Hello lever fanatic !
this is my last lucky purchasing : one la Peppina in mint condition, coming directly from the past (the invoice said 1972...).


unfortunately the cap was missing, but i've already find a nice sustitute (no pics ).


The lever is very hard to be pulled down , the other lever machine need less force; i believe it's the spring , stronger than the average. Am i right?

Wow, Lvx! Congratulations on the beautiful La Peppina.

Bluecold wrote:God that's nice.
And yes it's true that Peppina's spring is a biggie.
I think the Peppina was specifically designed to house a commercial size spring in a domestic machine. To cock that spring, a longer lever is needed, which is too high for the average kitchen if the piston is above the portafilter.
Only the Peppina, Comocafe(which basically is a Peppina) and Francois' mystery machine have such a configuration (at least the machines i know of).

that's a monster truck suspension
maybe i'll do another (homemade) lever.
if you take a look at my blog, i was shocked about the weight of the portafilter. what''s made of ? chocolate? wood? crazy

Congrats on your purchase, Lvx. I've really enjoyed my La Peppina. Aside from the occasional choking, I've found it operates quite smoothly and intuitively. I haven't had any problems with the spring lever. Beautifully simple. And such a rare jewel to get one in mint condition! Again, congrats.

Congratulations! They are a wonderful little machine. They are especially nice for roasts which may require a specific water temperature. Also they are great to find the set-up water temperature that you will use on a fancier machine. FWW, they sold in the USofA for over $700 when new. There are many threads on H-B for info about, and how to use them.
Rebuild info:HERE
Cheers
-Richard

Wow!
I picked up a used one a few weeks ago for $20, but it certainly wasn't as nice an shiny as yours! I'm sure you didn't have a family of roaches living in yours, either.

Looking at your pictures of the inside of the kettle, I see a difference between yours and mine. Is that a wing-nut holding the screen over the heating element? I have a long post where the cap screws in. Maybe that's why you're missing the cap? I don't use the cap anyway. I keep it open and have a thermometer in to get the temp.

Bluecold wrote:PS. Do you have an higher resolution scan of that manual?

here we are !

espressme wrote:Congratulations! They are a wonderful little machine. They are especially nice for roasts which may require a specific water temperature. Also they are great to find the set-up water temperature that you will use on a fancier machine. FWW, they sold in the USofA for over $700 when new. There are many threads on H-B for info about, and how to use them.
Rebuild info:HERE
Cheers
-Richard

Sorry Richard, what do you mean with FWW ? 700 $ for a Peppina new? i will box it again right now !

Lucio

Bluecold wrote:I think the Peppina was specifically designed to house a commercial size spring in a domestic machine. To cock that spring, a longer lever is needed, which is too high for the average kitchen if the piston is above the portafilter.
Only the Peppina, Comocafe(which basically is a Peppina) and Francois' mystery machine have such a configuration (at least the machines i know of).

Not quite commercial, but heftier than other domestic springs for sure.

Lvx wrote:Sorry Richard, what do you mean with FWW ? 700 $ for a Peppina new? i will box it again right now !
Lucio

Hi Lucio,
For What it is Worth: That is the price charged during the 60's and 70's when the machines were newly introduced into this country.
-Richard

espressme wrote:Hi Lucio,
For What it is Worth: That is the price charged during the 60's and 70's when the machines were newly introduced into this country.
-Richard

price updated
anyhow a lot of money... i wonder which was the price in Italy in those days

Beautiful machine. Her lever always reminds me of the floor mounted gear shift on a 1960's school bus!

Lvx wrote:Hello lever fanatic !
this is my last lucky purchasing : one la Peppina in mint condition, coming directly from the past (the invoice said 1972...).
<image>

unfortunately the cap was missing, but i've already find a nice sustitute (no pics ).
<image>

The lever is very hard to be pulled down , the other lever machine need less force; i believe it's the spring , stronger than the average. Am i right?

<image>
<image>

Hi there -- just wondering what lid substitute you found? I have a pepppina without a lid too and I'm hunting around for parts, not easy to find, so interested in substitutes. I know Doug has one option at orphanespresso - what did you use?

Thanks, sa

I am looking for a lid gasket for the La Peppina, It was made to make some steam but without that seal on the lid the steamer is useless (and I am not expecting much either with the seal). I have measured the lid at 100mm, but it would need a lip fit on the lid with an over seal. Anyone know of a place to get someting like this made? I have asked Doug and Barb and they have no replacment.

I was lucky enough that my La Peppina came with this gasket. I took some approximate measurements with my micrometer tonight in case this is any help. The outside edge of the gasket is tapered to match the shape of the kettle at the top. I'll try a little ASCII diagram to illustrate:

========(gasket)
\\ ______________________(lid)
\\
======(gasket)

The gasket at it's widest measured 103 mm and it went down to 101 mm at the narrower end of the taper (bottom). The inside diameter of the part of the gasket that overlaps the top and bottom of the lid is about 87 mm and the thickness of the gasket is about 6 mm.

I didn't take the gasket off to make any measurements. I'm going to wait until I have some Dow 111 lube before I remove the gasket again.

Looking at this some more, it looks like you should be able to get away with just placing a 4" flat round gasket between the top of the kettle and the vaporizer lid and then you could just tighten the vaporizer sandwiching the gasket between the kettle and the lid. I found a site (http://www.brewerygaskets.com) that seems to carry these for brewing tanks (pretty close application) as well as some manway gaskets for tank doors that if you could get made a custom size (or cut down and superglue) would fit around the lid like the original gasket. Check out their 4" clamp gaskets and their manway gaskets. There's probably other places to pick up a 4" round gasket that you could use to sandwich between the vaporizer and the kettle.

Right now I'm trying to dial in the single basket for dose and grind with Ritual's Snowcone. My last shot was 7.5 g, almost to the top of the basket and it seemed to pull pretty well. I was surprised that I could fit that much in the basket as I was sticking to 12 g doses for the double basket.

CRCasey wrote:I am looking for a lid gasket for the La Peppina, It was made to make some steam but without that seal on the lid the steamer is useless (and I am not expecting much either with the seal). I have measured the lid at 100mm, but it would need a lip fit on the lid with an over seal.

Cecil,

It looks like Doug and Barb have done it again... I was looking at the La Peppina parts page (shopping for seals and gaskets that I'll eventually have to change) and noticed this steam lid replacement gasket.

Worth a look.