Good morning to everyone.

I just got some nice bling from Cannonfodder for both my Cremina and Salvatore Compact Lever but am having a difficult time taking the Bakelite off of the portafilter handle and lever handle.

You can see that the Richard Penney PF came undone at the stud where it attaches to the PF.

I tried a strap wrench but it's too slippery and won't hold. Vice grip would work I supposed but am afraid of scratching the stainless.

Was also thinking of using thread lock for that stud hoping it would hold so that I can twist the handle off

See attached pics

I had the same issue, use a vice with soft jaw adapters......

HBfencing wrote:Good morning to everyone.

I just got some nice bling from Cannonfodder for both my Cremina and Salvatore Compact Lever but am having a difficult time taking the Bakelite off of the portafilter handled and lever handle.

You can see that the Richard Penney PF came undone at the stud where it attaches to the PF.

I tried a strap wrench but it's too slippery and won't hold. Vice grip would work I supposed but am afraid of scratching the stainless.

Was also thinking of using thread lock for that stud hoping it would hold so that I can twist the handle off since if I twist the handle off that stud comes out of the PF

See attached pics

<image>

If a plastic vise jaw doesn't work (it didn't for me, not enough surface contact, it just slipped no matter how hard I cranked it down), try the following:
wrap small strip of solid silicone rubber sheet (such as from a trivet) around the stud and use a t-bolt hose clamp and tighten firmly. Then try with the vise again. If that still doesn't work, use a bit of CA to glue the rubber to the stud clamp it down with the hose clamp again (you can always dissolve the glue afterwards with CA remover). You should have the grip of god on that sucker. Also, using a couple of drops of liquid wrench into the bakelight handle might help, along with a trivet for grip.

Thanks for the input weebit_nutty. I figured by the time I buy a bench vise some silicone sheets, and other items I might as well see if I could buy a stud for the RP PF and another lever handle which is on cerini's site. Hopeful David @east side loco can sell me another stud. I'm surprised the stud screws into the PF head thought it would be one piece.

Great looking wooden accoutrements, HBfencing.

I hope my response via Etsy is helpful. I've had good luck using vice grips. The trick is that you need to line the jaws, as others have suggested. I usually cut the fingers off some old work gloves. If the leather is thick enough, the vice grip teeth won't cut through the leather. You can also use Loctite to get a more positive connection between the portafilter body and the stud adapter. That alone may be enough to let you unscrew the handle at will. (It works on my portafilters.)

In any case, I don't have any extra sub-assemblies for Richard's portafilters. Each portafilter body arrives with with one stud adapter for the handle. I'm not a machinist, but I suspect it would be impractical to build these portafilters as a 1-piece assembly. You could do that easily enough with cast parts. But these pieces are individually machined.

Eastsideloco wrote:Great looking wooden accoutrements, HBfencing.

I hope my response via Etsy is helpful. I've had good luck using vice grips. The trick is that you need to line the jaws, as others have suggested. I usually cut the fingers off some old work gloves. If the leather is thick enough, the vice grip teeth won't cut through the leather. You can also use Loctite to get a more positive connection between the portafilter body and the stud adapter. That alone may be enough to let you unscrew the handle at will. (It works on my portafilters.)

In any case, I don't have any extra sub-assemblies for Richard's portafilters. Each portafilter body arrives with with one stud adapter for the handle. I'm not a machinist, but I suspect it would be impractical to build these portafilters as a 1-piece assembly. You could do that easily enough with cast parts. But these pieces are individually machined.

Thanks David. Loctite 242 worked like a charm. Took a few hours for it to set and then was able to easily twist that handle off.

Wish I tried this first instead of using locking pliers. Even with tape and silicone / leather tips of work gloves I had a few scratches. No marring but should have followed my own advice by using loctite in the first place

Done

Also Dave (cannonfodder) does great work

I think it's done.
I noticed you have LWW's apron for the HG One. How do you like it?

Thanks weebitnutty.

Anyhow I do like the apron. The smell of leather reminds me of my nice leather pro-preferred baseball glove and it has a groove for the tumbler which is dead center under the funnel.

I also picked up a Cremina adapter and the variable steam tip which I'm going to install on my Salvatore Compact Lever.

Thanks to you weebitnutty and your nice album of
the linea mini my wife now thinks I'm well weebitnutty if I buy one. I'm really thinking about getting the white panel linea mini or buying a new Cremina. Have gone through way too many machines in the short time I've been in this hobby.