Hi everyone, just thought I'd put some ideas forward with regard to this 'dream of building a lever' that some of us have lately.



I got this machine for 500 bucks and am in the process of rebuilding it and putting it back into service. It's just a San Marino single group HX rotary pump machine, nothing special and quite cheap.
While putting it back together I recognised the bolt pattern on the boiler neck and had a thought - would it match up to a lever group?




I just so happened to have a Gaggia lever group handy.




It seems that lever groups are fairly easy to get, some of the forum users already purchasing and using CMA, San Marco groups in their projects etc.

The problem of the boiler and all associated connections such as steamer, hot water is something that might be a huge hurdle for some.

What I think could be done is to use a cheap donor machine and just mount your own lever group. The San Marino made by CMA is one such machine which could lend itself to a lever project.

All that would be left to do is some new side panels, since the donor machine panels, in my opinion, are ugly.



I'd love to hear some thoughts you guys have.

Ultimately, I'd love to create a 4grp lever out of this donor machine.

If after restoration, I find I don't really like the Conti Club HX, I was considering whether a Conti lever group could mount to that machine. I have a related thread - will add hyperlink in later.

From your experience with various machines, do you know offhand if that is feasible?

Since Gaggia and CMA and Bosco (?) groups are often dipper, your arrangement is straightforward, but some HX designs might get in the way of conversion or might facilitate making the HX style lever group.

This idea looks very feasible to me. It's just a boiler under pressure with a different group attached. You would need to make sure it's not prone to tipping when you cock the spring.

BTW I really like the original side panel with that Gaggia lever group. To my eye the curves complement each other and offer a look that harkens back to 1930s streamline designs.

I also like the side panels.But can you make them work and not detract from that nice group ? JK

You're right, it's probably not as simple as I have made it out to be. Just because the lever group bolts on, the way in which it gets fed water needs to be taken into account- dipper or via HX.

On the small boiler I have got, it could be done either way. Both methods, dipper or HX would require further modifications to the existing boiler. The dipper option would be the most difficult I suppose because of the following:

The bottom of the neck would need the silver solder/brazing to be completed, since at the moment it is only done on the top half. Then the boiler wall would need to be drilled to be able to pass through the dipper tube.


The other option is to feed the HX with water from the boiler rather than with cold water via the pump. This could be done by putting a T into the pipe that feeds the hot water tap. In this scenario, the lever would be fed with water from the boiler which is at around 1bar pressure rather than from the pump which is at 9bar pressure.



From the pic above you can see where the T piece goes and then connect into the inlet of the HX.

Great project.

I would forget the pump and use only water supply pressure: one entry for the boiler (with automatic refill circuit if you want , or just a tap) and the other one feeding the HX.