Here is the 1964 Spanish nephew of Dr.Dregs Italian "baby".
From the outside the lever groupheads are exact like the Italian design, groupheads and pistons are interchangable with the original Italian heads.
However, the Spanish engineers redesigned and simplyfied the inner sleeve and gasket layout.
This Spanish grouphead has a weight of 10kg each.

This is the 1975 Spanish Gaggia, the groupheads are still based on the original Italian design.
But are a more economical type, the groupheads are without the original sleeves, gaskets and seals.
Now the seals are fitted to the completely redesigned piston.
Resulting in a lot less weight, each head now weighs only about 5 kg.

Back (front?) view please .

Not the most flattering of photos, its in the 'take it apart and see what makes it tick' phase on my mothers garage floor, plumbed into the washing machine line. It sounds a bit like a vintage car or boat when you say its a 58 with twin mercury's.




1.8L Boiler pressurestat


Brew group temperature

Amazing machine really. Big housing for a relatively small boiler means there is pretty good access for maintenance etc

congrats on this beautiful velox faema. the original dual-boiler machine which is perfect for home use! just take care not to damage the groupheat heating element during restoration, its not available as spare part anymore!

are u sure that its from 58? it has the body of the 2nd president series/e61.....my president is from 59 and has the old body (small differences)

13thfloorelevators wrote:are u sure that its from 58? it has the body of the 2nd president series/e61.....my president is from 59 and has the old body (small differences)

Nope, not sure! I was told it was by the seller, but haven't looked for any sort of verification and now back in HK (machine in NZ at the moment). They all seem to be a bit of a mix up from what I have seen. It has the old style fully external pressure gauge, old style velox group, but a more modern e61 style body.

I did see this on the boiler top plate, which could mean thats its from 62, but that doesn't really gel with the group and pressure gauge from what I know at least? I didn't have a good search for anything else and just found this now in one of my photos.

13thfloorelevators wrote:just take care not to damage the groupheat heating element during restoration, its not available as spare part anymore!

I have heard that. I understand you need to get one custom made if it fails, but can be done. I got it 'fully restored' and from taking apart the steam boiler, that seems to be the case with no scale, a brand new element and gasket... I haven't had the courage to pull the group yet, as I understand gaskets for it are a bit hard to come by as well. Apparently the spring, bearings and gaskets have been replaced. Did a pressure test and it seems to be pushing about 9.5 or 10 bar against a blind filter. Also installed an ovepressure valve as it didn't have any sort of protection for that. There was a blank plug which I was able to use for that fortunately, so removable if desired. I will at some stage put in a anti-vac valve on a T junction as well.

Any more info or conjecture welcome. Out of interest, the brew boiler element is around 1100 watts from measuring its resistance.

Also hope other HBers in Christchurch all ok after the big earthquake. The machine was welcomed to its new home with a 6.3 about an hour after delivery.

Cheers, Chris

I had thought the Velox group was older and was replaced by the Zodiaco group that then went on the Lambro etc? or maybe they were produced in parallel for a while, anyone know?

gyro wrote:I have heard that. I understand you need to get one custom made if it fails, but can be done.

true, it can be done (and i know people who restored their velox groups this way), but better if u dont need to do it!

else: faema put everything together they had and mixed elemtents from uranias/presidents and so on....my president has the urania plexi for example!

anyway: great machine, u will have a lot of fun with it (i still smile everyday i enter the kitchen)

I see you are in Austria... as it would happen, the machine spent over 40 years of its life in a bar in Graz, Austria.

gyro wrote:Not the most flattering of photos, its in the 'take it apart and see what makes it tick' phase on my mothers garage floor, plumbed into the washing machine line. It sounds a bit like a vintage car or boat when you say its a 58 with twin mercury's.

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1.8L Boiler pressurestat

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Brew group temperature

Amazing machine really. Big housing for a relatively small boiler means there is pretty good access for maintenance etc

That is absolutely beautiful. I love FAEMA.