So, uh, I may have found another machine, an Aussie Boema 2 group. The catch is there are no portafilters and a lever is missing. The latter can be dealt with by making a reproduction, but the portafilters are a bigger issue as I am not certain it is a standard ear design. My question is if anybody knows whether there is a modern portafilter that can be adapted for the Boema group. I know there are many seals from Astoria/CMA and others that fit the machine otherwise.

The only reason I am interested in this machine in the first place as it's the only one I have seen outside of Australia. I just hope it's not like the 3-ear Pavoni pf in terms of unobtanium.

Hi Ryan, first port of call would be Boema themselves, still operating in Sydney, Australia - https://www.boema.com.au/

They have a surprising range of gaskets and spares for their older gear. If no success there try the Aussie Coffeesnobs forum I know you are a I've on. Good luck

I got some more pictures today, and I got confirmation it is a Boema 110V machine (?!). I think my offer price just went lower after seeing them

The boiler lid + heating element is missing, along with one half of the aluminum rings in addition to the other missing pieces. I think at this point I have found a challenge project machine that if I cannot complete now I can hopefully do it later. I will most certaintly try to save it from obscurity though once I have a final price worked out. It's a 3 hour drive to the guy who is in New York City.

After an 8 hour trip and a nor'easter blowing through the drive the Boema is in my basement. The seller was very nice and he knew of me through some Facebook groups I am part of. We saw some cars that slipped in the storm but we managed to get back without issue. It was mine for $200, and I got a Gaggia Gx for free as well.

I will state right now this machine will not be touched until I am done with the Mercurio at the minimum, but I want to show the initial state. The exterior is pretty dirty but I think it can be cleaned up. If I powdercoat the panels I will keep the colour as I like that hotrod red. What is immediately apparant is a steam wand is missing, there are no portafilters, and a lever rod is missing. The machine also appears to have no feet so the frame is resting directly on the wood crate below it.




The rod itself has some damaged and rusted thread, and I would look at getting two reproduction rods made as a result. First I want to see if a modern lever would fit the thread first of the lever fork.



The boiler is missing its lid but the aluminum ring and the bolts are still present. There are five connections on the lid that I would need to make on the new reproduction lid. They are the p-stat, water inlet, the steam wands, and hot water. The p-stat is an interesting design that is rated for 25A 125-250V, and is made in Japan. It is the only thing that I have potentially found a date for, September 1983.




The groups are an interesting design. The boiler connection uses some enormous BSP compression fittings, must be at least an 1" in pipe diameter. The groups themselves remind me of a mix of various groups. It has aluminum caps held by three screws. Underneath are the bearings, bearing guides, and lever fork. I also noted that I can take off the upper group through two hex screws, which is nice. It appears the bearing guides are a mismatch as it seems one of them was repaired with a weld at some point.










This is a cool machine I think as it is pretty obscure and was made by an Australian company rather than the traditional Italian one.

I had to take a peak inside the groups after hearing crunchy noises when I tried engaging the piston. Turns out the seals failed at some point and rust developed inside! The three allen bolts that hold the upper group came out, but both rear bolts were a little rusty and needed some persuasion to come out.

What I find interesting is the size of the allen key is not metric but SAE, 7/32 inch. The last pic shows the rear of the upper group, and there is a small theaded bolt welded onto the bottom of the fork for when the group is at rest position. Also note there is a thread at the top of the lower group in the second pic. I am curious what the purpose of that thread is.

Very interesting engineering

The hole in the second pic is most likely an evacuation opening for water in case the seals fail. I've seen this e.g. in old Conti-groups. The old Pavoni-groups have an opening on the plate of the group head - an when water came out, I realized, my seals were failing

Sansibar99 wrote:Very interesting engineering
The hole in the second pic is most likely an evacuation opening for water in case the seals fail.

Many of my machines have it, from my Elektra to this Boema.

Ryan, the reason for the imperial bolts is that Australia only adopted the metric system in 1974.

That is really interesting to know. If Boema switched over to Metric in that year then I have a minimum age for this machine.

I say I am not going to touch it but I keep ending up with more pieces off the frame. It's really weird to use SAE on a coffee machine. The only metric fittings I've seen are the compression nuts on the pipes, at 19mm. Everything else is SAE. I took off the lower groups to get a better look at them and to start cleaning them up. It's a weird combination of two hex bolts on the upper two fittings while the lower two fittings are threaded rods. The latter will need heat to take out as they are pretty rusty. The boiler itself is actually connected only to the flange fittings with no other support for it. If I undo the two group flange fittings and the other pipes I can yoink out the boiler.






There is a shutoff valve behind the groups. One was very loose when I tried taking it off then there was no resistance at all. The bolt was either shearing or already sheared off. Fortunately I could take out the remaining bolt as it was connected to another fitting that can be taken off. Not sure if I ever want to shutoff the groups so it's not the worst thing to break. I suspect the scale buildup froze the bolt and resulted in too much force being exerted for the bolt to handle. I simply took out the whole fitting of the shutoff valve on the other group rather than attempt to loosen the bolt.



I threw the groups in my sonic cleaner and took out the shower screens. I had to flip the groups so I could soak the entire surface for a total of 2 cycles per group. They need whacking with a wood handle to pop out and the portafilter gaskets were pretty hard. I measured them to be 7mm in height so that explains why even my Faema portafilters did not really lock in. I can go for 8-9mm pf gaskets since they are standard e61 in OD and ID and hopefully adapt a modern pf to the groups. The group cylinders will need to be wire brushed to get the remaining rust off. They also accept an IMS shower screen but I'll see if I can salvage the originals.

Another clue to the age of your machine will be the factory location. Im no Boema expert, but I think the original factory was located in Revesby from 1966 until they moved to new premises in Hoxton Park where your machine was built. Sorry but I couldn't find the date of this move but I have heard that BoEma are pretty responsive on line, so I'm sure they could tell you