Has anyone seen one of these lever machines before - or know something about it?? A Siltex Haiti, supposedly Australian circa 1950's. It's currently listed on that bay thingy auction site au. I'm in Oz but too far away to go and have a look. The perspex sign on top goes on the back and lights up I think.

That's a pretty cool machine. It has a portafilter and could probably be refurbished into an awesome looking lever. $500 doesn't seem terrible.

never heard of them. There are a couple of collectors on coffeesnobs who could probably give you some of the company's history.

Oddball levers are challenging but not impossible to restore. You would probably be looking at custom made springs, seals, gaskets and perhaps element. Not a deal breaker for me but if this is your first project then things could get a bit hairy.

If you have a workshop/garage where you could restore the machine over the next about 12 months (or more); if you are patient enough and have a love of old machines and a love of preserving them; if you have the 500$ plus at least another 500$ to spare on parts to be custom made rather than not; than I'd buy that beauty at once, if I were in your shoes.

That for sure is a really rare machine. IF you take it, though, be aware: rather than not you will find a lot of asbestos in the machine - even the cylinder could contain some (like the old Gaggias did, iirc).

Regards,
Klaus

Don, made up your mind already? I'm sooo curious, I know!

Looks like something out of Fallout.

Belgarath wrote:Don, made up your mind already? I'm sooo curious, I know!

Ended up going for over AUD$1,500 so was a bit beyond my budget, Klaus. Plus I would have had to buy blind as it was too far away to go and see first. I just bought myself a 2003 Elektra micro casa semiauto to play with instead.

What a shame - never seen anything like it tbh so the winning bid is probably not too surprising.

in case anyone every stumbles upon this thread in the future, here's some info gleaned from more knowledgeable than I:

Haiti was from Milano and they that did not make machines very long. They were purchased by COSMO which then became La Spaziale.

is there a place where people interested in the weird and early professional machines gather ?
or good places to start researching the stuff ?

this is a nice forum, but definitely trends towards more recent and home barista type machines

this is for sale near me and i am pretty curious about it: