Hey everyone, my name is Fred and I'm new here, been lurking for a while though. I've been meaning to get a nice machine for a while and have been using an Aeropress and French press in the interim. I've been waiting for something really plucks my heart strings and it seems that levers are doing the trick. I don't want to spend a gazillion dollars and like to work on any number of things so a restoration that isn't too intense sounds nice.

So, after much ado, here's where I'm looking for some wise advice. I've found an Italcrem 101 with an unnamed grinder for $700USD. The story is that it was purchased, in working condition, with the intent of using it for events 20 years ago. Instead, it has just sat in storage for all of that time. Hopefully it was drained, I'll find that out as soon as I speak with the seller. Oh and it's listed as being both 220 an "gas?"...seemingly he isn't sure about the gas bit.

So I Imagine I need to take it apart and deacale/clean everything and replace all of the seals. Maybe thermo/pstat and whatever few electronics it has? Is anyone here familiar with parts availability for these? I've read that it is a Gaggia but made in Spain and that it should be an E61 group.

Also, unrelated to levers, but rather than making another thread I figured I'd just ask here if someone can identify the grinder.

Am I missing anything? Should I jump on it?

Thanks

This is a lever group not E61 group, to be precise it is Italcrem/Visacrem group that were used quite a bit in Spanish lever.
Fortunately you can still get most of the parts for the lever since it is shared with few other lever group.

https://www.espressoparts.com/faema-lev ... n-v-gasket
https://www.espressoparts.com/cma-group ... asket-ptfe
https://www.espressoparts.com/faema-fut ... ton-spring

Depending on the bolt pattern of the boiler end plate you may have to make your own gasket but it is not too hard to do with the right material. The heating element is readily available as well.
However some of the unique parts such as the steam valve gasket etc may be difficult to source in the US since it is quite unique.
I think Iberital should still stock most of the parts.

http://www.iberital.com/catalogo/downlo ... GAGGIA.pdf

Awesome, I'm glad to hear that. Thanks for the input and links, they'll be quite helpful.

Ah, I believe I was looking at portafilters and some that said they worked on Italicrem were listed as also fitting E61. I didn't even think about the fact that the E61 has that circulation that levers don't, at least as far as I know.

What would an appropriate gasket material be for that? Hi-temp silicone?

So would you say that it's a good and worthwhile machine?

I think cafeparts has quite good cross reference with different brand, for example this portafilter
http://www.cafeparts.com/Filter-Holder- ... duct/18937

The gasket selection would depend on the condition of the flange, if it is rough a lot of people have good success with alimentary material. I personally used Teflon gasket since the surface was really smooth. There are quite a bit of discussion here if you search regarding gasket material and since you are in US McMaster is good resource for gaskets since they have quite a few selection thats food safe.

Looking at something that old you would have to be prepared to deal with rusted or even broken stud/bolt for either the group stud or boiler end plate not to mention various frame or body parts. If you are comfortable in doing such work or have access to machine shop then it maybe worthwhile to get.

If you are up for rebuilding it and you have the space for it to be your daily driver, then at $700 I would definitely jump on it.

Ah, thanks for that. It's actually got two doubles and I was looking for a naked but I'll be able to find the right one with that for reference.

Interesting, I've hardly dealt with food safe materials so I've never heard of that. I'll check it out.

Oh yeah, as much as it has been in an arid climate(Western slope of Colorado), I'm prepared to do some hard work and very careful disassmbly to try and prevent breakage. I've got a lot of experience with mechanical work and a bit of machining so I'm reasonably confident.

Yep, that is the intent. It has a spot, I just have to run the power from a new breaker and water. I'm very glad to hear that. I think it's a phenomenal deal too but with this machine being so rare it's hard to judge.

Grinder looks interesting as well. Take care though, it's either been taken apart and assembled incorrectly, or the bottom part of the doser is mounted in a really unconventional way. The vertical bar sticking out below the doser bottom part usually goes into the top of the doser, for a lot of old Faema/Futurmat designs, and als the Rancilio grinders, amongst others. It's possible that this design is different, but to me that would be a really odd design choice.