1962 Faema Urania Refurb [Finished] - Page 5

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toots
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#41: Post by toots »

A big congratulations for the very nice restauration! Whaw you sure did a great effort in building up that machine to its former glory. In my early career (2000-2010) i used to work for faema. I never had a lever machine repair as they ran out of fashion. I did the full automatic machines x5, x3, x53 and ofcourse the normal hx with electronic counter. The X3 (cimbali M3) did a good job in trying to come close to your machine, but theres nothing but the real originale. Very nice! Congratulations!

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

Thanks Dirk.

I came back to this guy for the last thing missing from the project, and that is replacing the neon light. The original one was burned out and damaged so I was able to convince Paul Pratt that I would not fry myself and sell me two of his neon lights, one yellow and one red. The latter one will be for the Marte if I get around to that. I got a 5Kv 30mA transformer from Tech 22, model Gen3-5K30. With shipping the transformer was about $63, not much more than the cheapies I found on Amazon but probably of considerably higher quality.





Before installing the light I took off the brackets and glass supports and cleaned up the back panel + brackets. Originally the light was directly wired via two clips and a mounting screw on each bracket. With high voltage involved that seemed a little sus so for the new light I also purchased some Tecnolux boots to make sure no wiring was exposed.





I installed the little transformer via an L bracket to one of the glass panel supports. There is a ground cable that is also placed on the mounting bracket and has a little spade terminal connector installed. Tech 22 is nice in that they answered my technical questions quickly, and confirmed with them that as I installed the equipment it will be safe electrical-wise and will run without issue in the warmer environment near the boiler (everything at minimum is rated for 105C working temp). The boots ensure that no metal contact occurs with the high voltage circuit. Turning on the light with the glass panel installed was a pretty cool thing to see.






My only comment is maybe I could have selected a slightly higher current transformer but it looks pretty good as is to be honest. 40 and 50 mA transformers would have to be custom ordered and I decided just to try 30 mA to err on the safe side. With this last big step done and testing it for a few months now I am marking this project as finished.

-Ryan
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Marcelnl
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#43: Post by Marcelnl »

looks great!

Was the gold trim looking as pristine as it does now or did you use some trick to revamp it? Mine has some pitting and corrosion spots I can live with yet at the same time...when I can upgrade the looks I might.
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IamOiman (original poster)
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#44: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

I didn't touch it, I left it as is so what you see is all original
-Ryan
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Marcelnl
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#45: Post by Marcelnl replying to IamOiman »

WOW, amazing condition!
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#46: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

The La San Marco 69 at this point has been the daily driver for 5 months. It's a wonderful machine to use despite its big size, but now it is time for a changing of the guard.

For the zodiac groups they easily get clogged at the stock shower screen, so I did a pre use cleaning and relube of the group. After adding new water I flushed half a liter of water to cycle out the old stuff. I am going to pull some test shots and treat it as if it is already on my timer, but so far it still behaves as expected.




-Ryan
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IamOiman (original poster)
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#47: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

Ok I am just done with the stock shower screen. I did not have any spare E61 screens so I stole the one off of my Mercurio and will replace it later (note older Faema machines pre zodiac group and Gaggia levers can fit the E61 screen without mods). I basically went through the steps of widening the ID of the IMS shower screen with a double basket as desribed here How to fit an E61 shower screen on a Zodiaco / Futurmat / Lambro / President group.

I noted that when the pf gasket was too large of an OD, it looked a little conical in shape, so I guestimated the correct size when I saw the pf gasket being perpindicular with the table surface. I just cut the gasket with a deburr tool. It is a little tighter fit for the pf (I lock in a little sooner) but I got it to fit. Hopefully it works well.






-Ryan
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#48: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

There was something that was in the back of my head as I used the Urania over the last few days. Even though I serviced the group and made sure no blockages were present in the group, I found myself having inconsistent preinfusion, where sometimes I got the expected flow when drawing water from the boiler but other times received much less volume in my shot than expected.

After giving it some thought, I realized I remember the little one way/shutoff ball in the little fitting that threads into the bottom of the group neck had an odd spring. Normally, the spring that holds the ball seat can wrap around the bottom of this seat, securing it from moving around too much during operation and keeping the ball and seat in the correct position. However, upon inspecting the spring I realized it did not fit around the ball seat and was pushing that seat in an odd position that I believe is the culprit of my odd preinfusion inconsistency. I had to dig around a bit but I did have a spare spring that actually does fit, and now I am getting much better flow into the group. The little spring is only supposed to keep the seat and ball perpendicular to the inlet hole above it. The shutoff rod below the seat (where the bottom of the spring pushes against) is what actually allows the group to be shutoff if desired.


Original, too small OD spring is on the left, and the correct spring with the seat is on the right



I also forgot to note but I used the wrong o-ring for the shutoff rod. It is not the 02012 3.69 mm x 1.78 that I originally used. It is 4.9 x 1.9mm. I got a similar viton one 4.8 x 1.9 here https://www.oringsandmore.com/fkm-o-rin ... um-10-pcs/
-Ryan
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#49: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

I got sick and tired of the old replacement steam wand due to its sputtering. I got a new modern wand that fits the 3/8" BSP thread without issue. It works much better and looks more like the original wand. It is the exact same wand I used on my Marte, but is the 'left' handed one. Part number is Nuova Ricambi Cod. 504002.

-Ryan
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#50: Post by IamOiman (original poster) »

Once again I am here to show how some issues only pop up after prolonged use of a machine. On all my daily drivers, I check every so often the interior and under the drip tray for anything that looks off. Popping off the drip tray this evening yielded some toasty connectors that go to my power switch. Considering I use connectors of the same style inside the machine that can be over 100F for prolonged use and are not burned in any way indicated to me that something got hot at the switch, and was hot for a long time. My suspected culprit is the switch itself, rated for 15A. The switch may have been too close to its rated current that resulted in this issue, so as a first attempt to fix it I upgraded the switch to a 25A switch and redid the terminal connectors. I would be very surprised if the connectors are my issue because I have never had any connectors fail in this manner, especially four of them in the same spot. It's not impossible though. Maybe one terminal was bad and was affecting the others (the toastiest one being the source)



Besides that issue I inspected the boiler for any leaks or weeping, and so far nothing looks out of the ordinary, ring terminal connectors included that were not connected to the switch.



-Ryan
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