Hello,
I just received a FRESH START Clean and Lube Kit and a set of new seals before that from our friends in Orphan Espresso. So after dissemble it I find a bump on the piston walls, I put a little pressure on it and bang! a hole in the wall!! On the other side of the hole is where the Screw on the front of the Cast Base goes, the metric allen one. I dont know what to do next, any advice??
It's going to be tricky to repair. One possibility is to fill the hole with a larger screw (retap) and then take it to a auto machine shop or motorcycle shop and see if they can clean up the cylinder. They might have the abrasive tools to do so.
No one I am aware of has proven what metal the La Peppina is made of. Is it aluminum? Is it Zamak? Zinc alloy? It would be nice to know.
That looks tough. A permanent repair might be tricky. I think your best bet would be to email Doug and get his input. He might have an idea. I would think that using two different metals wouldn't work there, since they will expand and contract at different rates/different temps and just crack and fail somepoint shortly thereafter. Plus they would likely corrode quicker. Good luck though!
I would think the allen screw would plug the hole well enough. The base is pretty tight, leakage shouldn't be a problem. I wonder if some product like jb weld is food safe enough to plug the hole. Personally I would buy a broken machine and part it out, or replace yours and part your current one out.
Some Advise:
If the cylinder is aluminium, there are "weld" rods (Super Alloy 1 and others) that are for pot metal and aluminium repairs, which melt using a propane torch. You heat the repair, scrub with a stainless wire brush, and with skill, fill the hole and a bit beyond.
That would be the easy part. Finishing the inside of the cylinder would be a bigger challenge.
Thank you everyone, I took the advice of taking the part to a motorcicle shop and the fix it, La Peppina is back! for 350 mexican pesos and a regular job, not very nice for is working again.
I think it's my fault the Zamak idea. Once I've wrote this as a metal shop told me it was Zamak. But some time later I've weighted the group and estimated the volume using a recipient with water and the density is very close to aluminum. Zamak should be 99% zinc and zinc has a much higher density...
So, I think it's an aluminum alloy, but who knows which? Probably one very prone to corrosion...
