gummybun Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 20 Location: canada Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Thu May 15, 2008, 4:57pm Subject: CMC Machine Lever Hybrid (renamed post)
Ok, Hello, and please don't tell me off for being in the wrong place here but feel fre to tell me where to go if I am! I have this odd machine, and although it sure looks a bit drab it has an interesting mechanism that I trying to work on and I am looking for advise.
I will try to attach images...
It has the badge CMC - Napoli. Only date is on the thermostat -1978
As you will see in the photos it has a good size Boiler for a wee machine, That feeds a Piston Group driven by a Crank Arm attached to a Clockwork or Torque Motor thing.
I never see this design in my web searches...
Not much to it really - it works well enough but I think it needs new 'rings' as the water/pressure escapes out the top of the piston.
I would value any thoughts, advise, direction, etc...
I have tried to reduce images to the size limit of 75kb but they look like crap... so I have attached some links to Imagepile - which I can only hope will work...here goes...
I cleaned up the html tags & the duplicate repost of the same links. I unflagged your two posts that were tagged as spam & that should be sufficient to keep it from happening again.
gummybun Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 20 Location: canada Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Tue May 20, 2008, 9:04am Subject: Re: I'm new here (Hi) and I'm looking for someone to ID this machine...
So, I'm new to this geek site, and I don't want to get up any noses, but I have to ask....
So many views and so little comment?
I came by this site from Paul Pratt's article on the Faema E61 restoration (my next, more scary project) which in turn led me to a couple of suppliers who I felt might have the piston 'rings' for the old CMC machine (if I were able to give precise measurements). I like the CMC machine as it differs from the ubiquitous vibro pump units and would like to optimize it's shot quality for comparison.
Is someone sparing my 'feelings' by labeling this machine as plebeian? or not worth effort? Don't hold back. Please.
Is it such an unusual machine that it stumps the 'geek' community? Share your surprise. Please.
Is my documentation unworthy, or misplaced in the forums, or should I go to Coffee Snobs or Too Much Coffee for my inquiry? Is there a forum or site that is more hardware oriented than this?
Posted Tue May 20, 2008, 3:58pm Subject: Re: I'm new here (Hi) and I'm looking for someone to ID this machine...
I've never seen anything like it before. Nothing like it in my espresso books and don't remember seeing it in any of the on-line museums. It looks like a lever machine where the lever was replaced by a motor. Is it worthy of being fixed up? Sure if you are a collector. Does it make a great cup? I don't know but CMA is big name in commercial espresso machines.
alsterling Senior Member Joined: 28 Dec 2005 Posts: 628 Location: Dana Point, CA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: La Spaziale S1 (Had Expo) Grinder: Macap M4 & Gaggia MDF Vac Pot: Not yet... Drip: Capresso MT-500 & Melitta... Roaster: Hottop Digital
Posted Sun May 25, 2008, 4:05pm Subject: Re: I'm new here (Hi) and I'm looking for someone to ID this machine...
gummybun Said:
.........So many views and so little comment?........Is someone sparing my 'feelings' by labeling this machine as plebeian? or not worth effort? Don't hold back. Please.........Thanks for giving this a second look, Simon.
You did fine... it's just that sometimes the replies come in large groups, and then sometimes it's like everyone is on vacation. You just can't tell, but this was an interesting post. Here it is near the end of the month and it caught my eye over many others!
Simon, in what province and city do you reside? I ask because I'm curious as to your access to suppliers. I'm also curious as to which suppliers you found? My first reaction was to refer you to an industrial hardware store or a "bearing house", which usually carries hydraulic pumps and related supplies, and may well have "food grade" and temperature stabile "O-rings." Machines are machines, as you probably know, and even the manufacturer will sometimes, if they're making everyone's life a bit easier, use commonly available components and hardware.
I asked about what vendors you found, as two years ago when in San Francisco on business, I took some "coffee time", and walked into an espresso machine repair shop that specialized in lever machines and antique machines. It was a bit of a museum and a very serious repair shop. I apologize for not remembering the name, but am sure that "Niko", a SF based geek member that you can find here, will know.
In all the years I've frequented swap meets and garage sales, sadly, I've never come across specialty coffee gear. There's always that dream of walking up to a La Marzocco 2 group at church fund raiser, and having a sweet little gray haired lady plead for me to take this big silver thing off her hands, and help the church, with a healthy donation of say.........$15? (ya......like that'll happen sometime soon!) And then I'd probably be overcome with guilt and "double" the amount! (My evil side is coming out.......down devil, down!)
Good luck....or let me know what happened and who those vendors are? Al in SoCal
Member No.12047 - SCAA "Space Available Here for Something Really Prolific"
gummybun Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 20 Location: canada Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Mon May 26, 2008, 12:13pm Subject: Re: I'm new here (Hi) and I'm looking for someone to ID this machine...
Thank you both CnS (OK to shorten the moniker?) and AL for you responses. I was excited to receive them.
First of all, While the logo looks like cmc it could read CMA (damn those graphic designers) and I will pursue this. Thanks for the lead. As for your other question, does it make a good cup?, yes it does, it makes a fine cup. But let me expand... I am not (yet) a collector of espresso mechanisms, but while exercising other scavenging pursuits (tube/valve equipment) I discovered a box of nice heavy metal parts for $10 at the goodwill, which I quickly puzzled together as a espresso machine. Although in pieces, the de-constructor had meticulously put all the small parts in separate marg. containers. A good sign so I carried the heavy box home on my bike. I impetuously put it all together, put in some water, plugged it in from the other side of the room via an extension chord (some understanding of risks of pressure vessels)... holy cow it came to pressure and held! It has faithfully produced reasonable results for, I think, 6 years.
It was only after I had it for quite a while that I noticed that EVERY other domestic machine (other than spring loaded levers and manual) used vibro-pumps - giving me a bit of an identity crisis! Am I a mechanical or a manual?, but I know I'm plumbed which sets me apart from most of the domestic locals!
I am trying to optimize the pressure and I am unsure what it is at the group. I think it is somewhat low as I do not get the crema I used to - but I never had much. I get some water escaping out the top of the cylinder so I suspect either the cylinder has worn or the 'rings' are shot - does it have rings, composite/rubber/brass? I think from your comments I will disassemble the group. I suppose it could be calcium buildup as well but I don't know if I should send Durgol (or what???) through a boiler tank this large.
So Al, .. I live in Toronto, Canada and I have yet to find a place here that doesn't protect their service 'turf' - so unless you give them the machine to repair, forget it. And if they see something that is not an automatic there is something wrong with you. So I am on my own here it seems.
I have yet to order parts on line but I rather like the look of Vito's at sreweb.com (texas) of course there is cafeparts and espressoparts and that is my list so far. I think these will all be more useful for my e61 repair later this year.
There are some good bearing suppliers around here but I am unsure of why they would be of use. Are they a good source for 'o' rings? Also as the 'o' rings contact very hot water don't they need to be food grade? Yes, I guess even silicone may not be food grade any more... but black rubber smells and tastes not so good as I recall. At least until the mould oils have flashed off!
Anyhow... any comments, or advice... de-scale or disassemble and re-ring?
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