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Bezzera 70s spring lever machine restoration

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:37 am
by Joris
A couple of weeks ago I ran into a Bezzera spring loaded levermachine from the 70s. Bought it, had to drive 2,5 hrs to pick it up, 2,5 hrs driving back.

It was very dirty and very neglected, no original driptray, leaking water, ripped HX-tube etc etc.

The next couple of days we completely restored the machine, replacing all gaskets and rubbers, cleaning and descaling everything. Fixed the HX-pipe in the boiler (was ripped open so boiler always overfilled). Had to make a boiler gasket from teflon.

And while we were at it I decided not to use the old outer casing (which is dead-ugly in my opinion) and we had to do some casemodding.

Replaced the rather flimsy internat hto water and steam taps for external sturdy Astoria taps. Also fixed a build-in manometer in the frontpanel.

Last things to do were making the stainless steel cover and cup warmer tray.

Well, now it's finished and I made some very nice espressi with it... definitely a keeper. Unfortunately there is still one part defective... the p-stat. I have to set it anew each time I heat the machine from cold. As long as it's on it will be ok and stay within the set margins. If the machine has been off and cooled down the p-stat suddenly is set at 2.2 bar.... which of course means the safety valve on the boiler kicks in resulting is a sh1tload of steam and water in the kitchen.

Am thinking of PIDing the machine, see post in members clubroom.

Enough text.... they always told me a picture says more than a thousand words so here goes.... :)

Click on a picture to see the large (huge) version.


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I would like to thank Youri for helping me out... couldn't have done it without him...

RE: Bezzera 70s spring lever machine restoration

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:08 am
by bruceb
Whoa! This puts you in the top league of serious restorers! Beautiful job, nice machine. Congratulations!

RE: Bezzera 70s spring lever machine restoration

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:16 am
by Sarion
Wow, super cool! Congratulations!

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:32 am
by GreenBean
Beautiful job Joris :shock: :shock: it now looks absolutely gorgeous.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:39 am
by lukas
wow, very cool Joris. Go for the PID! A pid'ed spring lever machine, how cool is that?

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:42 am
by dsc
Ola,

Yeah it does look great!:) The new case is really cool, the old one did look like an old ZSRR made fridge case:)

Top notch mate!!

Cheers,
dsc.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:11 pm
by icke
:shock: phew, great job!!! and you're right, the original design is pretty much the ugliest i have seen so far...

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:39 pm
by phil2spill
Better than new Joris, nuff respec. 8)

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 2:03 pm
by Waldorf
simply stunning job.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 4:11 pm
by BazBean
:D :D :D :D :D

MY Hero ....... 8) 8)

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:12 am
by monkey66
Wow....great job Joris
.....PID's are rubbish, only idoits fit them :D

I have my old Mater P-stat if you want it?

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:03 am
by Joris
monkey66 wrote:.....PID's are rubbish, only idoits fit them :D


I agree.... that's why I just have to PID my machine :)

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:25 pm
by Aadje
Wow Joris, you told me about your plans, and you actually did it! Way to go man!

edit: when I'm in the hague again, I'll be sure to come and look/taste.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:45 pm
by CakeBoy
Joris that is amazing. I thought you were a bit quiet recently - no wonder! Great photos too. What did you use on the boiler to get it that clean? You are indeed a hero :D

PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:53 pm
by Joris
We took the entire boiler apart and used a cleaning solution based on lactic acid (milk acid)). Works just as well as citric acid. Why we used that? we had it at hand and we didn't have citric acid.