TomKat Senior Member Joined: 5 Jan 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Arroyo Grande, CA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: several Unics, La Pavoni... Grinder: Mazzer, Rancilio and a beat... Vac Pot: Bodum Drip: a porcelain, one cup filter...
Posted Wed Jan 5, 2005, 7:23pm Subject: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
I am in the process of completely rebuilding a Brasilia America Maxi (2 group w/grinder, 220Volt) machine. It was so loaded with scale that I stripped it completely down and soaked the boiler and all pipes in fittings in acid several times to clean them. I am ready to rebuild and the guy at Rosito Bisani (Brasilia importer in LA) advised me to use teflon tape and loctite thread locking sealant on certain fittings. His English was choppy and he was throwing a lot of info at me so I didn't get it all but does anyone have an opinion on this? should I teflon tape and loctite every boiler connection? Any advice for someone in my rebuilding shoes is appreciated. Tom
x Senior Member Joined: 29 Sep 2002 Posts: 322 Location: x Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Wed Jan 5, 2005, 8:30pm Subject: Re: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
Hello,
should I teflon tape and loctite every boiler connection? Any advice for someone in my rebuilding shoes is appreciated
I have only rebuilt one machine. I used teflon tape only. The machine was assembled without tape and I felt like a baby using tape, plumbing is not my forte. Some of the fittings were compression and a few were really classy full flare fittings. I had only one small leak and that was at a large teflon gasket between the grouphead and boiler. I was too green to think about replacing those, but the leak was easily stopped. If I was to do it again I would take a more macho approach and put the joints back together dry just to see if I could. I was that impressed by the quality of the parts and workmanship.
coffeejedi Senior Member Joined: 18 Feb 2003 Posts: 9 Location: Lennox Head, Australia Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: 1970's Faema Compact Grinder: Mazer Mini
Posted Wed Jan 5, 2005, 8:45pm Subject: Re: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
Gday mate. I too have only rebuilt one machine - a faema compct 2 group - made 2 into 1, it was a wreak. I didn't use loctite or teflon. If the mating surfaces of the fittings are clean and smooth there should be no need. I descaled them very thoughly and sanded them with very fine grit wet and dry. I have been running my machine for a year ( with 3 house moves in that time ) and have had no problems with boiler fittings leaking. The fittings off my pump have leaked a bit though (settled down now). I was forced to use slightly different olives in the nuts and had to make sure they were carefully tightened up.
TomKat Senior Member Joined: 5 Jan 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Arroyo Grande, CA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: several Unics, La Pavoni... Grinder: Mazzer, Rancilio and a beat... Vac Pot: Bodum Drip: a porcelain, one cup filter...
Posted Wed Jan 5, 2005, 11:22pm Subject: Re: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
Thanks for the insight. Loctite confused me a little too. I did notice some glue like substance around the threads of some of the fittings when I was cleaning them. I'm guessing that the repair guy who doesn't want to come back to fix leaky fittings at a customer's location, recommends overdoing things (i.e. loctite and teflon) to ensure there is no leaking. I think I'll wet sand the mating surfaces (btw, nice tip - so far I've use brush attachments on my drill) and be unmacho and use teflon tape as insurance. Hopefully I can resurrect this thing and get it humming like it did before years of neglect.
Posted Thu Jan 6, 2005, 6:26am Subject: Re: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
Use either Loctite (452) or Teflon. Teflon can break brass parts if you use a bit too much and there is no way to readjust a seal whereas Loctitite is very good around parts that need to be oriented in a specific direction.
Some manufacturers use Loctite everywhere others only on parts where orientation is critical. I would use copper/teflon seals wherever possible and loctite only on angle parts.
gscace Senior Member Joined: 19 Dec 2001 Posts: 237 Location: Laytonsville, MD USA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: La Marzocco Linea 2AV, Astra... Grinder: 3 Mazzers Robur, Kony,... Vac Pot: Cona D, Hario Nouveau Drip: Technivorm Roaster: Has Garanti 1kg. electric
Posted Thu Jan 6, 2005, 7:52am Subject: Re: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
be very careful wrt using the correct Loctite. Some loctite products are designed as pipe sealants and some are screw thread locking compounds that are a real bitch to disassemble. I personally feel that if the fitting is designed to be assembled dry, then it should be assembled dry, and replaced if it doesn't work that way. I don't like teflon floating around my machines.
Posted Thu Jan 6, 2005, 3:41pm Subject: Re: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
Locktite teflon sealand is a lot better than the thread tape for any fittings. It is easier to use-just smear a bit on the end threads of the male part of the pipe thread.
One advantage of using this is any that gets inside of the fitting will be flushed out and not get stuck where small pieces of thread tape will. It also seals a LOT better than tape.
It is white paste and NOT blue or red which are the thread lockers for nuts and bolts.
TomKat Senior Member Joined: 5 Jan 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Arroyo Grande, CA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: several Unics, La Pavoni... Grinder: Mazzer, Rancilio and a beat... Vac Pot: Bodum Drip: a porcelain, one cup filter...
Posted Thu Jan 6, 2005, 3:53pm Subject: Re: Question on rebuilding a commercial machine
Sounds good. I purchased some teflon "paste" that can withstand high temperature. I think I'll give that a whirl and skip the tape and the thread sealer for now. Thanks for all the input.
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