The knob on my valve easily unscrews. If there is no set screw on your knob it's screwed on. Warm it up with a hair dryer until the knob gets hot & try again.

Don't use pliers or vice grips on the shaft the knob screws onto. Likely if the machine is off and the valve assembly depressurized when you open the valve to the maximum extent it will have a back seat and at that point adequate hand pressure on the knob will get the knob off. There is a packing gland in there somewhere and it is adjustable, probably visible once the large polished nut on the front of the panel is removed.

I will take no further action until I hear from Roberta. My machine is new and actually has a warranty for parts, and just in case I will not tinker with this until that email comes as I would rather not want to void it. As of now it serves my purpose of temporarily plugging the leak and will keep that way for a little bit. The tape is removable and does not permanently modify the machine in any way. I would have tried what you have suggested and maybe I am blind but I did not see a place to grip where this packing gland is nor is it evident still it can unscrew with the hair dryer method.

The nut holding the valve body in the panel and the one on the back side are basically cosmetic. The threaded packing follower should be exposed when the front nut is removed. It may not and that is adequate reason to wait for further instructions though. As you stopped the leak with a couple wraps of teflon tape is clear evidence that this is a very low pressure leak. Cotton kite string will accomplish the same thing and will withstand a much higher pressure in case you ever run into a situation requiring it.

Roberta has responded to me. She says the most common cause to my knob issue is they apply some sort of grease on the inside to form a sealant within the valve(?), and when a long period passes where the machine is not used it will coagulate. To fix this I would pull the manual knob a few times fully extended to fix this issue according to her advice.

I am not sure if this is what causes my particular leak, but she also said if that is not fixed and the manual knob is not used too often Teflon Tape would suit the issue well, which is what I did earlier. As it stands I will keep this fix in place for now based off her guidance.

Packing and grease are common items of an older type of tech and will function well with minimal maintenance. What you could do is give the valve a full cycle the first time the machine reaches hot operating pressure and temperature. That will keep in exercised.

My 70s Carimali lever had the manual fill valve located completely under the drip tray. It was a lever ball valve and never leaked. It still had a hole on the front of machine but covered (hole was for the old style mechanism like this which likely got phased out). You could easily do this since you rarely use it and then pop the drip tray out if you do want to operate the valve.

If you want to keep the same look just mount this knob on a threaded rod or cut up this valve. Put a nut on one side of the rod outside of case and a nut on the other side, screw on knob. Viola

College is finally done for me. I had to pack everything into a Volkswagen Golf. There was some impressive manuevering in the process and we literally could not fit anymore than what we had. I had to carry some stuff on my lap on the 75 minute trip back! On the way we stopped by a small cafe in Worcester that purchased my Faema E98 acquired a while back. I am excited that machine will see some hard use. The Bosco fared very well during that time and will produce many more shots in the future, even if it has to contend with some other machines

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Congratulations Ryan! Wish you a new wonderful journey

Today I woke up to a very slight leak emitting from the lower fitting of the water level sight. This prompted me to turn off the machine, take off its panels, and wait for it to depressurize. It was a simple fix that required two 24mm wrenches to very slightly tighten the glass fitting while holding the other. It was much looser than I expected it to be, though for a new machine I knew that sometimes fittings could become loose over time from repeated heating and cooling cycles. The machine is running again while I keep an eye for any continuing leaks but I do not expect any.

This issue did allow me to admire the boiler and pipes underneath the panels since I do not take them off often.