My concern is being able to leave the thermal fuse recess / well intact on the baseplate. It looks as if the element coil is somehow attached to the outside of the recess.

If it's truly solder it will melt well before any of the metal of the base plate is affected and should be no problem. If it were welded on, that would be a different story and the heat required to break the weld could endanger the base plate.

Ok, after hack sawing the element off, I'm wondering if the element arced and that slightly fused it to the recess. It definitely had material bonding it to the element, but it popped free easily. I'll clean it up - carefully - with a dremel.

The inside of the baseplate looks pretty hammered, including that rusty area...so weird how pristine everything else on the machine is.

The distorted mounting holes do look suspiciously like a non-OEM standard replacement part. More like a cut to shape, beat to fit, paint to match job.

And yet the safety fuse recess has the mica film that Doug mentions in one of his Cremina rebuild videos. And it has a serial number that matches that on the frame. I guess someone was in there at some point and did a terrible job of removing or installing the baseplate, or both. The nubs were a bear to knock out with a punch - I actually bent one of my narrower gauge ones in the process. Next is drilling out the holes to accommodate the replacement element. Then it's pretty easy from there.

Drilling the holes has been more challenging than I anticipated. I assumed brass would be very soft and easy to drill through quickly, but it is slow going. I wonder if whatever event killed the element also had a similar effect to work hardening? I'm going to get titanium coated cobalt bits and see if that works - otherwise, I'll have to see if the local bike shop will do the holes for me on their drill press.

Turned out to be nothing more than a very dull bit. New bit got it done quickly. Here are some blurry photos of the new element installed on the baseplate:



I've already rebuilt the group but am leaving the sight glass and steam tap original for now, as they aren't leaking. I've cycled it through a few heating/cooling cycles and no leaks anywhere, so all that is left now is polishing the front plate and group and putting the case back on. The first shot - a Kenyan from Elm Street roasters - was pretty delicious. I have to admit I was skeptical that the shots would be that different from a Pavoni, but the first three have all been so syrupy and dense, that I'm a believer.

Congratulations. The new element looks great. Enjoy the syrupy shots.

Pleasing two group setup: