Faema Urania 1st Series restoration

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Paul_Pratt
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Joined: 19 years ago

#1: Post by Paul_Pratt »

Hello all,

Just a quick thread of a Urania I got last month. I knew it was an early Urania but I didn't realise it was that early, turns out it must be from when the Urania was first introduced. The first series can be identified by having a metal grille at the front, which later became a glass panel on other series. They also used the curvy "Marte" group. I'll let the pics do the talking.

Unpacking for the first time.





All the parts are there, some are just packed away in boxes.



A quick stripdown.



The water inlet valves and the hot water valve.



The boiler bolts were easy to undo, it was then obvious that this was a resto that had been abandoned some time ago. Lots of white silicone sealant everywhere.



Sometime the original heating element had died and it had been cut out and then bodged up with silicone sealant again.



More later.

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craigcharity
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#2: Post by craigcharity »

Looks amazing, I cant wait to see the progress.

Enjoy

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crazy4espresso
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#3: Post by crazy4espresso »

Lovely machine! Also looking forward to the progress pics.
"I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless." — Napoleon Bonaparte
LMWDP #427

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doubleOsoul
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#4: Post by doubleOsoul »

Uranias never get old for me. Your early model is a real looker too - like a 50s TV. Can't wait to see what chromes up!

Bak Ta Lo
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#5: Post by Bak Ta Lo »

Oh man, love these machines, ever since drooling over that amazing one that doubleOsoul found.

Paul,

Is there a good story behind the machine, I am always curious where they were and where they have been?
LMWDP #371

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Paul_Pratt (original poster)
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Joined: 19 years ago

#6: Post by Paul_Pratt (original poster) »

This machine came from Germany.

The machine was very dirty, which is obviously to be expect after 60 years. I decided with this to save as much chrome as possible and will live with the odd scratch here or there.

The massive heavy group. There has been a thread or two here about this group and Mike mentioned his came with a valve on the top that changed to warm up time. Mine was not there and had been plugged up with an iron plug. That was a pig to remove and clean all the rust out. In the end I had to run a tap through it to remove all the iron.



The group chrome looks OK but had had a few very hard bangs with some large dents and scratches.




I wanted to remove the liner sleeve inside the group as well which required making a tool. When you turn the group over you will see 4 holes where the gasket sits and it should unscrew. This thing was stuck fast, easily bending my stainless 8mm bolts.



Eventually it came out which is great as I can't stand having hidden areas that may be full of dirt or grease.



Here's a few valves showing the typical condition of the parts.



The frame.


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Paul_Pratt (original poster)
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#7: Post by Paul_Pratt (original poster) »

Whilst the boiler was being cleaned there were a few parts needed to be fabricated before I sent things out for chrome. One of the dinky little feet were missing, as was a screw in the drip tray and I made new manual fill lever, the original bakelite is badly broken.

Here are the feet and the screws, the screws were tidied up a bit more after this.



One day I'll try and restore/replace this bakelite handle, but for now it was fun making this brass copy.




The group is a major feature of this machine and I was really bothered by the huge dents on one side. I decided to try and restore the group by filling in the dents and dings with silver solder. I eventually got to this.



By doing it myself I was able to preserve the contours of the group and get the finish the way I wanted. It's a bit extreme doing this but as I have said before, chrome platers don't know what they are working on and may not necessarily make the best decisions when they are doing their initial stripping and buffing. Sometimes you end up with edges or features that are buffed away when you did not want then to disappear.


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Paul_Pratt (original poster)
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Joined: 19 years ago

#8: Post by Paul_Pratt (original poster) »

Here's the group sleeve all cleaned up and I did a little work to reface the edge where the gasket sits. Finally I found a use for my gas leaky mypressi that has sat for 2 years, I used one of their orings on the sleeve. Perfect fit.



The boiler was a major pain to clean up. This machine must have been used with gas at some point as it was so badly sooted up. The inside was squeeky clean though after a few acid baths.



The boiler end plate required 2 helicoils on the element holes, and there was 1 helioil on the boiler itself. The left element is a modern one, the right one was the botched one from the previous owner. I brazed up the holes from the inside as I wanted to keep it as it has Faema stamped on it. I suppose the next time I visit the heating element shop I could have new elements put into this element flange.



On the top of the boiler I used the old safety valve fitting to mount a modern valve and a vacuum breaker. In the future that can all come out and I can put the wobbler weight back if need be.

I had a spare reconditioned mercury switch that I thought would be appropriate for this machine, so that went on the opposite side to the elements due to a lack of space. I had to make a small pipe to feed the pstat from a spare drain port on the boiler.

The mercury switch was mounted onto a tapped hole I found on the frame, so no drilling required. The only hole I drilled in the machine was for the electrical cable strain relief clip.



Later on some pics of the finished machine....

jonny
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#9: Post by jonny »

Wow, very nice, Paul. From the pictures, the outside looks very nice to be kept as is. It sure will be a beautiful machine!

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wouter
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#10: Post by wouter »

Wow Paul, beautiful machine, and nice restauration!
It looks like it is in a good condition still.. Have you made an espresso with it already?
You keep this one for yourself? Quite a collection of vintage machines you have by now
Strietman redefines the craft of espresso making

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