Hi there

I have just complete the restoration of a Faema E61 legend 2 groups.





So after 6 months of hard working as I have disassembled it completely, cleaned it up, replaced some components, I have finished the job and it is now working. The only thing that I'm still struggling to is milk froathing. Basically the steam wand has a 4 holes tip which is good for steaming something like 1 L of milk but it's no good if you have to do 1 cappuccino or maybe 2 as I'm using it at home (OK I know it's insane, this is intended to be used in a bar but it was so nice I decide to use at home, I have made some simple mods to make it usable at home!). I have also seen that here there is a thread where Steam tip recommendations for Faema two-group someone experience my very same problem.

Anyway I think that I need a 2 holes tip, anyone know where I can get one compatible?

Im not sure where you can get the right tip but you could experiment by blocking 2 holes in your existing tip! Sounds crazy but a toothpick jammed in is a reversible way to try it out and see!

machine looks great by the way!!

Hi
Thanks for answering! If you look close to the first image you will notice that I have already done it!

Could you not just find a acorn nut with the proper thread and drill a single hole through the middle ?

The original idea came from our dearly departed inhouse chemist and hobbyist metal lathe worker, Robert R Pavlis.

Weak Steam Output on a La Pavoni

I don't think that this is my case because over there the problem was lime deposit, I have have just finished clean up every component of the machine, including the steam section. Also I'm using a BWT filter.

Hi!

I have just changed the tip on the steam wand with one which have just 2 holes. I have also lowered the boiler pressure from 1.1 bar to 0.9 bar. Anyway, even if now the steam is more manageable, I can't reach a decent milk frothing as I obtain micro foam just on the surface of the milk while the majority of the milk remain liquid. Any suggestions?

No one?

It would help if you posted a video of your steaming routine. Steaming is a delicate art and much of the outcome is found in the balance between how much time is spent stretching the milk vs heating and incorporating the microfoam.

Also important is to have the right sized pitcher. You want the milk level to be roughly half the capacity of the pitcher so the milk has room to grow but is deep enough to get a good vortex going when heating and incorporating the microfoam. Too small a pitcher and you can't manage the expansion, too large and you can't differentiate between stretching near the surface and heating towards the bottom 3rd of the milk level.

I have no experience with your machine, but it's a safe assumption that steaming capacity/velocity should be a non-issue.

Cheers!

- Jake

Hi there!

The actual condition are:

- Pressure 0,9 Bar
- 2 holes steam tip (hole of 1,2 mm diameter)

Sorry for my delay in reply, here it's a video (even if it's not that clear, my bad). Here the video (use internet explorer to open!):

View My Video

http://it.tinypic.com/r/imlcg7/9

So I have lowered the pressure from 1,1 bar to 0,9 and changed the tip, it's better but as you can see from the video, the steam outlet still seems to me pretty too much powerfull and not manageable as it keep being very unstable. What do you say?

Of course the boiler it's 12 L so when it turns at 0,9 bar we are discssuing of a great amount of steam (in comparison to the 0,3 L of milk we can talk of a infinite source of steam).