1957 Faema Marte 53mm group [Finished] - Page 6

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IamOiman (original poster)
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#51: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

I reapplied the loxeal and waited for a few days to let it cure fully before turning on the Marte this morning. So far today I have not observed any leaks from any of the valves, although the pstat pipe will need a little tightening as I saw it hiss a little. The group sleeve looks buttoned up now too, but I saw a tiny bit of water escape from the piston. Just a few drops, and it appears that the leak went away as the group heated up and pressurized, causing the upper v seal to flare out fully. I also managed to get enough height on the machine to fit the hot water knob. It's still a very tight fit.




With the machine mostly buttoned up I decided to pull a shot with a bottomless portafilter and my preferred basket (the stock double basket provided by Bosco). I used the same grind setting as my Lambro upstairs with the same dose. Let's say it went a little better this time 8) . The spring definitely has good strength to it.




Once I am confident the machine is fully leak free I will add the body panels and wrap up the project hopefully!
-Ryan
Using a spice grinder violates the Geneva Convention
LMWDP #612

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IamOiman (original poster)
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#52: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

After one additional week of testing/heat cycles I am confident enough to button up the machine. And I gotta say, it just takes my breath away looking at it. Pics will never do these machines justice, they just look so good in person. It was actually a bit of a pain to install the grille pieces due to the machine being flush to the table surface. I had to prop the machine on wood blocks to reach under it and install the screws for the grille pieces, and I also had to align the top bracket piece so all the pieces fit together. After some adjusting I managed to align the panels such that I could install all the body panels without too much interference. There is still some adjusting to do, but it is all worth it.











At this point I have a few comments about how the Marte behaves.

At about 4-5 liters filled the machine takes about 22 minutes to reach operational pressure from cold. It takes about 75-90 minutes from cold to fully warm the grouphead and pull espresso without flushing the group. At this time I can get a good duty cycle with all the panels installed, where the machine is off for about 210 seconds and heats up for 40 seconds, a 16% duty cycle. This indicates to me the machine is not leaking much if at all.

Steaming with the stock wand is atrocious and not recommended. It is the old design with lots of holes, spitting milk everywhere, so I will be using a modern steam tip instead. You can see the hot water wand tip with seven holes on the left on a prior pic above, that is the same style the steam wand uses


I can still lock in a modern portafilter at about 4 o clock, and I do like using those since they have the basket clip. However when splitting shots I will try to use the original portafilter, partially because the modern double spout is a little low to the drip tray (not Lambro low, but pretty low) compared to the shallower original spout.

Espresso: Exceptional 8)

I am marking this project as finished, and will make any necessary adjustments if long term problems appear, or if I want to make small changes. For example, this machine never had a neon light, Martes that had a light installed also had a second hole in the skirt for the cabling unlike mine next to the power cable, so I will be keeping it without one installed for now. However there are holes on the backpiece where the light is supported to allow me to insert one maybe in the future.
-Ryan
Using a spice grinder violates the Geneva Convention
LMWDP #612

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IamOiman (original poster)
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#53: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

I got a few small extras done and did some additional testing that focused more on convenience than functionality. The first thing I did was acquire two longer machine screws that secure two vertical bracket pieces against the backsplash. I've been looking around online to research more about old JIS threads on the Marte that switched over to the international standards in 1967, and I found a supplier local to me (Belmetric in Massachusetts) that actually sells the nuts for JIS 4 x 0.75mm and screws for JIS 5 x 0.9mm. The latter is what I needed for the brackets. I placed an order for two of the screws because the ones that come with the machine are way too short to thread in. Unfortunately the site does not currently have the 4 x 0.75mm screws in stock but they did inform me that Japan still does produce these old JIS extra coarse threads if anyone needs 2000 of them. They are a bit longer than necessary but I am very happy with them.




The other task was installing a modern steam wand to replace the old school one that violently spilled milk everywhere. I use the following parts to achieve the conversion. No modification was necessary to adapt the assembly to the Marte's valve since it is a 3/8 BSPP thread
https://sproparts.com/en/product/749-ri ... -faema-e61
https://sproparts.com/en/product/1075-c ... m-hex-24mm
https://sproparts.com/en/product/3589-t ... -san-marco
https://sproparts.com/en/product/3633-w ... -san-marco
10 x 2.5mm o-ring, silicone
DOW 111 grease

The results are great so far.



-Ryan
Using a spice grinder violates the Geneva Convention
LMWDP #612

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