# Australian Bo-Ema Lever Machine



## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

I got another machine in my hands, and I quite excited about it. It's an Australian Boema 2 group machine that was found in New York City, and I hauled it back to my place yesterday after an 8 hour trip and a nor'easter blowing through the drive. The seller was very nice and he knew of me through some Facebook groups I am part of. We saw some cars that slipped in the storm but we managed to get back without issue. It was mine for $200, and I got a Gaggia Gx for free as well.

I will state right now this machine will not be touched until I am done with the Mercurio at the minimum because of the pieces I will need to source and or reproduce, but I want to show the initial state. The exterior is pretty dirty but I think it can be cleaned up. If I powdercoat the panels I will keep the colour as I like that hot rod red. What is immediately apparant is a steam wand is missing, there are no portafilters, and a lever rod is missing. The machine also appears to have no feet so the frame is resting directly on the wood crate below it.

























The rod itself has some damaged and rusted thread, and I would look at getting two reproduction rods made as a result. First I want to see if a modern lever would fit the thread first of the lever fork.
















The boiler is missing its lid but the aluminum ring and the bolts are still present. There are five connections on the lid that I would need to make on the new reproduction lid. They are the p-stat, water inlet, the steam wands, and hot water. The p-stat is an interesting design that is rated for 25A 125-250V, and is made in Japan. It is the only thing that I have potentially found a date for, September 1983. 








































The groups are an interesting design. The boiler connection uses some enormous BSP compression fittings, must be at least an 1" in pipe diameter. The groups themselves remind me of a mix of various groups. It has aluminum caps held by three screws. Underneath are the bearings, bearing guides, and lever fork. I also noted that I can take off the upper group through two hex screws, which is nice. It appears the bearing guides are a mismatch as it seems one of them was repaired with a weld at some point.









































































This is a cool machine I think as it is pretty obscure and was made by an Australian company rather than the traditional Italian one. It was pretty wild to find one near me in the US.


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## Rincewind (Aug 25, 2020)

Hi Ryan, ...WOW $200 (£148) that's unbelievable...i'd feel like i had mugged the guy at that price...you lucky so and so..

This will be another of your threads that i shall be watching like a hawk.

I've been meaning to ask you and @Cana if you (over the pond), Cana being here may have come across these....anyhow i swear blind by these "stainless steel scourers"....i've used them on my motorbike stanchions and other heavy chromed stuff for about 20 years and they are magical at removing different types of crud...the green speckly stuff you have on the lower group and group cover (picture 5 and 7 ☝counting upwards from the bottom) will be a piece of cake for these things to remove....they even remove "light" surface rust (not the heavy rust on your lever threads shown ☝ above)....i've even been known to use them on some (but not all) painted surfaces and they work a charm......you couldn't do this with Brillo (soap-pads) WIRE WOOL in the States as you'd get fine fairy scratches.

These maybe available in the U.S, in which case i apologise. They look like "SWARF" but not as hard/sharp. You can tell when they are getting worn/not doing their job as they go all "grey" and start to leave a Grey-smear on whatever you are cleaning; at which point it's time to toss them in the garbge.

They cost peanuts and are meant for stainless/chrome/other pots and pans mainly...it was an accident that i used one on bike years ago but instantly fell in love with them. The one on the right hand side is nearly worn out...the lhs one is what they look like new.


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## Cana (Mar 7, 2015)

Rumpelstiltskin said:


> Hi Ryan, ...WOW $200 (£148) that's unbelievable...i'd feel like i had mugged the guy at that price...you lucky so and so..
> 
> This will be another of your threads that i shall be watching like a hawk.
> 
> ...


 Definitely know of them and bave used them in the past. I tend to use whatever I currently have though. So green scourers, 000 fine steel wool etc etc.


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## Rincewind (Aug 25, 2020)

Cana said:


> Definitely know of them and bave used them in the past. I tend to use whatever I currently have though. So green scourers, 000 fine steel wool etc etc.


 The green scourers (i think they're nylon iirc) i find "can" scratch some surfaces; it depends upon the pressure applied.....i haven't used wire wool for years and years as i definately find that it "does" leave scratches/fairy-lines on some "polished" surfaces......i wouldn't use the ones i've shown on my new Londinium mirror polished surfaces as i'd rather test the inside "cover-plates" first as a tester...but i can guarantee they do take light "pitting/green-mouldy-pitting" off with less/no "after-effects" than wire-wool does.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

Rumpelstiltskin said:


> I've been meaning to ask you and @Cana if you (over the pond), Cana being here may have come across these....anyhow i swear blind by these "stainless steel scourers".


 I am not really sure. The only time I've used steel wool was to clean the inside of a Faema Faemina boiler. I have used only Autosol and a polishing cloth on all exterior metal panels after a soapy wash, and that is what I plan to use here.


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## Rincewind (Aug 25, 2020)

Hi Ryan, yeah i go through tubes and tubes of Autosol on the vehicles; but for the little dimples/pits that Autosol doesn't quite shift i resort to the scourers shown above. Give one a try bro on something; you'll either be impressed/not...YMMV. Good luck with this machine; i'm rooting for yer.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

I had to take a peak inside the groups after hearing cruncy noises when I tried engaging the piston. Turns out the seals failed at some point and rust developed inside! The three allen bolts that hold the upper group came out, but both rear bolts were a little rusty and needed some persuasion to come out.

