craigcharity wrote:Thanks,

I have seen that, i just don't know how to get the piston off the rod, it seems to swivel.

Hi Craig

Sounds like you've figured out the piston design already. The piston is made of two parts - the top ring with the side slots has a "ball" attached which inserts into a socket on the bottom part of the piston. The bottom part of the piston is free to rotate around the "ball" and has limited pivotal movement - as you guessed, to allow the piston to centre in the shaft during travel. The piston shaft then screws into the top part of the piston - down into the inside of the "ball". Whatever you do - don't damage the piston - they're really hard to come by. Actually I don't know if you can get them - I've tried for years and finally have an M15 piston coming as a hopeful replacement because I couldn't find an M20. Someone had butchered one of my pistons by attaching the shaft directly to the bottom of the piston without the top ball part. Not only did this take away the centering but also reduced the height of the piston.

The M20 Leva is a great machine and certainly worth persisting with.

I'm happy to answer any questions I can.

Phillip

Thanks phillip

I managed to get the piston off the rod this morning. I damaged the top a bit but not much.

Here is a pic of the top of the group after bead blasting it.

hi Craig,

i don't speak english,i'm sorry
but:

http://www.planetcafe.fr/forums/viewtop...=19&t=1866

and:

http://www.planetcafe.fr/forums/viewtop...f=19&t=196


it is the same

Guillaume

Hey guys

Thanks for all the input.

I have renamed the thread because It was becoming more of a rebuild than a question:)

In regards to the piston, i have managed to get the both off. One more scarred than the other but still fine to use. I am getting the other cut in half with a wire cutter so I can see how it is assembled so I can make another, the better one will go in to the machine.

Basically I bought 2 machines, One two group M20 lever and another one group standard hx M20. I am going to out the lever group on the rebuilt one group, and convert the group for a hx( I see some have this as standard but mine does not.

this was the pic from the auction


I will post some other pics later. Got to go for now.
Cheers

So... So far I have soaked the parts in Citric acid. But after taking them out it was not nearly as nice as when I gave it to a friend of mine with an electroplating business and he soaked it in some brightening solution... see the boiler on my La Pavoni P67 rebuild La Pavoni P67 rebuild Si gave all the parts to him to acid clean and get the boiler nickel plated( I assume it is nickel plated originally)

I soaked the element in a diluted Sulfuric solution and it cam out pretty nicely.


The piston came off but with quite a struggle but it is still very usable, I am getting a new rod made out of stainless steel made but that will only be ready in a week or two, its fine because I have to order the springs, v gaskets etc from my supplier and they will have to include them in their next shipment from Cimbali as there are not many levers in SA.


I have ordered a new pressurestat, relay,sight glass, magnetic switch for the float and all the gaskets that are available here which should be arriving today.

I re-wired the whole machine, I used silicon wiring and bought a really cool crimper to get the now connecters on.

The red ones are for the element live connections to and from the pressurestat and the the black on is for the neutral from the white distribution board.

If you haven't done already, I would get the element checked by an electrician. If the soaking allowed any moisture near the terminals, it wicks into the insulation and creates an internal short which destroys it....

Most elements are usually reasonably priced anyway, and you don't want to be pulling it all apart again after the resto's finished, just from saving a few dollars on reusing an old element.

cheers.

Hi Borat

I am taking it down to a element specialist next week. They will bake it in a oven at high temperatures and then re-seal it. I they say it has to be replaced I will get them to make a new one, possibly a higher wattage as this one is only 1300w.

So....

Here is my rebuild so far.

I have had all my parts professionally soaked and brightened, looks cool hey?

All the wiring is in, I am waiting for my group to come back from the machine shop. I am getting a 1/4 inch hole drilled and tapped where the hx normally goes on these groups so i can make it a hx lever.

Quite alot of progress. I hope to see more. I am curious where you source the springs for the group. I don't see any one selling them on my internet search.

What I wonder is how you turned that 2 group into a 1 group. Looks pretty tight for sure but what happened to the other group, frame, and boiler??