Hello Coffee Lovers
I would like to officially introduce my self, my name is Roberto and I live in Caracas Venezuela, although I already made a few questions here, I guess this is the correct time to post this note.
In the first week of February during a sleepless night I decided to get a household espresso machine in order to have some good shots for my self since I am the only coffee drinker in my family of four.
I was lucky enough to find this site and read many of your post, before take any purchase decision because I was walking the wrong path.
I soon realize that an espresso means equipment and that can be translate in dollar sings, so I decided to got a La Pavoni Europiccola. Lever, no pumps or high tech expensive features, vintage look, in short perfect to fulfill my desires, but (there is always a but) maybe a few of you already knows, Venezuela is going through the most difficult political and economic situation ever in the last fifty years with among other restrictions get foreign currency is almost impossible, thats why I did a local research just to find a Gaggia Orione two lever commercial machine cheap and can be paid in local currency and the price was the equivalent of about $350.
As a side note I would like to let you know a little bit about the Venezuela Coffee scene, by the end of the eighteen century Venezuela was one of the world most important producer and exporter of coffee beans recognized for it quality and due to the huge presence of italians immigrants, you could find and espresso machine in almost every corner of the country but amazingly the final product "a well served espresso" is hard to find, generally speaking. A new generation of coffee enthusiast are working to change that, starting with the recovery of the plantations of the beans that once upon a time make us famous around the globe.
Since this will be my first espresso machine ever I was afraid not to be up to the task of restore her by my self, that is why a former Gaggia technician toke care of the clean and tune up.
And this is what I purchased





And after some TLC this is what I got







Now I have my own espresso machine I need a space to placed her and I convinced the wife to start a project "a coffee/cigar bar" and this is what I did achieve until today.



It is an on-going project I still have to do some cosmetic and operating upgrades to the "machina" but after struggling with the machine installation, in short the house electrical grid can not handle the almost 30 Amps required for the two 1500 watts heating elements, a qualified electrician must come to see what is need it, in a meanwhile thanks to God and to the Gaggia engineers the machine also works with gas and here we are, finally she was fired up literally





As I told before this is a project in execution and I still have to look for a good grinder among other pieces of the equipment required to perform the job.
But tell me the true, who could resist to at least try to pull a shot after this saga, I made my self and look for my no capable grinder and grind some beans I use in on my daily dose of caffeine and did the best I could.
Of course I got no luck the results were the kind get with a coarse grinds, old beans and some malfunctions in the equipment.
I now for sure that one of the shower screens was replace with a hand made, yes a hand made one, let see what are we talking about





Watery, no cream at all, big volume and very hot.
That is the end of my very first attempt as a home barista please let me know what do you think about the whole history. I am here to learn.
Thanks to the braves that read the whole thing, I hope you also enjoy the trip

Que envidia! Me encanta la maquina.

Sadly in neighboring Colombia, we did not have as large an Italian migration as Venezuela, so finding vintage lever espresso machines is much harder

I'm sure with patience, a bit of research and most importantly with a good grinder, you'll eventually get great shots. Good luck!

This is a brave attempt on a great old machine. Congratulations on getting it cleaned up and heated with gas. And yes, you definitely need a good grinder and good, fresh coffee. Otherwise it is very easy to get a bad extraction with rapid flow and high volume. Back to your machine for a moment, what boiler pressure are you getting? This is important for managing temperature. Your pressure gauge may or may not be accurate. The pressure you show in your picture is about 0.8 bar, which would be low for this machine.

Great start! I note you have a crack in the weld seam between your group bulkhead and the boiler - I take it this isn't leaking ?
Your pressure should be closer to 1.2bar. What condition is your gas pressure-stat in ? Can it be adjusted?

One solution for your electrics would be to locate a custom heating element fabricator and get them to replace each element within your existing flanges with say 1100W each to bring the total draw back to 2000-2200W. This will make running within a domestic situation easier. Here's a example of the kind of service offered from a company here in UK - http://www.tpfay.co.uk/. With 2200W heating capacity the machine should take around 20min to come up to pressure. You may then want to consider modern pressure-stat, anti-vac valve etc. What condition is the existing pressure-stat in ?

Great post and beautiful machine! Love the coffee/cigar bar!

Hola Roberto!
really nice start!!
you definetly need a pro grinder and fresh roasted beans. and then.. keep trying!!!
About heaters: there is a simply and cheap solution: disconnect one of them, with only one 1500W heater working, water will need more time to raise its temperature and pressure, but you don't need to upgrade your home electric power!
Or, if the machine has a pressurestat (hope so), you can ignite it by gas and then keep on pressure with one heater.

Only a question: do you have opened the steam knob when the boiler got pression (to let the air out from the boiler)? This is a fundamental operation you have to do each time you power on the machine.

Hasta pronto,
Davide

Welcome to the group! It is great to see good espresso enthusiasts from all corners of the earth. As others have said you need to locate a decent grinder. Good coffee for you should not be hard. I look forward to updates on the progress made in you coffee and cigar bar. I have very much the same desires here but my coffee stuff resides in the kitchen while my humidors are scattered around the house.

Thank you guys for the welcome and encourage words, I must said that this thing of having a commercial espresso machine at home is in fact more challenging that I had in mind when I got the machine but it is easy is not fun at all.
For all of you that mention the grinder as an essential part of the picture yes I am in the process of getting one, the thing is that I started to look for a grinder of the same era of the machine that I guess is circa 1970, by the way if any one can help me dating the machine feel free to show you up. Back to the grinder, I found a Quickmill but after an inspection I conclude it was out of shape and beyond a practical rebuild, I am now negotiating a Faema grinder, newer than the machine but still with certain age and personality.
The fact is than I can afford a new quality grinder and so I am in the search of the one that suit my needs.
Talking about the energy needs I bit the bullet and hired an electrician who I hope will resolve my energy needs as well as the proper installation of the wife new oven I had to find as a compensation for my new toy , in this way I will capable of run the machine with gas, electricity or dual. But thinking about my first trial with the gas was pretty well in about half of an hour I got 1.5 bars of pressure, that was in the higher side, I was instructed in the fact that I must open the steam valve after achieve 1.2 bars in order to stabilized the boiler, I guess I did not perform the procedure in the right way but I was on my own the first time, as soon I have some time I will try in the proper way.
I guess I answered all your questions, I will be posting soon some news, please be patient and enjoy some coffee in a meanwhile.

Roberto