Hey folks,
I seem to have lucked out this past Friday and stumbled across an old Sama Lusso. The price was too good to resist and now it looks like I've got a restoration on my hands.
After I got it home, I plugged it in and powered it up - the light came on, but that was it. No heat, no noise, nada. My guess is that I'm dealing with a fuse or element issue.
I had some time to kill this afternoon so simonarcher came by to help with the analysis and dismantling (thanks!). After a little noodling with my multi-tester, it looks as though it's going to be an element issue, so I'm hoping someone out there may have a suggestion as to where I could find a replacement, or, (in a worst case scenario) have one custom made.
I've already checked out Doug's site and it looks like he's got some seals and a few other odds and ends for me (the basket size appears to be a 45mm, it's smaller than my 49mm La Pavoni basket).
All in all, she looks to be in pretty solid shape, though I don't know about the element. Presently, I'm descaling it and will post pics as soon as I yank it out.

Other than the element, here are a few other things I could use some advice with:
1) The pressure gauge.
It looks like the poles in the gauge have rusted over the years (photo below) and I'm wondering if it's worth trying to pop open or if the rust would signal a need to just replace it.
2) Sight glass.
The rubber seals on the sight glass are seriously hard. I'm going to need to track down new seals, maybe even a new sight glass altogether. My hope is that the fit will be the same as current Sama's/PV's.
3) The rubber washers on the steam and water wands.
These are the rubber seals that hold the wands centered in the holes on the faceplate. I'm pretty sure they're rather standard, but I'm going to need a pair regardless.

That's it for now - oh, though I forgot to mention, she's also ported on the bottom of the boiler to plumb in to the water line if filling from the top isn't your thing...
Below are some pics of her before I popped the cover off, she's pretty grubby and has clearly seen better days, but I'm hopeful regardless.






Now let's pop the hood and have a look...

I suppose many of the parts should be replacable with new Ponte Vecchio parts. The PV Lusso is very similar.
Doug at orphanespresso will be able to answer a lot of questions.

Joe at Good Coffee Company in Seattle sold Samas for 30 years, and knows them inside and out.

Lastly, the Olympia Club is the look-alike, not the other way around. The Lusso or Familiy style club machines were popular in Italy before the birth of Olympia.

Good luck with the restoration, the basic parts are so durable that if you get it finished up it should last a lifetime or two.

PC

Hi Peacecup,

You say "The Lusso or Familiy style club machines were popular in Italy before the birth of Olympia"

I personally suspect Olympia Express is in fact much older than that:

"Der Hersteller Olympia Express produziert seit 1928 bis heute in der Schweiz"

In the 50's they were producing this kind of pot:



Then, in the early 60'S they started producing europiccolas tagged "Olympia CT10" under licence from la pavoni:



Then, in 67 they designed their own lever machine: the cremina...and later in the 70's, the club

Best,
F

Right, but I suppose the Bezzera Family to be early 1960s? There can be little doubt that the Italian version came first.

BTW, this gives some support to the idea we've been discussing on the Caravel thread, i.e. the LP and Cremina are similar in functional design. An interesting sidenote here on the Gravity thread, because I was comparing the open- and pressurized-boiler types.

The next biggest advance in espresso making, commercial or home, will be the re-introduction of the open boiler, with its precise temperature control.

PC

Damn... they don't build the Lusso these days like they used to... your pictures make the construction look crisp and precise, while my 3 month old Lusso looks like someone threw a bunch of metal together without much attention to detail (a bit exaggerated, but it's nowhere near as clean-looking as your older Sama).

Best of luck with the restoration. There's some great espresso up ahead. I wonder what time does to the spring (will it work as well as it did years ago)?

Thanks for the feedback so far.
Peacecup, I'm proud to know that the Lusso came out before the Club. Though it makes no difference in the grand scheme of things, I like to think the Lusso had something going for it if Olympia decided it was worth making a similar machine.
I'm eagerly awaiting Doug or Joe to hop on here with their two cents - I'll drop them a line directly if need be, but I love that the forum can archive an entire discussion/restoration so someone else can tackle it down the road.
Aindfan,
The spring still feels bullet-proof. In fact, the whole grouphead seems great - the movement is strong and smooth, though I've not yet popped it open. This is my first spring-based lever, everything prior to this for me has been a Pavoni, so I'm going to take my time before tackling the seals.
I have to agree with you about how crisp and precise the construction is. simonarcher and I had this thing stripped down to the boiler in less than an hour. The fact that he wasn't late for supper with his lady astounds me. Everything about it still seems rock solid (especially anything rubber - ha!), the pstat seems perfect, I've checked the switch and wires, they're all good, it's really just the element and boiler internals, so I'm hopeful this will be a pretty straightforward restoration, as it's my first complete overhaul.
If I've got time tonight I'll try to pop out the element and post some photos.

Thanks for the feedback so far, it's much appreciated.

-GB.

DONT OPERATE THE LEVER WHEN THE MACHINE IS NOT FULL AND UP TO PRESSURE! water in the piston lubricates the seals, and this only happens when pressure forces water into it.

Duly noted!
Thanks peacecup.

Can you elaborate on how the fresh water fill has been integrated? I am a newbie to these machines just having purchased a PV Lusso last week but I would think autofilling a pressurized boiler would be a difficult task. Is it simply separate pipe into the bottom of the boiler with a valve in the base with filling done before the unit is turned on and relying on the site tube to avoid overfilling?

Basically the same process I go through everyday without the hassle of moving my cups off the top of the machine.

Hey Shersh,
If you look at the photos above, there's a photo of the bottom of the machine. You can see a U-shaped steel tube connected to a copper tube with some electrical tape around the end of it. This is the plumbing set-up, the connection is on the bottom of the boiler, it's capped with a brass nut, but it looks to me like the U-shaped steel tube is configured so that water is connected to one end and the other end has a mechanical button on it. Not sure here, but I'm guessing that to let more water in, the user just has to press the button, allowing water to enter the boiler.
Maybe someone else on the forum has more insights, I haven't hooked it up so this is just a guess.
Hope this helps,
-GB.