After a long time lurking on this forum and being inspired by the very many threads, I took the plunge and decided to make a project out of refurbishing a lever. First a tour of the machine:

This is a 1957 2nd gen Urania - mid generation single group. It has a 1st gen thermosiphon group, 9-bolt boiler, brown bakelite, red front glass, and water spout to the right of the manometer over the drip tray which has the 3-diamond grill pattern. The boiler serial (13387), and manometer dates (57-12) checked out against the database. I believe this is an export version of the Urania based on the lack of ANCC number and date on the boiler tag - also, the 270v spec is a head scratcher - it would be great to understand that one better if someone knows. Despite that, it was found on the border of Tuscany in Umbria, my father's home province, so it either made its way back to Italy, or curiously never left.

Based on pictures, it looked very complete. I was looking for as many original parts as possible and trying to avoid unobtainium or odd replacement parts. I noted some of the original parts to watch out for based on all of the research I was able to do with the help of the many awesome posts here: the cup warmer plexi and sliding mechanism (with little red knob), bakelite consistency of water, vapor, lever, and portafilter handles, drip tray, manometer, back glass, neon, feet, boiler fittings, and electrics.

From the photos I poured over, the boiler flange and bolts looked ok. Since this is my first project, I was pretty concerned about getting one that had a ton of visible rust since I don't have a lot of experience and I know it would be a challenge to disassemble. I really wanted to avoid brazing/soldering/cutting bolts since I'd for sure need to get expert help. I knew photos could only tell a partial story - so I had to make my peace with the visual inspection and deal with the reality once in hand.

Now for the bad news - I was a bit worried with the amount of rust and corrosion on the body. A lot of the chrome parts are in pretty rough shape, and I know I can't polish this away. I'm willing to live with this situation, as the machine is nearly 65 years old, and it should build character. If one day it really bothers me, I'd go the extra mile and rechome it - but it shouldn't technically detract from the machine's ability to make an espresso.

I'll add posts of my progress as I work through this project.

The first order of business has been to strip everything down to the frame.

Most fittings came off the boiler and frame without too much trouble. The only bolt casualties so far have been the right element bolt on the flange - it was pretty rusted, and two screws that held the skirts to the frame. I haven't yet gotten to the boiler bolts, but I've been adding a few drops of liquid wrench every few days for the past few weeks in the hopes they wont give me trouble when I do get to them.

The bolts on the cup warmer are very rusted. I'm going to treat them with a liquid wrench for a long while before I attempt to disassemble and clean. I don't want to mess up the plexiglass.

The drip tray is also very rusted... its not visible, so I'm not too worried, but I will think about how to deal with that one.

The bottom of the sight glass came apart easily (the glass was broken at the bottom under the seal - i don't think I caused it, but I'm not sure). The top seal was fused to the glass and I had to pick it apart bit by bit, and it took way too long.

I made a boneheaded error on the steam knob thinking it popped off before I realised it screwed off... In hindsight, it's so obvious given the build quality that nothing would be 'popping off.' The two divots should have also clued me in, and I'm pretty annoyed with myself for that one. I'm hoping some crazy glue will sort this one. Oh well.

The frame isn't in terrible shape - some rust which I cleaned off, I think I will skip a powder coating for now. The skirts and all major body panels were cleaned and polished as much as I could. I reattached them to the frame so I can stare at it and think about if it is good enough while I work on the harder bits.

definitely! I owe you many thanks for your guidance.

I just DM'd him - not sure how to poke on threads yet.

I have the broken off steam wand part, and fixing that without just replacing it is on my list as a sidequest

Thanks for the thanks.
My pleasure.

I hope the spring is stillok because finding a new one could be a challenge.

That is a really nice and original machine. Your patience and due diligence has paid off. The front panels were made from steel, as you can see mine was in terrible shape.





Mine has the larger boiler, same group. Parts are simple, but IIRC the 9 hole boiler end plate is unusual. I have a few Lambro's with that. The brown bakelite is also unusual on a later Urania like this.

The Zodiaco spring at their site had different dimensions from the spring in my machine the last time I checked.
At the moment I'm using the stock one.
These are three others.


All slightly different.I haven' t been able to get an exact replica yet.
I measured different strength in all three of them .
One is way too strong,one too soft and one should be exactly right.