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).
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).
