I’m rebuilding a FE-AR La Peppina from the early 70’s, and the boiler and piston seem badly corroded.
Am i gonna slowly kill myself if I use it?
I’d soak everything in a very strong citric acid solution or vinegar to get rid of any hard water deposits and then inspect the metal to see how bad the actual corrosion is. Something food safe that will dissolve calcium deposits.
This. But not for too long. Acid will also attack the metal (depends on the metal)
I’m no expert and 2/3 of the images fail to load for me right now. But it looks like LOTS of subsurface corrosion which makes this garbage/recycle. I want to be wrong.
I suppose this is aluminum. If corrosion happened, it will release aluminum oxide. This is not dangerous if you drink this. It is dangerous if you inhale massive amounts or for women, if it lands on their nipples. Corroded aluminum will lose its integrity and thus might crack.
So if you just make coffee out of it, you’re safe.
Clean the limestone first, then if you want to, use some sanding paper to get a nicer surface. But that’s not going to stop future corrosion and you cannot cover it with epoxy/paint anyways.
I’m almost certain it’s aluminium. It looks like it’s was initially chromed. The plating on the outside flakes off a bit.
There was a lot of “mud” in the boiler, dark powdery residue and white crystals. Based on your analysis it does look like aluminium oxyde crystals.
