TUS172 wrote:Partial:

Yes welcome... Also where are you getting your coffee from and what type of coffee are you grinding? Makes a big difference.

Make sure your grouphead and screen are clean and shine a light down in to the machine to check for any sediments and "crud"... $100.00 is a great price for a Euro!

I get my coffee from Sweet Maria and roast my own. Yay! Yet another variable!
It's blended for espresso, and they suggest a dark roast. It's very tasty in my moka. I may ease up a bit on the roast though.

hudsterboy wrote:I get my coffee from Sweet Maria and roast my own. Yay! Yet another variable!
It's blended for espresso, and they suggest a dark roast. It's very tasty in my moka. I may ease up a bit on the roast though.

What roaster (or method) do you use?

Thanks,

Jeff

I'm using an old air popper, and going a bit into the 2nd crack, according to the roasting guide from their site.

Wow- it is a while between posts here for me--Up to 228# It seems like just the other day for me that I was signing up--No way better than a lever!

Ciao

Hola! ...

Well, just watched a great final of the Australian Open between Nadal and Federer ... big 5 set monster it was!

... and as an aside ... I've scored myself a Gaggia Factory! (thank you ... thanks very much)

In the last 10 years i've worked in many cafes and bars, and poured a good few coffees ... but not until recently have I really found a love for GOOD coffee.

In the last week I found (what i thought to be) a pretty good deal on the 'bay for nice lever machine and I jumped in head first ... so, here I am ... here to learn and hopefully pull some lovely shots on the way

Cheers,
Matt

I am in South Florida and just purchased my first lever machine. A broken La Pavoni Europiccola on Ebay for $50.00. Got it home, cleaned it and was making coffee the same day. It was taking really long to heat up and didn't make much steam, so I figured it was the element as the previous owner stated on Ebay. Purchased a new element online and installed it. Worked exactly the same. I found the schematic on Dr. Pavonis site and found that the previous owner must have had it apart and wired the switches backwards. After correcting the wiring, the machine works great. Of course, I now have two elements.
My home espresso bar!

Congratulations and a hearty welcome to the site and LMWDP!
-Richard

Hello guys .

I write from the north east of Italy (I was born in Trieste ... the italian coffee town).
I work in a power station as a foreman, degree in thermal and patented in the conduction of steam generators .

5 years ago i started a collection of coffee machines and stovetops.
Looking for information on the web, I got to know the forum and I want to make compliments to everybody for the enthusiasm and sympathy.
My favorite lever is the Elektra MCAL, bought 3 years ago used, but in good condition (I only changed the seals).
I use sometimes the export Sama, and the Caravel, however the No. 1 remains the MCAL.
The grinder is a La San Marco modified for my needs (see photo), also because I live 5 minutes from the factory and here you can find many.
I have a blog http://caffettiere.blogspot.com/ where from time to time I show my other coffee machines , so take a look and enjoy .

Ah Lucio,
Welcome to the LMWDP. The macchina are great! The music on your site is Fun!!! I shall bookmark the site!
Cheers
-Richard

I got a used LaPavoni Pro off eBay as my first foray into espresso. In my first use of the machine (to descale it) I had a big leak underneath the unit. I determined it to be the heating element gasket so I took that apart. Basically, the unit was never descaled and apparently they used runoff from a nuclear power plant as their water supply. The coil had 1/8" scale buildup as well as the whole inside of the tank. It seriously looked like an asbestos insulation or something. The cause of the leak was the scale eating away at the chrome coating, separating the chrome from the brass. The chrome stuck to the o-ring and the water seeped in between. When I took the old seal off there was chrome stuck to it in multiple places.

Upon seeing that I disassembled every part that could come apart on the unit. The eBay listing said the seals had just been replaced but apparently they used axle grease in their rebuild. Seriously, it was black, nasty stuff. Every individual part was cleaned thoroughly. I ordered a new seal kit and replaced all the seals as well. Descaling took a while...went through about 3 boxes of Dezcal along with some CLR which really did the trick).

Got it all reassembled last night and fired it up. No leak from below and everything worked so smoothly. I ran a tank of water through just to do a final cleaning. Pressure stat works well and everything seems to be in fine working order. I just need to do a good cleaning of the exterior and she'll be good to go. The ironic part is the machine is working again, but the motor just blew in my Behmor so I don't have any beans to use. New motor is arriving today (shout out to the guys at Behmor) so hopefully this weekend everything will be back on track.

The whole process was kind of a pain and I probably had the right to get a refund. But after it was all done, I kind of enjoyed it and now I have a good understanding of how the machine works. It feels more like "mine" now. Can't wait to pull some shots this weekend!

Ben