Just a couple of details- The Cremina surrounds are off to the powder coater along with the body to the Bezzera- $60 gets all sand-blasted and powder coated. One Cremina will be a matching color to the Bezzera- the other Gloss black. Not bad at $20 each. Of course YMMV in your area- There was a minimum of $50 charge- So I found out what all that would handle- It never hurts to ask. Now I had some light hazing in one polished face plate and some minor bumps, not dents, into the older brushed face plate. After getting a quote form the Chrome folks of $60 to polish one with no guarantee... OUCH! So , among others, I asked Espressme if he knew any ways to achieve a unblemished look on this S/S. His suggestions worked great ! Thanks Richard!
1. I laid the face plate flat on a two adjoining surfaces that had a small gap between . The gap let the reflector area of the face plate that is recessed have some relief. I did tape off the recessed area- but found that it didn't matter since I was using a flat sanding block. The recess stayed mirror polished!!
2. I then used a good rubber sanding block and started with wet / dry 600 grit sand paper and stroked from the bottom curved lip ( that is under the drip tray area when assembled) and pulled in ONE direction -over and over. Note: I spent about 5 minutes on each grade of paper.
3. Then moved to 400 grit- repeated, and then on to 320 grit. All the scratches are gone. I have a very factory fresh satin finish on the face plates ( yes I did both and am very pleased with the look) I don not miss the polished look- This is not better but an very affordable alternative---- have I ever mentioned that I actually had a budget that I was trying to stay within?? Do ask...
So new gaskets from McMaster- Thanks Bob! are installed under the elements-Now I am foodsafe ! I corrected a mistake in "open-sourcing" that I had made. All seals touching water must be foodgrade! I had forgotten that - Sorry. I will also go back and re-tighten after the initial warm up! These new ones are the 1/16 thickness- but they are very firm and I will want to double check their tightness after acclimating to a hot element in the neighborhood! A regular hole punch worked fine form me to make the bolt holes. I also had to notch the inside edge of the pre-cut gaskets to allow for a little rub with the well that holds the thermostat . I trimmed out a small finger nail gouge and all lined up fine.
One small note-You may or may not recall I used a replacement resettable thermostat made for La Pavoni 127c vs the factory 131c model that I could not get. I will keep everyone informed if it trips too easily. Any way I was going to inform you that like many Olympias that have a metal disc spacer behind your thermostat, this one needs it also. It maintains contact between the Thermostat and the element flange. I had no such spacer- so I made my own- I soldered three old copper pennies together in a stack.. installed .....
The Levers are on and pistons re-assembled in the group-heads. Note- as Steve Robinson indicated as many other have- I used a seal installing tool- basically sharp small scribe -like tool. it has a small thing pointed end about 4 " long. After pushing the pistons in up to where the piston's seals contact the leading edge of the cylinder wall. I then used the seal tool to "tuck" the edge in. All seals and piston shaft and inside of the cylinder walls were lightly lubed DOW Corning 11 o-ring and valve lube. FOODSAFE AND HIGH TEMP! Man o man what am I going to do with 5.3 OZ of this stuff ?
So it is a bout a 2 week wait for the powder coating to arrive.
Also some nice baubles are en route! I can't wait to reveal them- nice custom made handles, steam knob and a matching tamper later on.
by mogogear on Tue May 15, 2007 3:23 pm 
