It was a mod I was trying at the time, I think it took up to much of the water space inside the group possibly lessening heat transfer of water to group, if that makes sense. I may have another go at it. An easier way is to drill a hole into a 1/4" BSP plug and screw it into the the group water inlet to restrict flow.
Getting the group up to temp is my main issue, yours may be better with it's different heat exchanger.

Gustopher wrote:After much searching on a german coffee forum I came across a third configuration, a straight HX the goes through the centre of the boiler from the bottom to behind the group. I'm fairly confident that this Aurora has the straight HX configuration.

Hi Gustopher.

As far as I know, the Aurora Brugnetti was build in three versions: the first ones without an HX, then there were the horseshoes HX as seen on the Orphan Espresso homepage and the latest versions were the straight HX from bottom to top of the boiler. I have had an horseshoe HX Aurora - and was so silly to sold it... Now I have one of the latest Auroras with the straight HX. I'm still restoring it as there are some important parts broken... It dates from 1985.

Good luck with your Aurora!

Andy

I've decided on a bit of a change on this project. I recently picked up a neglected, heavily scaled Brugnetti Simona Top as a cheap project. As I was taking it apart I realised that Brugnetti's group neck on the boiler are the same on their pump machines as on the Aurora. This got me thinking, as I'm already planning on a new case and re-piping the machine why not make it a double boiler? I know that the Aurora works fantastically already in it's HX configuration, I know it may be a minimal improvement (if one at all). But it's looks like it will be a fun project and I kinda want to do it anyway. So why not I say!
So here are my musings. The Simona boiler capacity at 1.5l should be ample for a brew boiler. I have a cannibalised Giotto laying around and can use it's boiler for steam. So for plumbing I'm wondering if I should use the Giottos autofill circuit to fill the steam boiler, plumb it's HX into the mains and then into the brew boiler. I could then put a bleed valve in the top of the Brew boiler and have it saturated under line pressure.
That way I can preinfuse at line pressure.

My question is, currently the group neck on the Simona isn't open to the boiler, it has just been brazed to the outside. Will it be enough to just drill a hole into the boiler here or will I need to also add a dipper? the brew boiler should be saturated with water and as far as I can see it should stay that way, but i'm not certain.

Any suggestions comments would be much appreciated.

I would usually agree with you. In this case though as the frame was wrecked in transit (and was near rusted through anyway) and most of the case parts were missing even before that. It would be difficult to restore it to its original appearance.
The plans I'm considering won't use many of the original parts (mostly the group really) and doesn't modify any of them so If I want to regain the original functionality in the future then I can.
I have near all of the parts. I was going to need to make a new case anyway. I think it would be an interesting project and if I'm unhappy with how it performs I can just return it to it's original configuration. What is their to lose?

And the unfortunate thing about living in Australia is nothing is easy to find in terms of lever machines so finding something else is pretty unlikely.

Here are pictures of the boiler and group neck .




and with the group for size comparison.

After years on the back burner I'm finally nearing completion of my Brugnetti Aurora project.

After purchasing I ran into some major issues. The HX tube had broken at the joint with the group head. Someone had done some very inventive and weird plumbing to essentially run it as a dipper machine. The case was also non original and the frame was trashed by the courier (Though to be fair the machine was packed horribly).

I luckily managed to located a donor machine. A Brugnetti pump machine of similar era. Same HX boiler, similar frame and case! With the added bonus of including an autofil circuit.

Frame has been freshly powder coated. I've replaced the spring and all seals, made some changes to the plumbing as the pump was removed, brazed a fitting to add room for a anti vac valve and made replacement runners out of stainless for the bearings in the group head. Bench testing has begun. The new stainless front panel is being cut this week, a little more work to do on the case and figure out wiring for a power switch. Then it will be complete!

Whoa! That sand cast plate on the end of the boiler is a thing of beauty!

Looks fantastic!