Hello!

I've bought 2 NS Oscar badly treated to rebuild. I'm in the process of disassembling and cleaning one of them. Maybe this thread could be a place for share NS Oscar mods and tech support

Some parts are missing, for instance the 2-way solenoid + double fitting + L-fitting for the boiler fill part. Unfortunately, the NS distributor here has prohibitive prices, so I'm trying to find some generic ones...

Here is my problem: does anybody know what kind of thread they use? I'm going to buy the Oscar 2-way solenoid from Italy, but I don't know what thread is the fittings (so I can look for a similar double fitting and L-fitting here). I suspect that this particular two thread are BSP + o'ring...

Unfortunately the NS parts book doesn't specify if is NPT, BSP, BPST...

Thanks,

Márcio.

OK, I did some research and some measurement and I'm pretty sure everything on Oscar (and probably on most of Italian machines) are BSP.

The female, in general, is BSPP. The males on adaptors are in general tapered (BSPT) and some parts have an oring, so they are BSPP + oring...

I'm gonna upload some pictures of my hard work here soon...

Márcio.

Some pictures of the poor mistreated machine:


Dirty...


Gonna use the p-stat from the other machine (I've got two)


OMG! And it's a pod diffuser...


Oh boy, rusty frame...

Some cleaning is enough...


Before...


...and after Cafiza.


Before...


...and after citric acid. Could not take some parts off...

But for the frame the work was harder:


Removed the old paint and some rust...


And painted with Hammerite. Not an artist work but I think it will do. Wondering if I should paint over the good part.

I'm glad my dad lives in a house! It's hard to do this kind of stuff on a small apartment...

One question on the ABS plastic body... Does anybody know if this one should be white? Or the color of this old Oscars were "cream", yellowish ugly plastic already? It is pretty dirty and darker but I tried some sand paper and it doesn't look like it was white ever...

Should I paint it with some spray for plastic? We have a "Colorgin Plastic" spray from Sherwin Williams here in Brazil, but wonder if it will give a nice result...

Later,

Márcio.

Carneiro,
I'm horrified to see this hot mess! I sold a cream color Oscar last year and it was in pristine shape. Nothing like this.

I wish you luck and patience on this project.
C

So probably the color was cream... I don't like it As the external surface is in bad shape, maybe I'm gonna try a plastic primer and a paint over it. I wonder if the plastic primer could let the whole thing smooth or if I have to try some other stuff.

I'm back on this project. It went a while until I got other parts and had the time to assemble the machine...

Yesterday I decided the plastic body will receive some paint, so I assembled the machine without the plastic on my counter - that way I can test it and see if the connections are OK.

So, after some initial tests, I've seen the pstat is leaking, so for now I'm running it on an improvised PID setup. I have a minor leak at the group to expansion valve port I'll try to fix. But I think I have a micro leaking at the one of the HX connectors as sometimes I hear a hiss sound. Then, after a flush and wait, on the second flush I got some pauses between the water flow - could be air been sucked into the HX line? I'll try to reconnect the HX lines, as they are trick to fit perfectly.

I think I'll keep the PID setup, so I got to buy a TC to properly install at the 1/4 thread. Should I keep it high inside the boiler, where the steam are, or should I go down and touch the water?

Eric (who helped me with information about Loctite): the 567 is working fine on the BSPP thread, except on this thread at the group - a copper or teflon washer could do better there.

If anyone has some machine around to restore, do it! I'm learning A LOT from this process.

Márcio.

A video of the flush problem:
Is that normal? It happens only while flushing the water above the boiling temp...

Márcio.

I haven't used the Oscar, but judging from other HX espresso machines I've used, no, the pause is not normal. There could be an steam pocket developing in the HX line as you suggest.