La Marzocco Rebuild - Part 2

This is the inside of the steam boiler after the descaling process.

I buffed the outside of the steam boiler with a wire wheel to shine it up a bit.

The partially shined steam boiler.

Here is the steam boiler completely cleaned and ready to reinstall.

The steam boiler from the heating element side.

This is the banjo bolt I broke while trying to disassemble the third group head.

I met a great guy online by the name of Barry Jarrett.

He owns a shop named Riley's Coffee & Fudge (www.rileys-coffee.com).

He had a used banjo bolt from an old machine that he sent me.

Here is a picture of the used banjo bolt from above after I cleaned it up.

This brew boiler is the old style with the captive nuts instead of the bold posts.
You have to use a special gasket with a sealant in order to get it to work.
You can see the green sealant and the brush I was using for it in the background.

Here is a shot of the gasket with the sealant applied.
Getting the bolts to all align without stripping them was a bit of a trick.
I ended up using a wooden dowel rod inserted through the heating element hole to bump the captive nuts while reassembling it.

This is a shot of the front control panel before it was polished.
There were a lot of scratches all over this machine. Now it is like a mirror!

Before I mounted the steam boiler back in the chassis, I wanted to test it for leaks.
I hooked up all the pieces necessary to make it a closed system and pumped it full of air with a bicycle tire pump.
There was a leak at the boiler and the T-fitting that feeds the pressure switch and steam pressure gauge.
I ended up using a special food grade thread sealer from Loc-Tite to keep it from leaking.

The steam pressure valve shows the pressure holding steady at just under 1.5 bars.

I had all of the back parts on the machine sand blasted and power coated.

This is a close up view of the power coated pieces. I was very happy with the result.

The frame starts to go back together.

I decided to do a PID modification to this machine.
I replaced the mechanical temperature controller with a thermocouple, Fuji temperature controller, and a solid state relay.
I mounted the relay in the bottom of the machine on a piece of aluminum angle stock that doubles as a heat sync.

This is a close up of the solid state relay, mounted and wired.

Both boilers installed.

The control panel is mounted and some of the plumbing is installed

Front view with both boilers installed and the control panel mounted.

The group heads are fully assembled.
Plumbing is completely reinstalled.
The wiring harness is almost reinstalled.

Angle view with wiring harness completely reinstalled.

I rotated the machine onto its back in order to mount the bottom panel and the Fuji temperature controller.

Here is a close up of the mounted Fuji controller.

A close up view of the machine reassembled, wired, and plumbed.

A view of my Everpure water filters temporarily mounted.

My La Pavoni grinder sitting next to my newly refurbished La Marzocco espresso machine.

Me and my espresso machine.