Mark,

Great job so far! Looking forward to seeing the machine exterior chrome polished and some shots of fresh espresso pouring forth. Where the old info plate on the front of the machine is riveted. Could the beautiful Elektra emblem on the back be repainted and moved to the front? If there is room and it looks like it belongs,why not! Everyone thinks it's a shame they can't display both sides of the A3 on their counter. The smaller size emblem on the front of my Elektra Micro Casa a Leva looks outstanding from the factory. Keep posting those pics...

Tim356

I've now used up a pound of citric acid and the inside of the tank is still not spot less. Many places with thick black scale still. Mind you it also has some area of copper too.

For the frame, I stuck it in the sink and washed it with very hot water and cleaning powder. Dried it off and then I scraped off every bit of rust and lightly sanded it. I then applied a light coat of glossy rustolium spray paint. Left it to dry in the sun. It's not perfect but it is certainly good enough.



Having stripped it to pieces the tray design is pretty weak. It has a crack where the copper tube connects to it. In addition, it has a through screw that connects the frame to the plastic tray. If/when water leaks behind and under the tray, the screw can rust and the foot can also rust. Since the front chrome frame is held on by the foot and you can't get the plastic tray off without removing the foot you have problems. Luckily there was enough space for the straw on the WD-40 spray to get in there.



Mark

Zin1953:
You'll love this machine, it's a really well built system but I guess you know that. Feed it soft water! I'm so convinced that you need to feed an espresso machine softened water. (As I keep cleaning the scale off the inside of my tank).

zin1953 wrote:;^)
... for over $4,000, it was time to jump now or forever wish that I had . . .

I"ll have to tell my wife that my investment is already paying off. She may not exactly see it that way since I took over the kitchen to clean up the machine over the weekend. Parts of the dining room have parts on the floor and the dining room table is occupied by tools and more parts. Luckily I make her latte every morning.

Heating element is almost all clean, just a bit of scale left near the top of the unit.



The parts from Stefano's showed up yesterday. Quick delivery! Anyone know how to rebuilt a steam wand? (Ack I only order parts for one of them, time to order some more parts).

Mark

Very carefully, I have done other wand types but not the ball valve on the Elektra. There are some springs in there, you don't want to launch parts or lose the springs.

Mark
In one of "it seemed like a good deal at the time" ebay moments I picked up two complete steam valves for a T1. So if you have any problems or are just looking for a spare let me know. The valves I have both have steam wands on them but I think you can just switch on a hot water wand if you need.
Gregg

The entire case is lightly scratched with polishing marks from years of cleaning, really hard to take a picture of too...

Anyone know if the front lower part that holds the control panel is stainless steel or chrome plating? A magnet doesn't stick so I think it's stainless.

Which leads to the question: How does one polish stainless steel?

I'm thinking some kind of electric buffing wheel and some kind of polishing compound. Please feel free to suggest methods and brand names of stuff since I've never done this before.
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Mark

mhoy wrote: Which leads to the question: How does one polish stainless steel?

I'm thinking some kind of electric buffing wheel and some kind of polishing compound. Please feel free to suggest methods and brand names of stuff since I've never done this before.
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Mark

Mark, if it is a stainless steel then all you need is a sandpaper and a lot of time. I do not know about Elektra but many machines are made of 304 steel which is very easy to work with. You can start with 220 or 320 grit paper (depending on how deep the initial scratches are) then continue with 400, 600, 1000 (it will start to shine at this point) and finish with 2000. The idea is to move from coarser to finer sandpaper, on every step the current grit will remove the scratches made by previous one and leave finer scratches instead. When you are at 2000 grit the steel will shine like a mirror. You can find all grits of paper on ebay or check your local Home Depot or other similar store for coarse paper (up to 600) and auto parts store (PepBoys, Kragen, etc) for 1000-3000 paper. You can also buy a small buffing wheel that can be mounted on the electric drill and polishing compound at Sears or Home Depot. In this case you can skip 1000 and 2000 paper, but if you have visible scratches you will have to start with coarse sandpaper anyway, because most of the polishing compounds are too fine to remove those scratches.

mhoy wrote:Yep descaling is in order. While browsing the HOW-TOS I didn't see a definitive guide. I'd like to read up on how strong to make the citric acid solution, guides to how long to leave it, heated solution vs cold, etc.

The following works for me. Others might have different preferences.

Make sure parts are free from grease and oil by cleaning with a degreaser, I use an automotive one. Soak scaled parts in a 10% acid solution. Have the water as hot as possible, this greatly speeds things up. Leave parts until all scale has dissolved. This may take a week. Rotate large parts in the solution periodically to ensure even action. After this, rinse in clean water to remove acid residue. When dry, run your finger along the surfaces. If you get a chalky residue, repeat the process.

These days I use a heated ultrasonic bath to do the above. Small bits like valves can be brought back to new finish in under an hour. For things like boilers, I use a 55L plastic tub.

EDIT; well, aren't I late to the party I typed the above before reading the whole thread. Silly. Anywho, you are rocketing along. All the best for the most fun bit - turning on for the first time.

SL: Sand paper I could do, but an electric buffer seems like a less work on something that is going to be a whole lot of work.

Paul: Thanks for the advice, I'm particularly happy to hear that leaving stuff in citric acid for a week is OK since I'm at day 6 already. The boiler is show is showing a lot of copper color now with patches of black. As to a degreaser, I'm relunctant to use an automotive one since I'll be drinking out of this thing. I've used Cafiza on the outsides of things but haven't really dipped things in it.

I may borrow my wife's ultrasonic cleaner for a bit and re-clean some of the pipes since I can't actually see inside them. However it's not a large cleaner so the larger pipes won't fit. Hmmm, probably perfect for the steam wand which I'll start on this weekend.

Mark

mhoy wrote:SL: Sand paper I could do, but an electric buffer seems like a less work on something that is going to be a whole lot of work.

2 words: orbital sander.... or alternately, belt sander. I like the orbitals best. They will save you a lot of time, but I think that, from what I have read about polishing stainless (never done that, only rough-sanded aluminum), you may want to use an orbital sander up to 1000 grit and then buff it the rest of the way. Of course, that is only if you have bad scratches. They are a serious pain to get out, I can imagine. They were on my old Mazzer Super Jolly (which was aluminum), and stainless is a good bit tougher than that, I would think.