This is partially covered in my Four or so Pavoni rebuild thread but there are enough differences it can stand on its own.

I purchased the La Cara from the Orphan Espresso clearance sale years back for something crazy cheap.

It was missing the following:

Drip Tray
Porta Filter
Porta Filter Basket
Steam Wand
Rubber Base
Element was present but leaking voltage and did not look healthy
Bad cord

I don't have the orginal photo but here is one with the steam wand I found on ebay added, otherwise its identical to what I started with.

Element

I was seeing 90 volts to the boiler. It wasn't tripping the ground fault. I was not on a three prong plug. That said there was solder on the element and it was not looking to hot.

Before:



So off it went to Gabor in Hungary for a rebuild. They had not done one before but it came out fantastic!

Now this new element needs a gasket. And you'll notice there are a few ridges.

My circle cutter had to break at the most inopportune time. I had ordered food grade silicone for a gasket from a US supplier on ebay. High Temp FDA 6" x 6" Red Silicone Rubber Sheet 1/16" thk- 30 duro - MADE IN USA. I think 3/32 would have been perfect, I also have some 1/8".

I tried scissors and a sharp knife. It took a few tries as it got hung up on the lip going into the boiler and would not seal. So after multiple attempts I sealed nicely.

The nice thing about this one is its is a bolt on boiler element somewhat like the three screw La Pavoni's and similar to the Cremina. No threads!

Gasket:


Bottom of boiler with element off:


Element installed, I do not have a photo without the wiring:

Group Rebuild:

Basically its just like a La Pavoni or really like a Cremina. Its a 4 bolt group head.

The O-ring for the attachment of the group to the boiler came from Rocket Seals in Denver, CO http://rocketseals.com/ . They carry all sizes of food grade o-rings with a minimum purchase of 10 dollars. I have away the extra o-rings in the for sale forum. Part number was 2-219-SILICONE-70.



This is a brass sleeve machine just like the 1.5 and previous La Pavoni's. The brass sleeve removal too is required to service the group.



With the group removed it looks like:


Upper piston rod seal is the same. This was rusted in, replaced with stainless steel snap ring and new gasket.


Piston is just like a Pavoni, two new gaskets and it was good to go. It goes back into the sleeve for installation:


Installation is the reverse. Some DOW 111 and its back together. Bolt back to the boiler with new o-ring and the group is complete

Drip Tray:

No drip trays were to be found online or by Francesco (la cara is spain, not italy). So what to do, can't have a machine without drip tray.

First thought was a 3d printed drip tray. So I fortunately have a La Graziella with the same drip tray! I measured it and entered it into sketchup:


Well my friends 3d printer has issues and I gave up on that option.

Instead I started calling laser cutting places, then I heard the back side of the cut can be rough. With that many holes it would be not so nice. So I then realized , doh, I could call waterjet places! Waterjet leave a much smoother finish on the back.

I need to clean up the trays to make them look more respectable but they are not much different color wise from the tarnished Graziella tray I have. The sides are quite smooth considering they were cut , not sharp but not super finished as you can see. So I'll round the edges a bit, clean them up, get them feeling good in the hand and that is it.

grog wrote:Those look great - what did the cost per piece work out to?

I had quotes ranging from 35 to 150 a piece and I contacted many! This place can also do stainless and the turnaround was just over a week. They are about an hour a way from me, they do ship but I wanted to pick them up. Apparently they cut parts for a coffee grinder company as well. They would be a great option for anyone needing to build a drip tray out of aluminum or stainless.

It required a sketchup file, I started 3d, then converted to 2d as that is what the laser and waterjet shops wanted. They also want it in Autocad format so I grabbed sketchup plugin for converting to DXF. I sent just the DXF to for quote. I screwed up the first time due to the number of points per arc in a circle versus an arc. I retouch the outside corners making them arcs versus circles. The circles were choppy slightly and the cutter prints exactly what you send it. So thankfully the arc change wasn't that bad and smoothed out as it has more points than the circle. Things you learn..


Contact info is:

Rocky Mountain Waterjet and Laser LLC
http://www.rockymountainwaterjet.com/
2218 4th Avenue
Greeley, Colorado 80631
(970) 395 -1010 office
(970) 395 - 9804 fax
info at rockymountainwaterjet.com

Over Pressure Valve:

Just like the La Pavoni's with no pressure stat the La Cara uses a spring and ball. I replaced with the teflon ball and spring from Stefano's. You can also see the replacement steam wand from Ebay.



Next up was the valve. Same as the others, just a new rubber washer in the middle. I think it came with a pin, not sure now. I replaced it with a set screw.


I cannot find my original wiring picture, I'll have to dig for it. This is a 200/800 element. When its on low its 200, when on high, its 1000.

There is also a bolt in the back of the boiler, one could theoretically plumb it in.

I kept the strange vacuum sealed base since part of the faceplate still remained and the base was almost perfect condition minus some bubbling inside. I do think it would have looked fantastic in sea foam green but that can be another time. It is easy to take apart with the bolt on element for changing that in the future. I did rebuild the rubber base, it turned out ok for a first try. I have checked into making new bases for the La Pavoni's and there may indeed be a market there. The La Cara there are so few I can't see investing in the tooling required for that. So weather strip , rubber sheet, a very sharp knife and super glue. Yes super glue! Just like the instructions on Francesco's site.

Just a dab of Simichrome to make it shine. I might remake the labels for the switch still. I'll post a shot picture and boiler heat time, volume, etc info next.

Not that I' don't like my La Cara, but I would have clearly taken yours over this one! I heard he rebadged a lot of machines. I have not read up on much of the history.

Yes, I tried a few different glues on the base so it was cut and trimmed before I had to do it again with the superglue. Should have used superglue in the first place. I used a skiving knife, super sharp but rubber doesn't cut easy, if you had a clicking die you'd be all set. I make look into the Pavoni molded bases down the road but this will have to do. I may clean up on the sander.

On one of my MARCFI(the La Cara I think) machines I used that vinyl car door edging stuff. It's self adhering and doesn't look bad at all. As nothing else will look original anyway, a cheap and easy fix.

One of my favorite reads on the Cara clan - http://blog.journeymanproject.net/2012/ ... -purveyor/