kempy Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Shed's all tidy and I'm still waiting for stuff to turn up for other projects so I can make some progress, so I might as well do something. This is a rebuild on one of 2 Faema E61 Legend's that are sitting in the shed slowly decomposing. I'm going to post lots of pics for a couple of reasons such as a bit of info for someone else wanting to fix their own machine or that whenever people take their coffee machine to the repairers, they feel like they've been ripped off, in some cases that may be true, generally these machines need a ton of work when they haven't had regular maintenance. I've chosen a machine that's typical of a couple of years of no servicing and bad practices when being used.(will explain later) edit: ok this one is fairly grotty now I've opened it up So here we have it, a reasonably common and well loved machine by Barista's all over the world, it's circa 2001 (not the original 1960's one that cost moonbeams to buy now), but still a well respected machine. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Here's a pic or the rear, already with a quick glance problems present themselves. From here you can see a lot of lime scale facing the bottom panel indicating a long term water leak, there is black powdered rubber on the pump motor which indicates the pump has been shaking a fair bit for some reason, and the blue end of the boiler indicates that there is a major issue at the other end. Moving around the boiler it becomes pretty obvious that there has been a long term leak around the heating element with the amount of lime scale build up. Moving back around the front, the tray shows some signs of rust and corrosion on some of the pipes, the group heads also have a degree of pitting. Hopefully they'll clean up ok and the boilers is in reasonable condition. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Here's a close up of the group head, despite looking quite pitted, I think they'll come up ok with a polish and cleaned out internally. There's a few dents in the chrome but it's not worth the hassle getting it fixed. A peek inside the rear cover shows that the leak was spraying into the cover, it must have been hissing a fair bit! Now we start to get a bit of a clue what the machine is like internally, this water level should be white, the water inside looks like a bunch of pox. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 The Boiler. First off, to decide whether this is going to be a salvageable machine we need to see what condition the machine is like internally, if it's heavily corroded inside the boiler and pipes then it's probably write off which I really hope it isn't, I'd really like to keep it, normally there is a degree of lime scale build up. Here's a look at the water heater leak wit the cover off, as said before it's had this leak for quite some time to get a scale build up this thick. Another issue is that one of the connectors has been loose 2 of the terminal have got abnormally hot it's started to break down the plastic cover on the red and black feeds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Time to drain the boiler so I can pull it out and inspect, normally you'd do this in place but indications are that I'll need to strip a pile of crap out from inside. Here's better view of the water, I'll keep it for the shed tour and the one to drink it gets some beers. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HighLUX Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Fuck and im paying $5 for brown caffeine sludge that comes out of these sorta machines 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Lol, they're not usually this bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xsspeed Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 nice work, will be watching, I have a faema compact as my first machine, I need to run some water to it and ill be away 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 I bet the owner was wondeing why it was so slow to heat up Might be in luck, most of the lime scale is in a muddy state, it hasn't set rock hard and most of it just washes off with a hose. Comparing the water from the boiler to last night's picture it shows that most of the lime scale is being carried in the water. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
63Ragtop Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 YUMMY. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Pete Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Were they using Waitomo Cave water or something? Would a Auckland machine get like that? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
V8Pete Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Also, I keep thinking you've bought a 5-series wagon when I see this thread. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xsspeed Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 pesky bmws kept coming up in my trademe searches ///theyre no c55 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Nice BMW spotting Pete! I think this was a 'Vegas machine, that area is pretty hard on them. It really depends where you live in Auckland and how well/often you change filters, but this would be many years in Auckland, 2-4 in' Vegas. The results can differ a lot in the same area of the city though, it almost seems like some of the low lying areas of the water supply are worse than others, as if the deposits as heavy and travel down hill and settle in the machines when compared to machines further up the hill as odd as that sounds. Wee bit more progress as I delve into the bowels of this machine. Enjoy!! View inside the boiler, you can see the water level mark on the L/H side This sludgy bit is the bottom, some of it was around 2-3cm thick Flushed out 60-70 % of the loose stuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 6, 2015 Author Share Posted July 6, 2015 Back to the machine with the boiler out, light bit of corrosion, seen far worse in these machines. The pump isn't happy at all and it's broken free of it's rubber mounts, between the leaks and pump noise this thing must have sounded like a tractor. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubastreet Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Probably depends what reservoir the water comes from. I used to service rockets and the ones from Karori up on the hill were almost always bad. Look forward to seeing the finished machine, sing out if you need any parts. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyfive Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 I used to service rockets.... What? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xsspeed Posted July 6, 2015 Share Posted July 6, 2015 Rocket coffee machine j5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempy Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Stripped down for cleaning Just stole the spray and wipe from the kitchen and will let it soak in for a day. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rumrum Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Shit this is a real cool thread! Watching with interest kempy Ps do humans just piss the lime scale out or will it eventually block my cock hole up? Im quite worried about that 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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