Smoothing out E61 brew lever movement
-
- Posts: 25
- Joined: 11 years ago
I've had my Vetrano going on 12 months now. The brew lever has always had rough travel and it was always difficult to get it to go from pre-infusion position to brew position. It always "stuck" a little.
We have very hard water where I live and I installed a Chris' Coffee water softener system when I bought the Vetrano. I decided to check the mushroom for scale and service the entire brew group. The good news is that the water softener system is doing it's job well. No scale.
As I inspected the valve push rods and the lever cam, I did notice that the brass contact parts were never polished. There were also a few raised, rough places. I believe that I found my rough spot in the lever travel!
I got out my Micro-Mesh set and polished the brass pushrod ends and lever to a mirror shine. I serviced the seals and re-assembled. The brew lever travels very smoothly now.
I thought I would share my experience, just in case there are others out there with stiff/rough brew lever travel on E-61 machines.
Here is the Micro-Mesh I used:
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/p/3/- ... ishing-Kit
And pics:
(sorry, I did not take pictures of the polished ends of the pushrods)
Here you can see the rough brass
1/2 way through polish job
Polishing Complete
We have very hard water where I live and I installed a Chris' Coffee water softener system when I bought the Vetrano. I decided to check the mushroom for scale and service the entire brew group. The good news is that the water softener system is doing it's job well. No scale.
As I inspected the valve push rods and the lever cam, I did notice that the brass contact parts were never polished. There were also a few raised, rough places. I believe that I found my rough spot in the lever travel!
I got out my Micro-Mesh set and polished the brass pushrod ends and lever to a mirror shine. I serviced the seals and re-assembled. The brew lever travels very smoothly now.
I thought I would share my experience, just in case there are others out there with stiff/rough brew lever travel on E-61 machines.
Here is the Micro-Mesh I used:
http://www.woodturnerscatalog.com/p/3/- ... ishing-Kit
And pics:
(sorry, I did not take pictures of the polished ends of the pushrods)
Here you can see the rough brass
1/2 way through polish job
Polishing Complete
LMWDP 702
-
- Posts: 68
- Joined: 11 years ago
I have the Quickmill Alexia with a rough spot or two on the lever. Silicone grease didn't help at all but now that I see your photos, I try to polish the cam.
I suspect that the micro-switch button position is a bit off (too low) on my unit as well for holding the lever at pre-infusion by itself.
Thanks for the tip.
Dave
I suspect that the micro-switch button position is a bit off (too low) on my unit as well for holding the lever at pre-infusion by itself.
Thanks for the tip.
Dave