Bezzera 70s spring lever machine restoration

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Bezzera 70s spring lever machine restoration

Postby Joris » Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:37 am

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...
Veni, Vidi, Imbibi Coffea !


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RE: Bezzera 70s spring lever machine restoration

Postby bruceb » Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:08 am

Whoa! This puts you in the top league of serious restorers! Beautiful job, nice machine. Congratulations!
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RE: Bezzera 70s spring lever machine restoration

Postby Sarion » Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:16 am

Wow, super cool! Congratulations!
tell me I`m mad
you're a fine one to decide

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Postby GreenBean » Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:32 am

Beautiful job Joris :shock: :shock: it now looks absolutely gorgeous.
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Postby lukas » Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:39 am

wow, very cool Joris. Go for the PID! A pid'ed spring lever machine, how cool is that?
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Postby dsc » Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:42 am

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,
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Postby icke » Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:11 pm

:shock: phew, great job!!! and you're right, the original design is pretty much the ugliest i have seen so far...
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Postby phil2spill » Wed Apr 11, 2007 12:39 pm

Better than new Joris, nuff respec. 8)
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Postby Waldorf » Wed Apr 11, 2007 2:03 pm

simply stunning job.
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Postby BazBean » Wed Apr 11, 2007 4:11 pm

:D :D :D :D :D

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Postby monkey66 » Thu Apr 12, 2007 9:12 am

Wow....great job Joris
.....PID's are rubbish, only idoits fit them :D

I have my old Mater P-stat if you want it?
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Postby Joris » Thu Apr 12, 2007 11:03 am

monkey66 wrote:.....PID's are rubbish, only idoits fit them :D


I agree.... that's why I just have to PID my machine :)
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Postby Aadje » Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:25 pm

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.
Last edited by Aadje on Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby CakeBoy » Thu Apr 12, 2007 1:45 pm

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
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Postby Joris » Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:53 pm

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.
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