So while I was descaling my La Pavoni yesterday, I noticed that about half of the bottom lip of the boiler cap (which makes contact with the top of the boiler) fractured and fell off on the counter... hmm: the joys of 40 year old espresso machines

To remedy this, I used the lathe to turn the rest of the lip off. I then shaped it with a carbide cutting bit and added a bit of a chamfer to help blend it. After that, used a file and some sand paper to smooth everything down a bit further. A little blue magic metal polish finished everything off.


Here's the boiler cap after turning it down on the lathe and polishing it


And here is the cap in use and on the La Pavoni

I don't think it turned out half bad. Exposing the brass and peeling away the lower edge of the cap not only added a nice decorative accent, but I think it also improved functionality and reduced the risk of further fracturing of the boiler cap material.

Ray

Looks great Ray. I think I would have had to just buy a new one...

La Pavoni went to trash all plastic caps in the late 1980s. The decent ones with a brass base are interchangeable with the plastic trash ones that came later. Turning it down like that makes it look a lot better than the original brass and plastic ones! You did a good job!

Anyone who has a brass base one that has the plastic top should not ever consider buying a new one if the plastic top break because it is fairly easy to replace it with hardwood.

I described how I made a brass base using an M32x2 die. I attached a piece of ebony to the brass as can be seen in the later part of the thread:

Making brass cap for la Pavoni Europiccola, etc.

Unfortunately it is a bit difficult to make brass caps like I did, there is a substantial learning curve! One can cut the threads either with a lathe or a proper die. As explained in the earlier post, I believe, I held the die in a lathe chuck instead of die stock because it is hard to align the die with the part otherwise.

At the rate La Pavoni is replacing parts with plastic they may soon be selling all plastic lever machines. A consequence of this is "New Old Stock" La Pavoni machines often sell for more than the new ones.

rpavlis wrote:Turning it down like that makes it look a lot better than the original brass and plastic ones! You did a good job!

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Get it? "Turned" out

Ray

FWIW when the sealing edge first fell apart I thought it was part the cap but it was actually a very hard old o-ring that was so compressed and hardened it appeared to be part of the cap. The Pav has a sealing o-ring that makes the final seal between cap and boiler

Very nice cap RayJohns.

Rpavlis made me a brass plug for my Europiccola and I added the wood. Thanks again Robert!
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6D5ZTrFjcA_fIvl9kD8AEP3p715I4gsxwbVUvhYBMBk?feat=directlink

Also a redo of the Cremina cap after the bakelite one broke in half.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Mgd58leTZRxWA_HljHly2P3p715I4gsxwbVUvhYBMBk?feat=directlink

Cremina Steam knob.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qA2pwLKZokBRvToMTEfdTf3p715I4gsxwbVUvhYBMBk?feat=directlink

Sorry for the links, I was in a hurry and didn't want to fiddle with the size of the files and upload.

zubinpatrick wrote:FWIW when the sealing edge first fell apart I thought it was part the cap but it was actually a very hard old o-ring that was so compressed and hardened it appeared to be part of the cap. The Pav has a sealing o-ring that makes the final seal between cap and boiler

Yes, there is an O-ring involved.

On my cap, it was the lower edge of the top which cracked off. If you look at the photo above (or the zoomed shot below), you can see my O-ring just below the brass accent. It's been compressed down by the chamfer at the top of the boiler, which it threads down and compresses into.

Ray