Yes, Doug and Barb are great... Doug just helped me with changing the gaskets and seals on my La Peppina.

I love the matching tamper and dosing funnel, looks great!

SiD- wrote:Looks awesome! Did you chromed the drip tray grill or is it polished?

Thanks! Unfortunately the original grill was missing, so it's a new chrome one.

Don't know if I already did show my setup I'm using at home right now:


Aurora Brugnetti Export and Aristarco MD58 converted into an on demand grinder.


And that baby is at my workbench right now:


More images of my progress of (hopefully!) bringing this beauty back to life can be found here: click!

Cheers,
Klaus

Klaus,
The Aurora is beautiful. What an interesting machine the Piccolobar looks to be! Who was it made by? It's too bad I'm unable to find machines such as these in my area. It's a virtual wasteland around here for them. I'll be travelling to europe in september so maybe I'll have to have a look around for one. I'll keep checking your thread for updated pics. Awesome!

Cheers,
Nelson

Piccolobar is the name of the company that made the machines (somewhere in Italy, afaik). This one was made by Elwe in Innsbruck, Austria (licence built). The Piccolobars used plate-type heating elements attached to the bottom of the boiler (from the outside!), and this machine has no steam. Machines with steam had a second boiler for steam only - so these were early dual-boiler machines. Right now the prices for old machines (no matter the make) are sky high in Europe (as all over the world, I think), so it was no cheap buy for a non working machine with a lot of time (and rather than not money) to invest. Sadly enough I'll have to re-chrome-plate a few parts (base, boiler-cap, lever, lever-base, grills for the driptray) because they are too worn out to just be cleaned and polished. So a lot of patina will be lost

The rest should be ok with cleaning and polishing. It also looks as if I even don't have to descale the machine - cleaning the boiler and the cap mechanically should be enough (which is a good thing considering the fact that we deal with aluminium).

Klaus

home machine, carimali elle. Built in Milan in about '79. Shipped to a Sydney trader before being sent to Port Vila, Vanuatu. I bought it in very poor condition, full of rust, insect casings and spiderwebs about 20 years later and restored in 2002. My first real coffee machine! It has just be reinstalled last night after another refurbishment (powdercoat body, rebuild gr, rewire with contactor, fit wega steam valve, new front panel and cup fence). Just the ticket when a few friends come over on the weekend

Hey Paul looks great, I'll have to come round and see it in the flesh.

Rob

This is more so a test for a toy camera I bought from Japan (Gakkenflex) and I liked the results, so here it is:

The Eagle flies...
Here's my sweet little setup. I chose to do without a lot of basic necessities last year to make this set up happen but every morning I say it was worth it.

I picked this Pavoni up last Friday in San Fran. I also had the pleasure of visiting Thomas Cara Ltd. It was a great day!