Snagged a Gaggia Tell 2 Group! - Page 4

#31: Post by **jbenson4** » February 10th, 2019, 12:10 pm

IamOiman wrote:Another question is how do I take off the cup warmer to fully see into the boiler?

You need to be able to reach underneath the cup warmer drain pan, likely by removing a side panel. The cup warmer tubing fitting goes through the drain pan and is secured to it by a brass nut underneath. The tubing that runs from cup warmer valve to the cup warmer fitting will also need to be disconnected.

#32: Post by **OldNuc** » February 10th, 2019, 12:18 pm

Basically you take off the side panels to get at any of it inside. Once they are off you can see which of several possible configurations are holding it all together.

Did you end up with the wobble weight for the relief valve or has it been converted to a spring relief?

The heating elements should be marked something like xxx W followed by yyy V so you have some wattage at some voltage. This will be important as that 380V rating is a wye connected 208/220 distribution system. It should be easily rewired to plain old US split phase 240. This at present is just a guess though.

It does not look like a bad project so far. Remember the 1st rule of restoration is --Do not break anything-- invariably the part that breaks will be completely irreplaceable at any cost.

February 10th, 2019, 3:50 pm

OldNuc wrote: Did you end up with the wobble weight for the relief valve or has it been converted to a spring relief?

I am not sure. Until I take off the top and peek inside to the boiler it is an uknown at this time. I can relay the instructions for the side panelling to my mom, but for now it will be kept untouched as to protect any unobtanium pieces.

#34: Post by **OldNuc** » February 10th, 2019, 5:05 pm

If there was a wobble weight it would have been in that recess on the top of the machine. It is a large round lead weight that holds the loose plug of the relief down so it only leaks slightly. When heating with gas that type of pressure control is required but when using electricity a spring relief with a 18-19psi setpoint is a better bet as the weight type relief leaks constantly and you are losing inventory which requires periodic makeup or you boil dry.

Reason I asked about the weight is I did not see it on the machine. Might want to put that on your short list of spares to be found locally. Even if you swap out the relief it is nice to have as you would need it to ever actually use the gas firing.

Best to hold off on disassembly until you have it all in its final home so you can keep all the small parts bagged up to preclude misplacing any.

March 11th, 2019, 9:48 am

Here is my experience so far in trying to find a drip tray: it sucks.

I have contacted probably 9 or 10 companies at this point, and nobody has a replica drip tray. The closest I got to finding a drip tray was finding a drip tray for the 1 group version at espressounderground.co.uk. Not even ascaso has a spare one.

As of now I am trying my luck with orozco espresso, which appears to be the successor to ABC Deluxe espresso (the company that pimped exported Gaggia Tells in the US).

If I do not find a replacement I will simply have one fabricated as suggested based off measurements and photos. Whether it will be made in chromed brass or stainless steel will depend on pricing. The original tray supposedly weighs ~5-10lb total so this is probably why I am not finding spares. It was not expected one would be needed!

All other parts I will likely need for this machine were far easier to source than this piece of unobtanium brass!

#36: Post by **OldNuc** » March 11th, 2019, 2:04 pm

So it was a piece of cast brass. That was when brass was cheap. Folded and welded up from stainless steel sheet is the easy fix.

#37: Post by LC » March 11th, 2019, 7:43 pm

Where was this listed, ebay? Thinking of finding a machine to restore...

March 11th, 2019, 8:23 pm

subito.it

If you have no easy way of picking up in person then it would not be very useful since mailing these machines are impractical. However if you have a contact or can pick up in Italy subito has crazy deals you can find. Since you live in Switzerland you can likely pick up as much of the equipment is sold in the north.

#39: Post by LC » March 12th, 2019, 7:51 am

Hi Ryan, thanks a lot. Yes I wouldn't mind picking it up in Italy. Actually I'm finding some great opportunities on commercial machines here, however they're a bit on the too big side and probably in Italy are the best classic machines waiting to be found.

I'll let u know if I stumble upon some parts for the Gaggia.

March 20th, 2019, 11:42 am

Hi again,

I got the measurements (I am not where the machine currently is so I recruited a family member to do the measuring under video guidance) for the drip tray space, and with the included image for reference they are the following:

152.4mm in blue x 617.5375mm in orange (+-1mm)
17.145mm lip width in red (+-1mm)

The only measurement I am missing is the depth of the tray, and would probably estimate it to be ~15-20mm. I will be keeping my eye out for similarly sized drip trays.