I suggest he check a few high end bike shops service depts and ask for a referral to a bike frame builder. They may have a tig and a light touch.

Caravel is restored and it's looking good. Boiled and cleaned all parts, replaced piston seals and lubed inside of cylinder.Haven't been able to really test it, because i don't have a tamper yet, and still need to install new feet, however I did run water through it and works fine.



For now, i will tamp with a glass cup, but coffee only tommorow, as its getting late though

It looks really beautiful. Makes me want to clean up an old VAM I have in storage. But I have not been able to find a portafilter for it.

Anyway, you should have no problems getting great shots without a tamper - my Caravel just had a plastic tamper that the previous owner had sanded down to fit. If you have one of those that came with another machine you could try the same.

PC

looks great marios - i love these machines so much - wonderful pieces of consumer engineering....
i second jack's comment about tamping - sometimes i get just as good a shot without it. got to say that the taste of the coffee is really prevalent in the caravel pulls - not as showy in the whole crema stakes, but still very creamy and oily if you get it right, always a nice temperature, and full of subtle flavours - perfect for single origins....

Could you go into details regarding the repair? Even name the welder?

dan

haven't welded it....yet
seller was a nice enough guy that he send me another boiler which i still haven't received.
i went ahead and finished the restore anyway to try it out.

albert paca wrote: - perfect for single origins....

Thanks - i tried this afternoon, an Ethiopian SO that i picked from Blue Bottle over the weekend, and it was good but i think i need to play a little with the thermostat, and find a tamper...i sense that it can be much better...

I found that having a steel-probe food thermometer inserted into the kettle was an absolute requirement. I'm fussy about keeping temperatures on the cooler side, and I pulled shots when my thermometer read 90C. I'm not sure how accurate that thermometer was, but it was precise, and the water was definitely well below boiling. I suppose a little cooling occurs between the kettle on the brew water too, but probably not too much.

I found that once I got the thermostat set it would stay quite close to where I wanted it. Because it's just a piece of spring steel, when it starts from cold each day it sometimes takes a little adjustment for the first shot though.

Reading and writing about the Caravel reminds me of just how amazing these little machines are. I'm currently using only spring levers because I have so many time commitments these days, but when things slow down i've got to get the VAM up and running!

PC

glad to hear its working without the weld marios - it will probably never need it until it bugs you aesthetically.

and damn it, these caravels are hard to go past! i have been looking for a new toy, but i think i started at the top of the heap, and there is no point working my way down.... its the perfect machine for me - learning more about the subtleties every time i use it - such a great learning experience, yanking on that lever!