The beast is aliveeee! Surprisingly everything is working as it should. Notice how the hydraulic manual volumetric dosing is working.

The lever is going up and clicking off the mechanism, and once the shot is finished the lever goes back down.
It takes quite a long time to heat up, but I guess thats expected with a 16L boiler!

Shots taste really good but more testing will be done tommorow!

It's really hard to believe that this machine is now super clean and working like it should after the years of neglect it went through.
One group was completely capped off because of how much calcium crud was inside!

Brilliant well done. I am targeting one of these for my next projetcs. It's a bit late now but I have many pics of my E64 up here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paul_pratt ... 750040723/

Earlier you asked about this being a "paddle group". It probably merits a new thread about what is and what isn't a paddle group (which use real valves and which don't) but I'd say that the E64 paddle inspired a few others that followed, as well as the GS marzocco - which bears an uncanny resemblance to the E64 way the pump is switched on.

Have fun playing!

Paul

The machine in your post seeems to be a slightly more updated single group version of mine.
Interestingly enough, aside from all of the cool hydraulic stuff - my machine uses a mercury switch to turn on the pump.

When you slide the paddle(s) to the right, it causes a mercury switch to tip - and the mercury jumps the contacts to turn on the pump.

Its kind of funny because when the paddle goes back to the left, it takes an extra few sec for the mercury to leak down and turn off the pump.

Going to do some more playing around with it and will post more pics/vids

I was wondering what you used to polish your machine.. it looks super shiny! I was thinking of doing brasso or something but it would take off all of the letters wouldnt it? And did you chrome plate the drain pieces? If so how much did that run you?

My machine was dated 1966 I think. The group castings look identical to mine so I'm sure they can from the same supplier. The boiler uses a mercury switch.

I just repolished the stainless steel on this myself, I have a huge polishing motor and go through various compaunds and mops. The polishing process is quite rewarding but at the same time quite intimidating as the motor would do you some serious damage. I also have the option to get a professional polishing company do it for me, which is not as rewarding but they do a much better job, especially if the panels are heavily scratched. To do it myself costs nothing, to have the pro company do it would be around $100 for a 2 group and all the steel polished back to new.

Brushing steel is much more fun and unless you are a complete idiot it is impossible to do yourself any harm. One day I'll post a run through of what I do to rebrush it properly.

Did you rebuild the groups? I seem to remember they were very troublesome.

Yeah groups were rebuilt as well there was sooo much calcium build up in there it's amazing they used it in a cafe