammertone and may leave the brass showing on the steam wand to reflect it being a vintage machine. I'll also replace the OPV ball and spring with an up-to-date Teflon mushroom and a one hole steam tip. Here are some "before" photos.

Stefano is such a generous presence here and now this! I can't wait to see the rebuild, Gary.

Teardown Begins

Here's the machine before teardown, with a great tool one of you gave to Stefano for removing the heating element, and he loaned it to me.



The rubber base is in pretty good shape. It needs some cleanup and preservative treatment but will be able to go back on the machine.





This tool works perfectly, thanks to its anonymous donor.



So, Europiccola B6021 was born in April, 1972.

Some close-ups, under the base:



There's a snowstorm of aluminum corrosion. Fortunately it's not very pitted.



Nice strain relief, isn't it?



The switch wasn't wired, suggesting it was jury rigged.



This is why. If you look at the center of the photo you'll see a hole blown into the 200W calrod.



I masked the Massimo/Minimo plate, but the retaining ring came off easily.

Removing the badge was more involved than I'd expected, but it came off sufficiently intact for restoration. It was held on my extended, crushed tabs.



I couldn't press them through or remove them without breaking them off. It's as if they were covered in soft lead.





I first inserted a hobby knife to start to pry the badge loose.



This made room for a screwdriver.



But enough of the tabs remain to position the badge when I reattach it.

I'd successfully removed sightglasses on two newer machines, using Doug Garrott's suggested method of adding spit or "personal lubricant," heating the sightglass at the seals, gripping it (I used leather work gloves for safety), and rocking it up and down until it breaks free.





I was able to access the lower sightglass seal and pick part of it away.



I finally got the sightglass moving, brought it up through the top fitting. Here's the bottom fitting. It broke free all right!



No worries. I have an identical one at the ready.

You would think a machine that's exposed to water would be fitted with all stainless or brass parts, right? This rusted retaining screw is now soaking in penetrating oil.



But it seems every restoration has at least one sticking point, and here it is.



I tried gripping that brass boiler flange with an oil filter wrench. It slipped and was useless. Then I tried hammering a punch inserted into the large holes. Nope. I soaked it in penetrating oil, removed the steam wand, OPV, overflow pipe and steam shaft so I could fasten the group and boiler top in a vise with lots of towels padding them. I tried to turn the base. No movement.



I used the Search function and discovered a thread I'd participated in awhile back that addresses this exact problem. I'd completely forgotten about that thread. Later today I'll have another go at the flange. Inspecting the threads tells me it turns out counterclockwise.

Tips for removing La Pavoni old style boiler flange?

After much struggle I finally removed that boiler flange. I soaked it in penetrating oil, tried an oil filter wrench, tried to get it to budge with a punch inserted sideways in the grip hole, heated the flange and perhaps the gasket underneath with a big propane torch, drilled new holes (alternatives to the punched ones that were now distorted), threaded them for bolts and ran the bolts through holes drilled into a piece of aluminum stock, gripped that with a wrench and that wrench with another, even hammering the wrench handle to turn it out. This still didn't get me there. I went back to a method suggested by Todd.

toddmp wrote:Success! Over the weekend I drained the pen-oil I had it sitting in and tapped around the flange gently but firmly with a deadblow hammer and a very dull old screwdriver up against a bolt inserted into one of the holes. After about 20 minutes I noted some movement! I kept at it and all finally came off. those black plastic gaskets were rock hard and FUSED to the boiler on both sides. The threads on the boiler were also a spattering of chrome plate and raw brass which did not make for a smooth threading of the two parts together.

It worked. I was using a regular hammer and a punch. Tapping the ring in the counterclockwise removal direction and then the other way finally loosened the grip of the fused rubber gasket underneath, and it started to move both ways until I could lock in my rough pin spanner and turn it out. It also helped to properly clamp the base to a workbench, as also shown by Todd in the thread linked in my previous post.

Here's my rough version in photos:

I first used an automatic punch to center my drill bit, drilled a hole through the flange, being careful to just penetrate the bottom and avoid drilling into the base. Then I tapped the hole.



This allowed me to thread a bolt into the hole, as suggested by Larry Naylor aka perfectwheels.



After trying all the above methods I realized I needed to properly clamp the base.



The tools that finally get one of these stuck flanges to move are a punch and hammer. Once it's loosened, my makeshift pin spanner was able to turn it out. Here again I used a method shown by Larry, gripping the bar stock of my crude pin spanner with one adjustable wrench and using another to turn it. I tried using the heating element spanner on the left but the wrenches were more effective for this part of the job.



I'm very satisfied to have gotten to this point. Now I can service the group, clean the parts, strip the paint off the base and repaint, and I'm on my way to the Ultimate Europiccola!

Here's a tool I made for ring removal/install. Assembled from common plumbing parts. The brass ring is a shower drain. The only metal work was drilling the two holes for the pins. As you can see, I screwed it up once. Works beautifully, does no damage and cost less than 20USD. Took an afternoon to conceptualize and make. Could do it again in an hour. I made another similar tool for the heating element. That one has four bigger pins and uses a brass drain with a bigger shelf but is otherwise identical.