One thing that I enjoy a lot is bringing life to old items, and joy for refurbishing is something I hope to add to Dodeca’s services.
I obtained a second hand Rancilio Silvia V3 from a local roaster in late 2021. The machine was in working condition – a little old with visible wear, and a need for replacement of consumables (the group gasket in particular). Here’s a video of it.
Aesthetically, some other problems with it were a cracked group head cover, warped casing (it looked like it had been dropped and hammered back), and rusting on the body. I went ahead with stripping the machine down and sanding off any rust on the frame of the machine. For smaller pieces like screws and clips, I used citric acid.
The warped case pieces were hammered back into shape with a hammer and a spanner (for the rounded edges). At this point I ran a poll on our instagram page and you followers chose for a stealth black aesthetic finish! I got around to painting each case piece with layers of matte black paint and matte lacquer. To match the black casing, I repainted the logo pins with a red base and white font, which I found to be the cherry atop the cake.
The modifications were merely aesthetic but they brought life back into the machine, of course parts were serviced too to working condition.
Aesthetic mods are fun, and I’d love to do them again. They just add so much more flavor to the already beautiful machines. Stay tuned for more projects and get in touch if you’d like for the team to have a look at bringing some pop to your machine, or getting it into your house’s theme.
