Hello everyone, after several weeks of visiting this site and the lever machines forum in particular, I thought I would take the plunge and join in and introduce myself. It has been great to see the depth of knowledge and passion on this site and some of the restoration stories on here have been fascinating to follow.
As way of introduction myself and my partner moved from the UK to Australia 14 years ago and discovered the pleasure of good quality coffee made by a skilled Barista, something sadly lacking in most parts of the UK outside London. This led as it does to stove top devices of various kinds, simple experiments with grinds etc and eventually to the purchase of a mid range Breville espresso machine, which makes pleasant coffee but the use of pressurised baskets and creme enhancers etc, has left me wanting to have a better understanding and appreciation of how to make a good cup of espresso. This as I am sure it has for many others took me along the arc that eventually lead to thoughts of a lever espresso machine!

Unfortunately at this point common sense decided to have a holiday and I thought it would be much more fun if I ignored the whole 'learn to walk before you run' philosophy and bought a machine that I had never seen from someone I didn't know in a country hundreds of miles from where I live, which will need a complete overhaul before I can begin trying to use it
I am trying to square this as being akin to some kind of Eastern martial art philosophy where the young apprentice has to forge his own weapon before learning how to fight with it, my partner has a better description but I won't share it.
So long story short I have bought myself an unrestored Conti Empress, I didn't pay an excessive amount for it, but it certainly wasn't a barn find bargain. I justify the cost as reflecting the value of the machine plus a fee for the person who finds machines like this to sell on to people who aren't in a position to track down and find them for themselves.
From reading various forums on this and other sites the I focused on the Empress as it seemed a good compromise between a reasonably uncomplicated design with the visual elegance that I also wanted, although this is my first espresso machine restoration I have previously restored a 1960s Lambretta and I hope that this project will have a similar blend of aesthetic and technical involvement.

So thanks for reading my very long winded first post - nearly finished, I really look forward to sharing my experiences of this project and to hopefully gaining valuable experience and knowledge from the members of this forum. I have uploaded some images of the machine and the initial strip down, generally the condition seems good with reasonably clean elements and boiler, pliable seals, all studs and bolts freeable with WD40 and gentle leverage, the piston assembly and group were removable with just hand force no mallets or levering required, some corrosion especially of the lever bearings (and possibly the piston rod) and good condition under the dirt of the bodywork and acrylic. Spring pressure also felt solid.
This appears to be originally a gas machine and also to have never had a chromed finish, the handles are also quite different. I will post more pictures as I disassemble the piston and valve assemblies.

Cheers

Matt

Wow - welcome to H-B. You certainly have found kindred spirits.

That's a really beautiful machine, and looks pretty clean. The color scheme is fantastic. From your pics it seems that tear-down is going reasonably well and you seem meticulous in your organization, which will serve you well. I look forward to future updates.

Welcome to the Forum!
There is a treasure trove of threads involving various Conti machines, and tons of help in the offing.

If memory serves, one or more members lined their boiler with either nickle or zinc after the scrubbing, sanding, whatever it is folks with far more restoration skills than I do.




Edit for typos

Are you planning on keeping it gas-fired?

That's gonna be a cool machine! Welcome here!

Welcome Matt!

That's just the type of machine I would love to restore one day. Beautiful. Looking forward to seeing the development of this project.

Very cool! Keep us posted on your progress with the restoration.

Wow and welcome. What a find!

Great to see a fellow Aussie here. Lovely machine!

Hi all thanks for the warm welcome, I was intending to retain the gas burner, but the machine will be electric power unless I decide to open a mobile espresso bar!
I need to be as organised as I can with the disassembly as I don't have that innate memory of mechanical assemblies that some people are blessed with, so if I keep good photo records etc hopefully I can retrace my steps.

Does anyone at this stage have any recommendations for cleaning and de scaling the boiler I should point out I am fairly limited kit wise so will be doing most things by hand (don't even have my cheap sand blaster anymore). I have seen there are a few fairly robust debates on here regarding suitability / safety of various acids etc for use with copper and brass.
I am considering taking the frame, heat shield and boiler to a local plating/ powder coating outfit and having them all blasted clean with a suitable medium and then having the frame and shield powder coated and the boiler lined. I will have to do some more research on this.

Of course the other big question for much later on is to chrome or not to chrome, I am pretty sure this machine was supplied as a brass finish and as such part of me would like to keep it that way, however my partner and to a degree I agree with her on this, is worried it will look like an olde worlde ships lantern, tricky.