# So, I've bought this bucket of rust and dirt...



## rmaya

In the very beggining sorry for the poor english - not my native language.

Recently found some described as broken silvia. The seller posted it as a burnt heating element. Wanted to take the risk and treated it as the project hoping it could be fixed.

Here are some listing photos:
























Since its a silvia v2 i was hoping that only safety heat switch (hope its the proper name of it) went off.

when the machine arrived I've forgot to take pics of it and only took em during the disasembling process.


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## rmaya

First step (after removing the casing: lets open the boiler to see how bad is it.










Not really nice but could've been worse.

next: let's see if the heater is really broken. with the really cheap multimeter (the only i've had checked the resistance, no result on the meter would mean that it definitely have to be replaced. I was affraid of it as it would mean i had to either replace whole boiler (thats too expensive) or cut the old heater, drill holes and instal the new one. its doable but not that easy.

Anyway, buy plugging in the meter got such nice picture:










Means: we have the power







the fault is elswhere.


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## rmaya

To be 100% sure the heating element was OK flipped it upside down filled it up with the water and plugged in for few seconds. Result: water started to heat up. That was the final confirmation for me that everything MUST be ok with the heating element.

After short inspection (should have started with that) it apeared that the heat switch went off









Conclusion: lets invest some time and money into this









Time to disasemble it completly and see how bad is it.

first look at the PID controller and we have a problem:










looks like the screw from the socket no.3 fell off somehow and did some mess with no.2

will this force me to buy a new controller? NO









after removing all wires, plugged in the power only and got all EEEEs on the screen. Means its alive, not much but still alive.


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## rmaya

Meanwhile, lets descale it. a glass of warm water +20g of citric acid:










The steam pipe also needs some love:










No idea why the producer decided for Silvia V2 and later models to change the metal grouphead cover to plastic one covered with some chrome coating. I believe its cheaper to produce but after few years it looks really bad (vide fist two photos of this topic).

Wanted it to look nicer so decided I'll plasti dip it with some matte (dont know yet what) colour.

Removed the cover and voila, the seller "forgot" to mention it also was broken. Both "legs" broke off and one was missing...










The picture was taken during the process of filling cracks and broken/missing elemnets with epoxy (silver metalic one).


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## rmaya

During the borring epoxy-ing and sanding process:










While it was drying i was wondering how to fix or with what i could replace the missing "leg". Short scavenging in my daughter's room gave me a good result. Namely felt tip pen (hope she will never find out one was missing)









Cut to the size










and glued in. God (or any other creature - you name it) bless the one who invented the epoxy.










I know I could've sanded the whole plastic much better but didn't want to put too much pressure on in as it felt rather fragile - guess its because it was kind of overheated during all those years.

Since the first layer of epoxy was not enough to fill all the cracks I had to make some mold that would keep the shape so I don't have to sand it too much afterwards. Solution: cottage cheese cup and sticky tape (epoxy doesnt stick to any ot those)


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## rmaya

Round one of the descaling (approx 10 mins):










the liquid in the glass shows how important the regular cleaing of the machine is.

Round 2 and final:










This is acceptable now.

After many, many layers of primer and wet sanding of the grouphead cover we are nearly there:










I guess 2 more layers and we are good.


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## rmaya

According to the previous owner or rather his way of instaling the PID controller: how many layers of the double-sided tape you need to instal the controller?

ALL OF THEM


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## rmaya

The frame, habitat of all evil, rust and misery of this world (silvias world).










I'm guessing its the weakest point of the whole construction.

The paint peels off badly in many spots. Since its powder coated I was unable to remove the paint myself with any type of chemistry that would be in my budget.

the solution for this would be sandblasting and will go for it.

Total cost of blasting and electroplating (zinc) I was told will not exceed EUR 15 so why not having it done







powder coat will be another EUR 15.


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## rmaya

While waiting for the frame (will need to wait another week - small items are not on the priority line) Miss silvia was washed and degreased. here she is waiting for new coatings.










this said it would be all folks.

Sorry for being boring and taking your preciuos time









Next update will follow when miss is ready to show all her beauty.


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## MildredM

Flipping heck!! What a mess but how satisfying bring the machine back to life. Keep sharing your progress, we love a good restoration project here


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## Inspector

I quite enjoyed reading all this. Keep sharing your progress.


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## rmaya

That's unexpected honestly speaking as I have no writing gift









By the way, this silvia is my first coffe machine project, but really enjoying it.

The next one will most probably be the coffe grinder once i find a near-death candidate that needs and deserves the restoration.


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## jimbojohn55

ditto , and good repair of the plastic shiggles


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## 4515

Great project. Keep the updates coming.

I wouldnt have the patience to repair with filler and pen tops but it looks like the time spent on the repair was well worth it


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## rmaya

While waiting for the frame i want to insulate the boiler and all heat sources. After spending too much time on finding the thing which was hinding just under my nose almost gave up.

Was trying to find some super-duper sheets of high temperature protection mats but they were either very expensive or available only in big batches of 15-25square meters.

The easiest solution came to me when my wife told me that the ironing board needs new cover... Why didnt i think about it bfeore?

