The La Pavoni is clean and looking good

So far I've spent about 8 hours work on the old, vintage La Pavoni I bought last weekend. Mostly this is at night, along with a few hours on it yesterday. It hadn't ever been properly cleaned during the last years of it's service life, so took a lot of rubbing down with 600, then 1200, then 1500 Wet or Dry paper; followed by No. 7 rubbing compound, then some Brasso. On the base I went for 360 Wet or Dry paper, and created a brushed look rather than a polished look.
You'd be surprised how tough tarnish can be to dislodge from both old brass, and in particular chrome, after years of being “baked in” at approximately 98º to 100ºC for an hour a day. This is why, with the help of some advice from Barb at Orphan Espresso (http://orphanespresso.com) it was eventually obvious that the Wet or Dry paper would become necessary on the chromed boiler. In my opinion the slightly beaten and yet nicely polished look goes well with the age of a vintage piece of kit. New chrome would be perfect and bright, and is an option, but may just not fit will with the “feel” of the device.

And now, the whole thing is looking pretty good. Time for the seals and gaskets kit and to get it rebuilt and running. You can get these at Orphan Espresso (http://orphanespresso.com), Stefano's Espresso Care (http://espressocare.com, and Thomas E. Cara (amongst others).

A La Pavoni espresso machine laid bare

Here you have a classic, vintage, lever-pull La Pavoni Europiccola espresso machine stripped down into it's parts and laid bare on my kitchen counter. If you haunt Craigslist you should be able to pick a working version up from time to time, around $160 to $200.

This photograph is the aftermath of a session with it at lunchtime (basic disassembly), and another last night (descaling, soaking, cleaning). Here's roughly what we have - up back a chromed boiler (yet to be forcibly, no doubt, removed - on a brass base that needs lacquer stripping, and probably a new powder coat - or I might just polish it), and a half-chromed lever pull. In front, brass (just about everything) group head, piston with stainless shaft, stainless filter basket and shower screen, brass portafilter and mostly brass componentry for tubing and whatnot.

The boiler element is older-style brass, is sound and does not short to the base, and this is the critical component. It can be replaced for around $100 bucks but it's sound and spent half a day soaking in descaler, and is now clean - so at it's heart the machine is sound, perfectly refurbishable and now it's time to inventory and order the 12 or so new seals required, and whilst those are coming spend several sessions with polishing compound and Brasso. :)

Here's some useful links: