# Faema Faemina Second Series Brown Handle Refurb



## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Two days ago right before going to bed I found something quite interesting: a Faemina for sale from California for a very good price of $100 listed three hours prior. It was being sold for parts supposedly because the seller was unable to put it back together during refurbish. I snatched it up right then and there and was going to wait for it to arrive and post about it, but today I was sent an additional photo that made me want to confirm my mild shock: It appears the base shaft connecting the base to the body has either been sheared or sawn into two pieces!!! At the minimum the shaft either has tremendous wear or was attacked with some tools in an effort to get it out of the body. I guess this is why it was so cheap 😬

Just want to check that this is what occured so I can collect myself and figure out a fix. From what I can see myself doing if it is broken is to insert a metal pipe with and OD of the original shaft's ID and weld it to place for support and fuse them together. If truly knackered I am sending this to a metal doctor to fix it up so I do not bungle it more as I doubt this is a part that can be purchased like the seals and gaskets can. It's a shame in a way that this is the broken piece as even if it is not running I was looking for a Faemina for a display piece.

Outside of that I am pretty surprised Faema still made machines in the late 50's/early 60's with the brown bakelite, and my original reasoning to buy this lot was for those handles as I like the colour of brown bakelite over black bakelite. Besides the knockbox everything else was present from what I saw in the original posting and additional photos the seller gave me.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Ok when I got the box today I literally busted out laughing at the absolute poor packaging. Multiple holes and tears in the abused box.








Honestly everything survived except for the boiler bakelite cap, which can be fixed. The Faemina truly is a damage resistant behemouth of a domestic machine. Perhaps the only other damage I could see from the shipping process was a possible ding in the base that does not quite fit the bottom piece. The precious brown bakelite portafilter and lever handles survived as did the steam knob and tamper(?). The machine is from October of 1963 but I do not have the serial number. The front sticker was included but only had the voltage and wattage displayed (the serial number got torn off). So far it appears nothing crucial fell out of the holes in the box...
















































Now here is why I paid only $100 for it. The shaft appeared to be cut off then attacked with some method of pliers, leaving it warped and scarred. This is definitely something I'll have someone fix for me due to my lack of welding and metal repair skill. I am fully willing to fork out the dough since I started with so little cost basis and at the same time I have my original Faema President levers that can get rechromed in tandem. I can finally then return the Zodiaco levers to its namesake.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

I cleaned the inside of the boiler and I could see that the piston gasket was bad as it leaked from the shower plate a little during the process, so I had the body of the Faemina held in the dish rack to drain into the kitchen sink. I rinsed it out a few times to fully get rid of the citric acid. I am debating to keep the 220V elements or order the 110V reproduction elements. It depends on how long I want the machine to be a display piece basically.








I did some disassembly just to check things out and to see if anything was stuck. So far most stuff came off without much effort/whacking but the heating elements need to soak as the gaskets are keeping them stuck in. The steam valve had some hemp inside that I took out while wet to prevent potential asbestos shenanigans. I twisted the hemp out with the bakelite cap and then took my pick and pulled it out in wet chunks. Using my Elektra spring jig's bolt holes I could place the Faemina body upside down to work on the bottom stuff. The glass is quite stuck so the gasket keeping it in place will need some soaking. I will not touch the spring assembly until I order all the parts, probably from Francesco.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Right now I cannot tell if the elements work. I popped the off this morning and will not take anything more apart right now. My resistance is constantly changing from 4Ω to 110Ω between the 200W and 800W elements on my DMM so it could be the device. What is also interesting to note is the 200W element was newer than the 800W by 5 months. The 800W has an October 1963 stamp while the 200W has a March 1964 date. The machine is likely from 1963 as I first saw.

I also am in the process of placing my order with Francesco Ceccarelli. He has all the goodies I need: gaskets, spring removal tool, rubber feet, and an add-on manometer kit for a very fair price. The spring feels firm enough for me to try it out before buying a replacement.

































Take a side look I am pretty certain the shaft is not pointing straight up at 90 degrees. As long as it does not impede operation I will not do anything to repair this. The aluminum also appears to have a lacquer layer that is peeling off.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Is the battery low in your meter ??


