Hi All

I've started restoring a number of early La Pavoni machines all from the early to mid 70s. Fortunately all the twin heating elements are working so I will restore them to their original state at this time. I am aware that replacing there twin element screw on element bases is difficult, so with that in mind I was wondering if it is possible to replace the original boiler to base flange ( either the earlier brass one or the later fragile pot metal one) with a fine thread brass flange with the three holes to secure the latter single element units. Unless someone else has tried this I suppose the only way to find out if there is still enough thread left to take the screw on base is to try it myself. This bring me to my next question, where can I find a brass flange with the fine thread. I intend making these myself, however it would be easier if I had one to work from.

CG

Hello,
If I understand correctly your question, you want to preemptively replace the flange that secures the boiler to the base of your 70-74 EP's with a late seventies to premillennium three hole flange... But you want to keep the old thread on double coil heating element.
Ratio would be, if the original thread on HE burns, it's easy to replace it with a current three hole single coil HE.
Sorry, not going to happen. The three hole flange is about two times and a half thicker than the original, and there will not be enough thread left for the old style HE.
Actually, there almost is not enough threads on the 1970-74 machines to accommodate the newer HE even when a new flange is installed, unless a small trick is used.
However, if you intend to manufacture the flange yourself, you could build it out of a much stronger material, such as stainless steel, and maybe it could be thinner and still be compatible with both the new HE and the original.

Hi
Yes your right,not one of my best ideas.I'll just make up some flanges with the finer thread and use them
with the newer elements if required.

Thanks

tr6greig wrote:I'll just make up some flanges with the finer thread and use them
with the newer elements if required.

If you do, you might want to make a few extras and offer some for sale. Fine thread three hole flanges are hard to find and not cheap. A while back a number of them went fairly quickly on eBay at $45+ (buy-now price of $55 US.) In another post, Franco identified a couple current online sources:

pizzagri, Oct 27, 2014, in Building the Ultimate La Pavoni Europiccola - Page 2 wrote:La Pavoni Brass Boiler Flange, part no. 31104704 - note this is the 1.25mm "fine" thread flange.
You may have to dig around for this part. Sources I know of include:
- Italy, Lamacchinadelcaffe.com (send an email to Mr. Kimeo, at info@lamacchinadelcaffe.com), it's the original Pavoni part and costs 48 Euro,
- Germany, Coffemaker (http://www.coffeemaker-spareparts.com/L...:4273.html)
it's a newly manufactured compatible and costs 29 Euro.

*Edit addition: Just noticed that you're in Scotland. May be easier for you to just buy that one from Germany. 29 Euro seems like a decent price considering the effort and cost of making one.