Went to the nearest DIY store and picked a pack of ironing padding. According to the producer its heat resistant up to 200C.

The pack would last for at least 4 silvias









So the next step is boiler insulation and replacement of all electric connectors insulators. the plastic that they are made off is cracked and broken and in many places its not even there.

Does anyone have a template for the boiler insulator precut?


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## El carajillo

I admire your perseverance+


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## Mattius2

Love these threads good work


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## rmaya

Small sneek peak on ms silvia preparing her jewelery.


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## rmaya

I've just learnt that the silvia will need to wait another 14-21 days for her new trinkets


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## rob177palmer

rmaya said:


> I've just learnt that the silvia will need to wait another 14-21 days for her new trinkets


There should be a "dislike" button.

Rubbish news.


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## jimbojohn55

just a thought, did the pid cause the overheating that damaged the wires etc, your doing such a great and detailed repair to this machine that I would hate to see you get it working and overheat again.

a lot of people fit pids with no problems then occasionally I hear of people who have their classic etc damaged by them - this may be because of a particular component fail etc, my point is that all the pid components will probably need checking and how they were installed.

keep up the good work


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## rmaya

Well, its a question I cannot answer yet.

Will test the PID soon and in worst case scenerio will just get rid of it.

Its the simplest auber with temp. control only. I mean it would be nice to have it but if it has to go then it has to go.

we will see.


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## rmaya

Not that I will sit and do nothing while waiting.

Remember this?










New life, ready for instalation:










Also auber is getting new home (OK repainted only):


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## Stanic

Really nice job! You're quite skilled


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## rmaya

Rewire or not rewire, the decision I require...


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## L&R

Wires look good, but if you can hold of some silicone wires with different colours you can play a bit.


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## jimbojohn55

just replace the brittle ones


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## rmaya

Couldn't resist from putting the controller together.










Damn, this thing came out really nice (much better than the photo shows (ignore the dust on it).

Also powered the controller with temp. sensor attached. After the short boot of the controller it showed the correct room temperature and after a second or two the controller went on. I've heard some very quiet, high frequency sound (something like a phone charger when you unplug the phone from it) and also digits changed to to show the temperature that was set. Means the controller should work, how good or bad I'll be only able to determine once I have all parts with me so i could finally put this all together.

I can tell you know it will be nice machine once its done.


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## rmaya

It was worth waiting.

The frame after being sandblasted looks really nice.










Next stop: electroplating


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## Stanic

You could start a business restoring these


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## rmaya

That would mean that I would need to minimize expenses to earn money.

When doing for myself I don't mind tossing some cash on it even if they will never pay back. Just my own pleasure of restoring it and using it afterwards.


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## DRAXXMENVONE

Totally loving this post. Good work. It's alive! Alive!


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## rmaya

Ok. Another update.

Since most probably after the weekend I will finally get all parts back I've decided to work on gaskets today.

I can tell you those for sure have never been replaced ever before.

Here you can see the difference between new and old ones:










Boiler gasket is in let's say OK condition but grouphead gasket is a disaster.

Took me quite some time to take it off. It's hard as rock and breaks like plastic instead of being flexible like rubber.

Shame on those who doesn't maintain their machines properly.


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## rmaya

Miss silva (frame) is coming back home.


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## rmaya

It's been a while now. Had no time to even look at the silvia lately.

She is getting her shape back again:










and the first shot to check if everything is working fine. Have no scale, no tamper or any other equipment other than grinder and silvia but sill the result wasn't bad:










p.s. why the damn tinypic flips my photos?


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## rmaya

So here it is, the end of the story.

I've had lots of fun during the process of bringing it to life and learnt few new things.

Last minutes of the project were also surprising. It appeared they the temp sensor is broken - the PID was showing weird values when mashine was on for few minutes. When I was switching it off it was showing 105C as set but after replacing the sensor it showed 147C!

Anyway here is how my lil Silvia looks like now after reaching her destination point:










Full set ready for action. Only msj needs some upgrades like a timer and motor cover


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## L&R

Very nice, especially knobs you should replace the steam wand with v3


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## willvo84

Wow what a transformation, that thing looked awful.

I've had mine 4 years and used it daily and the print on the buttons on mine hasn't faded at all. That thing must have been hammered!


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## Stanic

Looks like the efforts were well worth it

Enjoy your coffee!


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## Graham J

Showing persistence!

Great work so far, I'll be interested to see the next steps.


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## RazorliteX

Brilliant thread, well done for all the hard work you have put into it.


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## Jon

rmaya said:


> So here it is, the end of the story.
> 
> I've had lots of fun during the process of bringing it to life and learnt few new things.
> 
> Last minutes of the project were also surprising. It appeared they the temp sensor is broken - the PID was showing weird values when mashine was on for few minutes. When I was switching it off it was showing 105C as set but after replacing the sensor it showed 147C!
> 
> Anyway here is how my lil Silvia looks like now after reaching her destination point:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Full set ready for action. Only msj needs some upgrades like a timer and motor cover


Awesome thread! Great work!


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## Phelixhuawei

What paint did you use on this job? And is it withstanding any bangs?

It turned out really well


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