I was very lucky. no spendy parts broken (pump heating element and worst case scenario the boiler are the only candidates that come to mind)
Total cost was this:
machine epay: $290
shipping $230 (freightquote)
parts and portafilter MAYBE $150 (that could have been a lot less if I had known everything i know now :p)
As I found my groove I realized that I could forego oem gaskets and use high quality things from the plumbing supply store.
Pretty much every single part in those commercial machines (pump, solenoids, everything really) comes from third parties and can be sourced very cheap that way. I didn't fully realize that price difference until some part into the endeavor.
I did learn that directionality of those solenoids is indeed a reality. (that manifested itself in the pump pressure routing partially into the boiler during shot pulls in the beginning. It also caused the hot water tap to be erratic, but that was easily detected.)
It took me some thinking to figure out why a machine would fill the boiler very well, not activate the overpressure but end up filling the boiler during a shot until I understood the hydraulics of it.
OTHERWISE i have to say i really did take it apart completely, soak everything in HCL replace every gasket and put it back together. (taking a lot of pictures during tear-down was a major helper. Italian manuals are not German.)
The project sort of had distinct phases:
1.) look at complete non-functional machine. Be afraid
2.) tear it apart cluelessly with growing enthusiasm
3.) realize if I had owned a 240V outlet and tried to plug it in it wouldn't have worked anyways...
4.) bathe everything in HCL
5.) screw everything together
6.) Be scared again
7.) turn it on, notice leaks.
8.) more leaks (everything seems leak free then the heater kicks in, pressure builds and leaks AGAIN.)
9.) finally pull a shot...LEAKS (from pump pressure in hx lines, leaks at grouphead I)
10.) three days of teflon tape "seek n' destroy" and it was done. (the leaks were all small dribbles or wet spots, no disasters or anything)
PS: the recipe for leak solving was the same everytime: drain tank, undo connection whip out telfon tape, rinse, repeat.
PPS: I have effectively hijacked this thread. i apologize I won't do any more of this. If anyone actually ends up caring. I have loads of pictures of the process and am happy to pm a moderator to move this stuff to its own thread and ill throw out the whole story with pictures. (it was pretty cool, and the insulation job i did inside in order to justify leaving it on 24hrs a day was kind of intense)
I hope someone got a kick out of this
Felix
PPPS: On the range receptacle. My landlord Wanja and I traced the circuit and installed those plugs and the outlet.(He is from Yugoslavia I believe, but in America his name is John:p Extremely relaxed, brews his own beer) The machien originally had a NEMA LP630 plug.
It is a 50 amp independent circuit. The espresso machine can do 208-240V single or dual phase. at 240V single phase it is rated for 30Amp max. So far it has been trouble free. IT was the first time doing 240V work for Wanja or I. I realize that at this point all sorts of DIY red flags trigger...
We were very careful triple checked everything and did our homework prior. The receptacle plugs and so forth literally were our personal adventure into 240V circuits. (the espresso machine is a 3 wire deal, the circuit is up to current code so it had 4 wires)
