FAEMA disassembly and rebirth

[Aaron]

I have an old FAEMA grinder that has been kicking around the workshop for a few years and I have decided to strip it down, give it a clean then do some customising. The grinder is quite the brutalist design: a big hunk of cylindrical metal with quite an 80's bull nosed foot. I intend to make a new base as well as new lids and a new smaller bean hopper, a new paint job and maybe new dosing lever.. see how things go.
So Far I have removed the doser and the top burr carrier and the lower burr but I can't work out how you should loosen the central nut to remove the bottom burr carrier. It would really like to get it out and give it a proper clean but it spins with the motor so I'm not sure how to hold it still so i can undo the central nut (which is on very tightly). Any ideas? there must be a way the professionals do it, I can't be the only one who's needed to get this off.
I thought about wedging something between the grounds chute and one of the upright arms of the lower burr carrier then using a tube spanner but I'm not sure the brass burr carrier will take the stress. Id hate to break it.

[Aaron]

heres a pic.
As with nearly all of these machines the crappy plastic portafilter holder has snapped off. Im looking into new ways to fix a more robust metal holder.

[sprezzatura]

FAEMA disassembly and rebirth

Pretty sure this is from the Post Modern Organic Cylinder design school made popular by the Brotherhood of the Dark Bean Discipline in Northern Italy.

[Dimal]

Depending on the direction of rotation of the Rotor, you will need to loosen the nut in the same direction to this. If possible and if you have access to a rotary impact driver, this would be the best tool to use for loosening the nut, as short sharp impacts will do a better job than an ever increasing force applied via a hand-tool.
With regard to locking the Rotor in place while you remove the nut, the handle of a wooden spoon or piece of wooden dowel poked through the discharge orifice to engage one of the coffee discharge arms of the rotating burr assembly.

Given that you are tearing the entire grinder down, it would also be very prudent to acquire a set of new bearings. These should be easy to identify once removed and available from your nearest specialist bearing service outlet, if you are unable to locate any from the Faema distributors...

Mal.

[Aaron]

thanks Mal, i will give it a go and report back. Pretty sure there is no support from FAEMA/Cimbali for a grinder of this vintage. I had tried to get a new portafilter fork for this machine in the past and didn't get a lot of support. Fortunately bearings should be easy to source and coffee parts carry the burr set.

Just wondering if anyone can see a problem with drilling a hole into the aluminium body to bolt on a portafilter fork. I was just planning on tapping the hole for maybe a 5-8mm bolt. My only thought was to make sure the bolt does not protrude into the motor, but maybe there are other issues?

[Dimal]

Just wondering if anyone can see a problem with drilling a hole into the aluminium body to bolt on a portafilter fork. I was just planning on tapping the hole for maybe a 5-8mm bolt. My only thought was to make sure the bolt does not protrude into the motor, but maybe there are other issues?

Given that you are contemplating an overhaul of sorts, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to remove the motor too, especially since new bearings are something that should be considered and may be difficult to replace with the motor still inside the grinder casing.

With the motor removed (and any wiring), you should be able to locate the PF Rest more or less where you want to. When it comes time to determine the length of the screws to use, you'd be best to use a length that doesn't protrude into the motor cavity of the casing when fully tightened, just to be careful...

Mal.

[Aaron]

Yes the motor's coming out. I was concerned about any metal swarf falling onto the windings of the motor if i drilled into the casing. Good to know I'm heading in the right direction.

[Aaron]

Success!!
Managed to remove the lower burr carrier and found the base to be caked with oils that had solidified and then been polished smooth like glass by the rotation of the part. As t was mothers day that was pretty much all I had time to do before i got told off.
pictures to come once i get them off the phone.

[Aaron]

well the success was short lived, I removed the burr carrier and the top bearing cover as well as four socket head allen bolts on the underside and the motor still seems to be stuck fast. I tried a few tentative taps on the top of the spindle but everything seems to be stuck fast inside the housing.
Here's some photos of the progress so far but I am stumped what to do next.
Anyone see something I haven't noticed? should I give the spindle a full on whack? I'm just afraid of doing some serious damage to it.

[Aaron]

One thing I have noticed is the motor has some very slight indents that look like they should correspond to the mounting fins inside the casing. However they are currently not lined up which might be a reason the motor assembly is stuck. If you look at the last photo above at the 11 o clock mark there is the outer mount hole for the base then the inner hole is for some tabs to hold the motor in place then slightly anti clockwise from these holes you can see the indent (just before the white wires). Its not much but it may be enough to allow the motor to slide out with minimal effort.

[sprezzatura]

One thing I have noticed is the motor has some very slight indents that look like they should correspond to the mounting fins inside the casing. However they are currently not lined up which might be a reason the motor assembly is stuck. If you look at the last photo above at the 11 o clock mark there is the outer mount hole for the base then the inner hole is for some tabs to hold the motor in place then slightly anti clockwise from these holes you can see the indent (just before the white wires). Its not much but it may be enough to allow the motor to slide out with minimal effort.

Some of these grinders have the stator pressed in. It may be challenging to remove it without pressing.

[Aaron]

so whacking it out by the spindle is not the right way to go?
Would you need a gear puller or similar?

[Dimal]

Shouldn't be necessary to remove the stator given that it appears to pressed in as Sprezz' has mentioned.

You will need to remove the cooling fan from below to gain access to the motor end-plate screws, which should then allow you to remove the lower assembly and then perhaps the rotor as well.

Always a bit of a guessing game without a decent drawing...

Mal.

[Aaron]

OK so pulling off the fan got me to this
No visible mounting screws or cover plate that I can see, the finned aluminium plate you can see inside the copper windings rotates.
There is almost no information that I can find about this grinder which i find quite strange given that there seems to be quite a few out there and they are made by such a big company..

[Aaron]

I was also hoping to disable the auto shut off feature when I took the motor out, as the wires attach to the motor somewhere up in the casing and its impossible to work out where with the motor still installed. It has two wires that end in a micro switch that attaches to a flap in the doser. Is it just a case of permanently joining the two wires that attach to the micro switch and tucking them back inside the case?