What I find interesting is the size of the allen key is not metric but SAE, 7/32 inch. The last pic shows the rear of the upper group, and there is a small theaded bolt welded onto the bottom of the fork for when the group is at rest position. Also note there is a thread at the top of the lower group in the third pic. I am curious what the purpose of that thread is.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

I say I am not going to touch it but I keep ending up with more pieces off the frame. It's really weird to use SAE on a coffee machine. The only metric fittings I've seen are the compression nuts on the pipes, at 19mm. Everything else is SAE. I took off the lower groups to get a better look at them and to start cleaning them up. It's a weird combination of two hex bolts on the upper two fittings while the lower two fittings are threaded rods. The latter will need heat to take out as they are pretty rusty. The boiler itself is actually connected only to the flange fittings with no other support for it. If I undo the two group flange fittings and the other pipes I can yoink out the boiler.









































There is a shutoff valve behind the groups. One was very loose when I tried taking it off then there was no resistance at all. The bolt was either shearing or already sheared off. Fortunately I could take out the remaining bolt as it was connected to another fitting that can be taken off. Not sure if I ever want to shutoff the groups so it's not the worst thing to break. I suspect the scale buildup froze the bolt and resulted in too much force being exerted for the bolt to handle. I simply took out the whole fitting of the shutoff valve on the other group rather than attempt to loosen the bolt.

















I threw the groups in my sonic cleaner and took out the shower screens. I had to flip the groups so I could soak the entire surface for a total of 2 cycles per group. They need whacking with a wood handle to pop out and the portafilter gaskets were pretty hard. I measured them to be 7mm in height so that explains why even my Faema portafilters did not really lock in. I can go for 8-9mm pf gaskets since they are standard e61 in OD and ID and hopefully adapt a modern pf to the groups. The group cylinders will need to be wire brushed to get the remaining rust off. They also accept an IMS shower screen but I'll see if I can salvage the originals. Exterior really is not too bad and I can bring some luster back with a polish.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

So there was a change in events today. The seller found the missing bits from the guy he got the machine from, and now I see this Boema does have feet, but it is slotted like my missing Mercurio feet. There are probably two other ones missing but this is very interesting to see and I will take measurements of these feet for others to see. The lever is still missing so I will have two reproductions made. The element looks pretty knackered but hopefully it's an M32 x 1.5 like other modern elements. It looks _very_ knackered.

I am working out a price as my original negotiations were based off the missing bits and will have them shipped to me this time.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

The missing parts arrived today, and I believe I now have a year of manufacture: 1981, inscribed on the boiler lid. It is massively overkill and the heaviest lid I have handled so far. It clocks in at an impressive 16lb/7kg!

























The portafilters are really cool and remind me of the older spouts seen on 50's machines. The ears are really far down but they look normal in shape.
















The heating element hex is 2 inches but I believe the thread is 1 1/4 inch. I'll need to confirm this first.








I also received a scan of a service manual from an older Boema machine. It is very interesting to read and I got the permission of the owner to post it, which I will do here.


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## Rincewind (Aug 25, 2020)

Those spouts look awesome.....as for that "plate" you'd certainly know if it fell off the bench and landed on your toes :classic_blink:


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## NickR (Jul 1, 2011)

Great thread, very entertaining - many thanks for taking the time to post


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## allikat (Jan 27, 2020)

Interesting that one of the supplied portafilters looks to be wrong for the machine, and has the spouts twisted around to be in the right spot when used with that grouphead. It resembles a Gaggia portafilter to me.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

allikat said:


> Interesting that one of the supplied portafilters looks to be wrong for the machine, and has the spouts twisted around to be in the right spot when used with that grouphead. It resembles a Gaggia portafilter to me.


 yea that third guy goes to the basket case Gaggia GX I got for free with this Boema 😅. The boema pf is the heaviest one I've handled, absolute units.


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## IamOiman (Nov 13, 2018)

With the arrival of the face spanner tool for the Pavoni P67 I could also do the same for the Boema groups! It was the same process of securing the group to the vise then unscrewing them with 5mm pins.

As an aside I am getting requests by some other collectors on what my spanner tool is; I got the OTC 6613 Variable Pin Spanner Wrench for ~$60 USD. Really good acquisition I think.

The pistons came off pretty easily even with the rust. There was a small pile on the floor, and this is after I cleaned up the pistons before hand! With the pistons off I could unscrew the bearing bolts and the bearings themselves with a 15mm wrench. The lever fork and rod could then be pushed out from above.































I like the group design. It is very simple with not too many parts involved. Note the lever fork pin connecting it to the lever rod is designed to not come out. The fork was punched at the edge of the pin hole to cause a little metal to go in the pin hole and secure the pin.









































So somehow I am doing three projects concurrently. I made a quick workbench to have enough surface to organize myself. It probably does not hold the most weight (please ignore the legs being on the exterior of the bench!) but the surface area is great for me!


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