Hello you all coffee lovers
My name is Roberto and I am from Caracas, Venezuela and at my 50 I realized that I do love a good coffee so I decided to embrace the road of making my own espresso at home.
Since I am a complete ignorant of the theme in a course of a couple of weeks I found my self looking for information about barista scene and I decided to buy an espresso machine as a first step of this journey, I am also aware of that the machine is just a part of this wonderful world but since in my home town the options to choose from are very limited and I have to confess my weakness for the vintage stuff (I have owned vintage cars, motorcycles, bicycles, cameras etc. I just like them, what can I say in my defense).
I found in a Gaggia Orione two group circa 1970 I want to buy, I have not much information about the machine beside it was functional about six month ago.
A friend of mine who result to be an active barista and Simonelli's distributor suggest some question to the seller and upon the answer he recommend me to buy the machine even with out a personal inspection.
As I already said the reasons U want to buy this machine is because here the choices and my budget are limited and I rather the lever machine because of the vintage thing.
I am a handy man and I am willing to do what it takes in order to put the machine in working order and to learn how to pull a shot in the old fashion way.
Well that was a small introduction of my self and I will appreciate all the suggestions about the purchase and restoration of this particular machine you may provide.
Thanks in advance from the sunny lands of Caracas

Roberto,

Congratulations on a great choice! Show us pictures, many pictures. Use the Search feature here for Gaggia Orione or Gaggia Tell and you will see what others did to restore. Show us your photos and ask questions and there are good people here who will help you. Also look at this website for restoration information:

http://www.espresso-restorations.com/

Ok Guys here are some pics of "la maquina" I want to buy. Enjoy the view and please tell me what do you think.

Super cool. People here have done amazing restorations starting with less. If you are handy, you can tear this down and put it back together in top condition. Someone will knows where you can go for parts.

Look at all of the mentions of "Orione" on Home Barista:

http://bit.ly/1fMvVKl

Gadzooks!

It's like - "I want to get into the driving thing and I can pick up a '65 Alfa Giulia SS"...

Seems to be in decent shape, hope to see your progress in the near future.

Thanks for your encourage
I started to analyzed the pics I received from the seller this very afternoon and based on pic from the web and from other fellow members of the HB. I concluded that this particular Orione or maybe a Tell, looks very complete to me and with the original parts, the chrome looks heavily pity, the stainless steel appear to be recoverable, the sheet metal looks straight and fixable.
As I already said in a previous post, the machine is about eight hours driving from home so I have to make my decision upon the pics, the seller word and your recommendations, of course.
My main reason to choose this one is because around here, lever machines are very hard to find and the vintage Gaggia are know for be sturdy and durable.
My first thought is buy it and used as it is in terms of aesthetics and only fix the basic to start pulling espressos meanwhile I cam embrace a partial or a full restoration if I want.
By the way could somebody give me an idea about the weight of this Orione
Thanks in advance

Hi,
It is a Gaggia Orione, no Tell.

Weight would be ~50kg + X
What I can't see in your pics is whether it runs on 220 or 360V, this might be important for your home installation. In worst case, you might have to buy a new 220V-element.

Nice machine - enjoy!

Cheers
Holger

Get it and worry about Fixing it once you have it. I was super worried when I grabbed my first one, but Doug at Orphan was a huge help in letting me know there are still tons of parts readily available for this machine.

Shamefully, I still haven't finished my rebuild.

One report on the internet put the weight of a 2 group Gaggia Orione at about 100kg. (Likely full of water weight.)
Each of the groups alone weigh 10kg.

You'll have some heavy lifting to move it around, but they are beautiful machines.

Hello guys
A short update to the saga of the Gaggia Orione adquisition.
Since the purchase have been delay due to seller problems, I had time to rethink if this machine is the right for me a completely new comer.
Do you think a 200 pounds, vintage two group lever machine is too much for household use to start the barista way.
Please let me know what do you think, this waiting time is killing me and I had plenty of time to learn more in the meanwhile.
Thanks