Many who own 1st gen La Pavoni Europiccolas with a drip tray insert a 3rd generation drip tray. This prevents degrading the paint on the base that holds the drip grate. Anyone who's done this knows the fit is close but not exact, so the drip tray wobbles in the base. The old grates fit perfectly in the 3rd generation drip trays. This is an attempt with Sergey's (his handle here is ssh16) help to create a 3D printed drip tray that properly fits the drip tray in the 1st gen base. I can only guess that such a drip tray would also properly fit the early 2nd gen Europiccolas that had a steel cast base. For reference purposes, using Francesco Ceccarelli's classification of La Pavoni Europiccola versions, this drip tray would work for versions 1.4 (1964) through at least 1.7 (1974) and may work all the to version 2.2 (1983). 3rd gen (aka "Millennium") drip trays fit all of the machines with a stamped metal base. Here's the way a 3rd gen drip tray fits in a 1st gen machines.



This thread provides Sergey with photos and measurements to create a properly fitting drip tray for the early machines. Here are photos with measurements eyeballed from my 1964 La Pavoni Europiccola. This is the drip tray built into the base, front and side views.




The drip tray has a flat ledge.


The grate rests solidly on that ledge. It works for the 1964 aluminum grate in this photo and for the later steel grates shown in the first photo and available currently for any version.



The 3rd gen plastic drip tray wobbles because it is angled where it meets the ledge. A properly fitting version would be flat. The lip at the top is not where it rests on the ledge. I'm referring to the wider surface further in. Here are close-up and long views.





Here's my rough illustration of measurements, which I'll translate below for those who can't read my writing.



From the right, moving left, the depth from the top of the base to the ledge is 3mm. The width of the ledge is 10mm where it's in a straight run and at the corners. It's 12mm wide where it makes the turn to a straight run. The sides of the drip tray bowl below the ledge are 28mm long and are straight. The bottom of the bowl is 80mm wide and 68mm deep.

Sergey, please tell me if you need additional measurements, such as diagonals. I'm really glad to help make a properly fitting drip tray work for these old machines.

Exactly right. The early machines had no removable drip tray, so if you use them as designed, you get this! The green machine you saw at the top of my first post looked like this when it was first given to me. Notice how the original paint is preserved on the base everywhere but in the built-in drip tray.

Funny. I was thinking of that option too. It is the most elegant solution and would preserve the original appearance.

@ Everyone: I'm posting the fitting process for 3D printing so you can see how we're doing this.

Sergey,

Thank you for sending a PDF with templates for fitting. Before giving you the adjusted measurements with photos, my general impression is a proper fitting drip tray without ledge would be very similar to cutting out the ledge on a 3rd generation drip tray. Here are measurements with photos so you can eyeball this. As suggested I've adjusted by about a mm to make the fit slightly loose.

• Depth is 21 mm. This would give you slight clearance below the ledge.
  Dimension A is front to back. Bottom insert is 68 mm. Top width is 103 mm
  The angle of the bowl is less vertical than the templates.
  Dimension B is horizontally across the drip tray. The bottom insert would measure 78 mm across. The top of the tray would measure 113 mm across.

Here are photos for your review.

Top template in tray:


Top template fitting correction:


Bottom template in tray:


Bottom template under correctly fitted insert that was shown in tray:


Cutout for A template in tray:


B template in tray:

Here are revised inserts to show the fit, which is much better:

Section A-A fits perfectly.


Section B-B seems right too.


The top insert seems to have corners that are a bit too abrupt. A wider arc would fit better.


I'm not sure if this is meant to be the bottom insert. I guess it isn't, because of the perfect fit of A-A and B-B.