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Yea that is a definite possibility as I left it on all night a while back but I do not have a spare/have not gotten around to checking that out yet. I will have time to check it out as the parts I ordered will take 3-4 weeks arrive and the shaft will not be dealt with for 2-3 weeks.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Nice find, this will be wort quite a lot once finished


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Picked up the Faemina body today. They did an awesome job removing the old shaft and making a new stainless steel replacement. It is hollow and has holes for the pin on the bottom where the base connects and the wiring to fit in. The tool they used to get the old shaft off is called a slide hammer. It directs force to the shaft without striking it. They fixed the Faemina body to a padded vise, heated it up with a torch, and pulled. It did not work the first day so the used some special penetrating oil that cannot be purchased by consumers and sold only to autoshops. He swears it cannot be beat and he gave me a small can to try out in the future! It came out the next day.

  

  

  

  

I am at a point where I would be happy to leave the machine as is if there was no way to fix it up. The chrome is all in very good condition outside of a portion on the portafilter that is not usually visible. I originally wanted a 'looker' but it should be pretty simple to get it running again. The biggest eyesore is it bends a little bit from where the previous owner grasped the base really hard, damaging it. It appears pretty sound integrity wise when I pull the lever so it should not hamper coffee production.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Hmm I am not sure why but the images are not being shown to others besides me. Here they are posted here as I cannot edit the other post anymore


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Oooo that's looking pretty


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Mmmm a little package from Italy arrived. I wonder what could be inside? A table fan?
















Nope it's the Cecarelli care package. Full gasket set + tool + manometer kit.
















I am soaking the cylinder shaft after some initial probing with the tool in the sleeve without success. The pentrating oil I am trying out is BG In-Force. There are two extra pins to insert if you want more leverage in the tool as I believe the current configuration can fit the first gen Pavoni group sleeve.
















One of the switches were loose but I could tighen it back up. The top cap is assembled with new gaskets, but I still need to put the cracked bakelite back together.









































I will need to think of something for the warped aluminum base and the bottom cover. I can either file it down a bit or perhaps figure out a way to bend the wall back.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

After a 5 day soak the little b**tard yielded with some whacking. The cylinder was quite stuck, and in the process I actually knocked off the showerscreen to see the piston. I realized the piston rests against the cylinder, meaning the spring was forced against it and impeding my unscrewing attempts. I got a family member to cock the lever while I whacked the cylinder tool. I used a 5/16" rod with electrical tape wrapped around the parts touching the removal tool for a snug fit. It came off tonight as a result. I could then remove the piston with some wood hand clamps. I used a 12" one to do this and you only need to compress it about 1/4 in to tap out the rod that connects the fork to the assembly.









































The gaskets were very baked on and brittle, the one going on the cylinder was left in the piston shaft until I picked it out. The sight glass was accessible now and I took my picks and stabbed the interior rubber gasket to gently force the glass out of its cover.

































I'll still need to take off the 26mm upper shaft as I accidently bought the wrong size socket wrench extender size (3/8" instead of 1/2" for the drive size) so that will wait a bit. In the meanwhile I can start cleaning everything for final assembly. Nothing has broken so far and I happily expect to have it running soon (probably more like a month but I like to be optimistic).

The switches use #4 screws, and I bought some replacements to successfully validate this observsation. One side of the faemina is a little bent so I used some M4 washers to make the switch level. The feet take #6 screws and I bought some bevelled 1/4" bevelled sink gaskets. One of the photos show from left to right the 10mm rubber foot used on early second generation Faeminas, the feet that came with my Faemina, and my replacement feet. I will make a divot to fit the screws in so that the rubber is touching the counter surface.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Soaking the nut will be useful with the prior mentioned socket lip protuding a bit, leaving little to grasp the nut. I could grind the face of the socket but I currently do not have the tools to do that.
















I cleaned up the piston parts and threw on their gaskets. The small round cap screws the lower piston into the upper portion, with a large fender-washer-esque gasket preventing water from getting through any gap between them. I took some grey scotch brite (00 equivalent to steel wool) and brushed up the pieces, with the bench grinder wire brushing following up if there was leftover residue gunk. The spring could be replaced but I still think it has enough strength to be used.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Could you get hold of a ' BOX SPANNER' to suit the nut ? , no rounding on the end (as socket). If not long enough you could use a socket on the box spanner ?


