On stuck parts warm them up with a decent quality heat gun and then apply the penetrating oil an wait a day. when wrenching apply a torque to the wrench and while maintaining that torque whack the wrench handle with a larger wrench so as to apply a sharp shock to the fitting. That usually cracks them loose. If it does not re-warm the fitting and repeat the process as some of those fittings are sealed with white lead and linseed oil. When cold it acts as a wonderful glue but when warmed it will release enough to get things to turn. Brute force is to be avoided if possible.

I have been using Kroil for a few years now so I don't have a agenda here but this person's youtube channel does a fair job at testing things on a real basis. His first of a couple segments on penetrating oils. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUEob2oAKVs
He uses an aerosol Kroil, I have the squeeze can.

KROIL is the gold standard and either one works. I buy it by the gallon and transfer to a spot applicator.

OldNuc wrote:On stuck parts warm them up with a decent quality heat gun and then apply the penetrating oil an wait a day. when wrenching apply a torque to the wrench and while maintaining that torque whack the wrench handle with a larger wrench so as to apply a sharp shock to the fitting.

Yep that is what I've been doing. I forgot to add I was doing the heating but I have not needed to whack anything yet. Just a small tug after some time has relinquished every nut so far but I like to be on the safe side and not try to whack unless I really need to.

A hard pull will usually cause more damage than the wrench whack as the whack acts like an impact wrench. If they come loose with a nominal pull then that is fine and good. It is the stuck ones you have to worry about.

I will be doing that when I run into such a bolt Old Nuc, thank you for the pointer.

Today I ran over to Harbor Freight and among the stuff I got was a Sonic Cleaner for cleaning purposes. The first things I tested where the plastic knobs, of which I did 5 out of 6. I will also be going into how to remove the knobs and caps safely.


Taking off the Knobs
There are up to six plastic knobs plus the water inlet valve on a Gaggia Tell. There are two for steam arms, one for hot water, one for the cup heater, one for the power switch, and finally one for the gas control. They are a little painful to properly remove them without breaking the original OEM parts.

First you must obtain a very small flathead screwdriver set. I used a 0.5mm, 1mm, and 2mm thickness screwdriver for what I did. The 0.5mm is used to take out the outer black cap on the knob. There is a small horizontal inlet that allows the screwdriver or shim to be inserted and bring it out through pushing up the cap.


Once the cap is removed there is a second black part that covers the part of the knob that connects to the worm gear screw. To take this off you use the 1mm screwdriver and then the 2mm screwdriver when loose to VERY LIGHTLY tap from the inside of the knob this part with a mallet. It will scoot outwards and eventually pop off if done properly. Doing it with force may dig into the soft plastic and while not completely make it useless this is generally not the best outcome from maintenance. The image shown has the knob on top of my vice for support as I gently rap the part off.


The final step is removing the c-clip with some security ring pliers and finally you have a disassembled knob.


The gas and power knobs are different in that they have a screw you can undo with a flathead to take them off. At this time I was only able to remove the gas knob as the power knob is stuck onto something I cannot figure out (any advice would be helpful!)


Here are five knobs and the water inlet (which simply unscrews) together and what I threw in the cleaner today.


To make sure I did not damage anything from cleaners I simply put in a little dish detergent for the first cycles. The amount of glorp that came off in the first two 8 minute cycles was pretty disturbing to say the least. I am pretty satisfied so far with how the cleaner does but I am not sure how many cycles it would take to fully take off the brown crust from the knobs. Just in case I limited the amount of cycles for each part to three. If I know I can do more then I will proceed further.


Unfortunately the original black caps are pretty worn and am not sure how to clean up the white texture on the fronts. This was why I purchased replacement caps if I really needed to. Any pointers on sprucing up the original ones would be appreciated

Got the boiler cap and heating elements off today. It involved a mix of heat, PB blaster, and a mallet.

The first thing I did to prepare for the removal is disconnect the wiring. I took photos and labelled them prior to remember how to set up the electrical circuit when putting the Gaggia Back together. I then removed the mercury pressurestat. This is the same design used in the Gaggia Orione as well and I was very surprised it was still used for my machine considering it is newer. In the future I will go into more detail on how it is wired and its assembly but overall it is in very decent condition. I will try to use it over a Sirai if possible.



After that this is when I took a heat gun and cranked up the heat on each boiler bolt for about a minute each. Then I applied PB blaster to loosen any stuck bolts that would be a hassle to deal with if not treated. I took the heating elements off before all the bolts came off as well. The brass nuts could be unscrewed by hand and I took the heating elements out. They need a decent cleaning in the future but they both work.




I waited a day and took a 17mm wrench and a rubber mallet to the bolts. As OldNuc suggested I held the wrench a little under tension and hit the open end of the wrench pretty hard. Every nut eventually yielded to my whacks without hassle and I am pretty happy no bolts snapped off.

Once all of them were taken off I took a chisel and the mallet and from the top pointing into the old gasket I whacked it in which resulted in the face plate coming off. Presuming the gasket to be asbestos I took precaution prior and misted the gasket while wearing a safety mask. I also had an air filter fan and a regular fan running that blew the air away from me. The scale accumulated at the bottom is likely from when I was hitting stuff with the mallet and forced it off the boiler wall.

The old mercury switch is far superior to the clickity-clack of the mechanical one. One thing that gets continuously missed with all electro-mechanical pressure switches and all mechanical gauges is they are not designed to function correctly if operated at high temperature so the sensing line must have a slight "U" bend or a loop to prevent steam from entering into the pressure sensing element.

That boiler is relatively clean and not all eaten up either.

You are having great luck with disassembly.

Yes so far I am having greak luck in my project so far.

Removing the Boiler
This evening I got the boiler off the frame and is the last thing I will do before going to college tomorrow. First though I also got the dippers off the groups with some more whacking. What is interesting to note is that on one group I only got the dipper out while the other I got the dipper AND the inner collar that connects the dipper to the group. I am not sure if it will really make a difference when cleaning but I thought it was neat to see the shut off valve from the bottom rather than from the top.



Taking off the boiler (after removing all pipe and wire connections) involves unscrewing six 13mm bolts, two in the back that connects the boiler to the rear frame and two bolts to each group that connect to the front. Once they are off you pull the boiler back and manuever it through the frame. To access the front bolts you must take off the collars that cover the group necks and hold the group gasket in place. removing the bolts that connect to the Groups will likely not be too difficult and will just need a clean up. I do intend to replace the boiler cap bolts as they are quite rusty. Note that the nuts themselves are made of brass rather than the material of the bolt. They do this with all other nuts as well on the machine which if I remember correctly is to prevent fusing of the metals from rust (?).






Now that the boiler is off I can wrap up dissasembly of the frame and determine how much work needs to be done to it outside of cleaning. I will also eventually begin descaling once I obtain a big enough bucket and citric acid. Overall I was pretty happy with the outcome and cannot wait to begin the reassembly. I currently have most of the boiler pipes and the boiler itself on one table and exterior parts and groups on another. In the background I have the Faema President waiting for its time to shine after I finish the Gaggia...

Go buy a gallon of Evaporust and any iron/steel that is not pitted can be cleaned up with a soaking in this stuff and reused. Most of those fasteners are real hard to replace with new that will look like the old. The steel bolt-brass nut is indeed to preclude rusting in place forever. Be sure to use either aluminum or better nickle antiseize when assembling everything that is screwed together, either one is silver in color. Nickle is better for steam and heat but it costs like real gold.

That machine is actually in very good condition overall. That was a good buy. I happen to prefer the Gaggia group to the competition.