I think you may need some expert help with the boiler flange where the group mounts. Looks like someone had already tried to drill out the original studs and was way off centre. You can see remnants of the old studs.

They don't look that bad so hopefully you could have them drilled more accurately and then use helicoils.

Just took a look again at the threads after you said that Paul, I think you are absolutely right! Somebody had done the drilling with the bottom left, bottom right and top left bolts, the bolts I took off from there were obviously newer and different than the stuck top right one. The drilling was off centre, as I look from straight front...

People in my local machine shop did me a huge favor, he took the boiler-to-frame screws out as well as the last group-to boiler bolt, no drilling used. Even with all the tools I can't do the same job, just lack that expertise. But we got no luck with the boiler flange bolts, the bolts lost their strength over the years, and easy to snap. Now the boiler flange has been taken off, five bolts sheared, we may have to weld some nuts onto the top, hopefully that will work...

When looking at the inside of the boiler, the deformation of some area is more standing out than looked from outside, not sure how big an issue is that and if the boiler can still stand 1.5bar with that.

LObin wrote:I also almost purchased this machine a year or so ago!

I believe the model is a Gaggia Minor.

The seller wasn't super responsive and he said he was selling it for a friend. The pictures of the inside of the machine were of very bad quality but I was surprised to see the condition of the inside vs the "shinyness" of the outside!

Yes! It is a variant of Gaggia/Italcrem Minibar from Spain, the setup of it is almost identical to a machine currently on sale on the net, just different group head and hot water/steam grouping.

Well done on taking it to a machine shop. It is much better to do this properly now than have to take the machine apart again soon.

I have had good success with drilling the broken studs out but I heartily recommend trying the trick of mig welding a nut onto the broken stud. More often than not this works a treat, the heat breaks the corrosion free.

I would not worry too much over that slight dent in the boiler, copper is very malleable and should be resilient to the odd dent here and there. You never know it may have been there since it was made, often the boilers are very crudely put together and the view from the inside is always a mess. Once you get it all cleaned up you can inspect and make sure that area is intact. Look for any obvious defects. The copper can bend but brazed joints will crack and you can spot them quite easily.

Many thanks Paul! Really appreciate your Do It Properly attitude, that's so important! And will keep in mind your advice about straight and true drilling regarding snapped bolts.

Paul_Pratt wrote:Well done on taking it to a machine shop. It is much better to do this properly now than have to take the machine apart again soon.

I have had good success with drilling the broken studs out but I heartily recommend trying the trick of mig welding a nut onto the broken stud. More often than not this works a treat, the heat breaks the corrosion free.

I would not worry too much over that slight dent in the boiler, copper is very malleable and should be resilient to the odd dent here and there. You never know it may have been there since it was made, often the boilers are very crudely put together and the view from the inside is always a mess. Once you get it all cleaned up you can inspect and make sure that area is intact. Look for any obvious defects. The copper can bend but brazed joints will crack and you can spot them quite easily.

I might not be picturing this right, but it's hard for me to imagine welding a nut to a sheared off (flush) bolt. Might you have a link to a pictorial or video of this process? Thanks----

Hi Bill, I got that idea from various Youtube videos teaching people how to remove seized or sheared bolts(mostly expertise from the auto industry, but can be applied generally), many of them mentioned that technique, just one example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLbuY_AS6pE

But I agree with Paul and my machine shop pro, it's not really practical for my problem.

Yes exactly as that Hagerty video. For the studs that are flush, first weld a washer onto the stud, it makes it easier to penetrate the stud. Then a nut on top of the washer.