Early 1980s La Pavoni portafilter handle removal help

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hipporun
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#1: Post by hipporun »

I am making wood handles for my Pavoni, but I'm having trouble removing the black stock handle from the portafilter.

I even put the portafilter into a table clamp and put some serious muscle into it with no success.

Can it be removed?

lapavoni1999
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Joined: 9 years ago

#2: Post by lapavoni1999 »

I have a 1999 and there is a threaded rod that screws into the handle and the head of the portafilter. Mine shows a lot of surface rust from God knows what. You might have to use more force but try to fine a second opinion.

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hipporun (original poster)
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#3: Post by hipporun (original poster) »

I too have a 99 Pavoni and the portafilter is different. For starters, the handle is much larger and it screws off with little trouble.

forbeskm
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#4: Post by forbeskm »

I have some old pavoni's from the 70's they screw off as well 73,74,76

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rpavlis
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#5: Post by rpavlis »

Older La Pavonis use M10 threaded rod to attach the portafilter to the handle, newer ones M12. Unfortunately the threaded rods are ordinary steel and are in contact with brass. Espresso has very high concentrations of all sorts of ionic impurities, and this results in corrosion of the reactive metal, namely the iron--sometimes this is called dissimilar metal corrosion.

Interestingly my 1964 one seems to have a stainless threaded rod. I have three other lever machines, all of their steel thread rods have been discarded and replaced with brass. Sometimes the steel rods actually corrode away. You might try to get something like "WD40" into the space between the portafilter and handle and let it soak. If the WD40 treatment should fail, you might try to drop the portafilter end into hot water and then quickly remove it and apply pressure to it as soon as possible.

Many have suggested here before the best place for the steel threaded rods in portafilters is in the discard bin to avoid these problems.

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drgary
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#6: Post by drgary »

If you're going to ditch the handle anyway, you could do as Robert says, give it penetrating oil for a few days, heat it and try to remove it, and if that fails grip it hard with locking pliers and get it off, and if that fails maybe you could cut through it.
Gary
LMWDP#308

What I WOULD do for a good cup of coffee!

wsfarrell
Posts: 497
Joined: 11 years ago

#7: Post by wsfarrell »

I've used a strap wrench like this on several portafilter handles (including Pavoni). Works like a charm.


DanoM
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#8: Post by DanoM »

I have a 1984 handle that was in far worse condition, and was able to save it for use although cosmetically it's a PF only I could love now.

My black handle was splitting open due to the steel stud rusting and expanding over time.
It was easy enough to break the black handle off, but the stud wouldn't budge.
I tried penetrating oil (WD-40), penetrating orange oil cleaners, heat guns, blow torch, heating until red hot (and thus bubbling the chrome finish a bit), heating again and again until I finally torqued off the stud...
Then I started drilling out the stud, but that was a pain, snapping off easy-outs and the like...

FINALLY, I looked to watchmakers' chemistry and was able to salvage my now screwed up PF. Alum will dissolve steel if put in a water solution, heated to under boiling, and allowed to dissolve the steel away for about 1 week! I still only have that PF and it works great with no residual issues other than it looks very industrial now.

To dissolve steel in alum:
- Get alum powder, I picked mine up at an ethnic market that caters to middle eastern and hispanic customers. It was in little 2oz packets of powder in the spice/pickling area. It took me about 3 packets. (Change solution when it barely bubbles anymore.)
- In a non-steel pot, I recommend pyrex or bare aluminum pots, dump in 1-2 cups of water and mix in the alum powder. Heat to a near boil and turn off the heat.
- Drop in the portafilter with the rusty stud that can't be extracted, and stud trimmed short if possible. Adjust the heat so the solution sends up a nice stream of bubbles from the steel portion. Maintain this heat as best as possible.
- It took my flush cut, center drilled stud 1 week to loosen up enough that I could remove it. At that time it was barely there and picking it loose from the brass threads was easy. (Mine was made more difficult by overheating during extraction attempts. Hopefully you won't have it as bad. The in tact part of the stud showed alot of rust deformation.)

When you get your PF cleaned up do yourself a favor and get some brass stud material. I ordered this 10mmx120mm threaded brass rod on Amazon, cut it to size and made a few studs. Works great. Stainless also works well, but I like brass on brass. (10mm works for earlier style PFs, so measure what you have before ordering.)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008SOW7FG

Add an o-ring between the handle and the PF metal and you'll also make a water resistant seal that makes cleaning and servicing easier too.
LMWDP #445