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Ah! I was looking for that originally but did not know the name. I got one ordered now and it will arrive in a few weeks. £16 for one with shipping to the US from the UK is pretty fair I think.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Since it would take two-three weeks for the box spanner to get here I tried a close SAE size, 1-1/32 inch. Unfortunately it was too bit to fit and I stopped all attempts when I saw it would not budge and would instead slightly round the nut. It's still mostly good but I will be waiting for a bit to properly get it off unless someone has a different alternative. Just to confirm is it common for this 26mm nut to be quite stuck on there? I played around with the dark thought of trying to run the machine without switching out that nut gasket but I would prefer not having to rely on that old thing.

Beyond that I focused on cleaning up the boiler of the old remaining heating element gaskets and cap gasket. The latter was not noticeable until I tried putting on the replacing o-ring gasket mating the Faemina top with the boiler and not getting it to fit. Tomorrow I will need to get a wire brush attachment for my drill to clean up the heating element gasket mess. I tried to get as much off with picks but like my Faema Zodiaco they are quite stubborn to remove with that method and requires an alternative strategy.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

I got some goodies in the mail so I was able to proceed further today. I got a 26mm socket with no chamfer, so it is flat at the tip and could grasp the entire shaft nut. It came off with about 25 ft-lb of torque so I needed another person to hold the Faemina from turning while I did this. Here is a comparison of the socket with no chamfer on the left and a normal 12 point socket on the right.

















The other thing received in the mail was a 1 inch wire cup brush with a hex shaft so I could brush the remaining boiler gasket away. I used a 12" extender to reach in the boiler propely and followed up with 00 steel wool for cleanup. It worked well and the element flanges are ready to accept new gaskets.

































I took off the lacquer on the aluminum base as it was peeling off. I did this using my thumb nail in a push method so I did not scratch the aluminum. I am very pleasantly surprised at the condition of the aluminum underneath and will simply use some polish cream and microfiber cloth to clean it up.

























I am waiting for a package to arrive before final assembly that was very generously donated by a friend.


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## Superneat (Jun 16, 2020)

Nice job, looking forward to seeing the end result!


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## John Yossarian (Feb 2, 2016)

Great job! Your perseverance and ingenuity have no end.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Just a few things left to do at this point. I got the group assembled today using the Orphan Espresso method of inserting the piston attached to the rod already then tightening the piston shaft nut after insertion. I was a little in the moment so did not take many photos of the process.

























I am beyond satisfied at this point. I have a very nice 'looker' machine but of course I will get it running when some electrical stuff arrives in the mail. I also will clean up the drip tray a bit and repair the bakelite top when I am certain I can do it. If it were not brown I would dive into it but I want to ensure the repair does not look bad. I also found two small cracks in the lever handle bakelite, so I will need to watch that to see if it needs repairs as well. My biggest concern right now is the bent shaft able to withstand normal usage, but that is something I cannot confirm until I actually use the machine for a while.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

A package arrived yesterday from Canada. A spare set of Faemina elements very generously gifted to me by an HB forum member to replace a broken element I had, the 800W one. At some point he will receive a surprise care package with the specification that I do not say when it will get there 😉 
















I got the wiring done yesterday night but I did not test the machine until today as it took me 2 hours to get three wires through the SS shaft. I am pretty certain the wiring was not original from the factory and I tested them to be functioning fine with intact insulation so I did not replace it.

































Plugging in the Faemina for the first time resulted in heat-up, taking ~8 minutes to reach 0.5 bar. Pulling the lever introduced me to a group integrated with the boiler. The slightest tug on the lever will cause water to shoot out pretty rapidly. I drained the boiler through the group to clear any potentially remaining particles from the cleanup process and prepped my first shot. The basket is not 49mm, more like 50-51mm. I thought the spring was pretty weak but my shot was pulled in 10s with my presumed grind setting and 14.5g of coffee so I definitely need to tweak that a bit.

































I just need to get the bottom plate to fit the base and fashion the rubber feet plus fix the bakelite cap and then this project is complete! I am very happy to have a functioning Faemina considering it came to me in pieces...


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