Exciting update! It sounds like we are getting very close to seeing a completed prototype in action

Awesome update!!

bidoowee wrote:Yup - you are absolutely right. I just read his thread on the restoration. Great work!
So the US Termozona was/is really a re-brand.

From what I gather, it's likely an export model modified & rebranded for the US market. I have the same 'Termozona' version (just branded a Brugnetti Aurora) with the same case design but in 240V. I noted in Dr Jim's evaluation thread that the Aurora has a pink fiber glass insulation on the casing (mine doesn't) and a pivotting steam arm (mine has an annoying fixed arm which I promptly replaced with a swivel arm!). Your Aurora design seems to appear in Europe more frequently (I was scouring through a lot of threads previously ) - so probably a Europe version? Was your Aurora originally imported from the Europe?

pootoogoo wrote:What is peculiar with the Brugnetti Aurora (on that specific reproduced model) is that the HX is a large pipe attached to the flange, ....This ensures a lower water temperature of the extraction...

+1 I measured the temperature on my Aurora (with both a homemade and an official Scace), the temperature never get above boiling so it does work as intended!

bidoowee wrote:Yup - you are absolutely right. I just read his thread on the restoration. Great work!
So the US Termozona was/is really a re-brand.

Thanks for the kudos...however, I bow to the (bidoowee) sensei.
Again, happy to provide details/pics of my Aurora Brugnetti. I agree with Samuel an awesome machine.
Cheers, TY

Time to put the group together!

Last time I installed piston rings it took me a couple of hours and there were chopsticks, screwdrivers and swearing involved. With that experience in mind I came up with this little device to take the hassle out of the task. The thin lip at the bottom that fits over the outer diameter of the group is very fragile and will eventually have to be replaced with some metal but now I can put on a set of seals with my bare hands in 30 seconds!





Now it is really time to put the group together.

Having spending hours faffing around with threaded rods and myriad nuts and washers the last few times around, this time I decided use the milling machine vise to compress the spring.



Spring compressed and pin in place.



First completed assembly from new parts!



Everything works as it should, but I don't have any more pictures, for reasons that will become clear below.

Compressing the spring with the milling vise worked but it was only marginally faster than the threaded rod method and, more importantly, it means that all work has to be done with the assembly in the vise. Furthermore, the pin had to be driven into place with no support behind the cam - a very, very bad idea as I found out when I broke the fork while I was disassembling it.

So what did we learn? One, that it isn't a good idea to do anything on Fridays at 5. Two, don't use the milling vise to compress the spring. Three, that the 8mm off-the-shelf knurled pin that I found just doesn't cut it. First, I could only find 8x30 and the missing 2mm that aren't holding the spring makes me nervous and second, the extra millimeter in diameter makes the difference between the pin clearing the top of the bearing plate posts or not - making installation harder. This is a pain as the 7x32 pin that Brugnetti used is emphatically non-standard. They had some factory make 10,000 of them and forgot about the problem - which I guess is what I will do too .

Arcus, that's the cleanest workstation I've ever seen!

walt_in_hawaii wrote:Arcus, that's the cleanest workstation I've ever seen!

Hey, I clean up and Arcus gets the credit? No fair!


After my slight misadventure with the cam, it became clear to me that there comes a time in everyone's life (ok, maybe not everyone), when it is time to build a press. Today's post is about turning this into that.

The "this" in this case are mostly parts that I took out of my mill when I was converting it to CNC.



The two key ingredients here are the thrust bearing (for transferring axial load)...



...and the trapezoidal thread lead screw. I'm also going to reuse the giant bushing (with the blue paint on it). The bearing and the bushing were used to move the head of the mill (which weighs about 250lbs) up and down the column, so they are hefty enough for the job I want them for.



The bearing used to sit inside the bushing at the top of the mill column with the weight of the head (and the 1HP motor) hanging on it, so the first job is to flip the bushing around so that it can be used to push instead of pull.



There are a pair of perpendicular tapered dowel pins holding the steel bearing seat to the end of the lead screw, one of which I am reusing to hold a new brass nut (I also cut off part of the end of the lead screw journal to provide space for the nut).



The plastic spacer sits at the bottom of the hole in the bushing and draws the bearing seat and the bearing tight to the back.



The business end!





Now we make a series of holes in a piece of 1" steel pipe (which is painted and looks suspiciously like it may have come from a pipe clamp, which is odd because I don't have any pipe clamps, so sorry to whoever it was that lent it to me, you can't have it back now)...





...and weld on a couple of threaded end caps.





Now it is time for the base, which is a square piece of 5/16" mild steel plate.



The crossbar is made from some super-duper 2" stainless square tubing...



... which is drilled to receive the outside diameter of the tubing at the extremities and the lead screw in the middle.



Then I flip the tube and cross-drill for the 1/2" pins that will hold the crossbar.



The lead nut that used to attached the head of the mill to the screw is an exceedingly rough iron casting. My disgust with the quality was such that I didn't take photos of the "before", before I cleaned it up to fit inside the crossbar.



Now it fits nicely inside the square tubing.



The finished frame.



Then I cut the screw in half because it is way too long as is. Definitely no going back now.





Add a new journal to the cut end...



...cut a flat...



...and put one of the old manual control wheels from the mill table on the end.



I made a quick adapter for the cam bracket and (messy work space aside)...



...we have achieved 100% compression.

Magic!

Very nice!

Btw, I can't take any credit for the messy work space

Any time you want to come and clean up you just let me know

I'd prefer to come by and taste the espresso from the working prototype