Restoration of an Olympia Cremina - Page 3

[HB]

The black gloss was chosen to reflect the image of grand pianos, Japanese laquerware, Vertu phones.

Thanks Steve for posting the pictures of your project as it nears completion. Now I have no choice but to admit being wrong about recommending against the black gloss finish. Seeing it assembled, I agree that it's mighty classy looking!

[srobinson]

Thanks Dan...and he is the only guy who has seen the parts in the flesh. Well back to the rebuild. Tonight's installment will be on rebuilding the piston. Please read carefully since this post has a question in it that I really want an answer to. As in the last post, let me reiterate that these pictures are for entertainment and personal interest. They are not intended to be a substitute for professional service on these machines.

The piston rebuild on an Olympia is the most gasket intensive step of the rebuild since we need to replace 5 gaskets and 5 circlips.



Now similar to other machines the main gaskets are around the piston. These are fairly large gaskets and installments of these are critical. These are V shaped and the goal here is to get them positioned with the Vs pointed away from each other.



This takes a bit of patience since the gaskets want to turn...in the wrong direction. The best tool that I have found to coax them into the right place is a straight scribe that I showed before on this post. This is also a great tool for fitting the piston back into the grouphead, since you need to compress the outer lip of the top gasket to get it inserted.



With both gaskets on, they look like this: (now I swear I was not trying for an artsy picture. Just happened to have the machine's schematics out to help with the gasket work....this is one of my favorite shots.)



With piston now complete, I get to ask my mystery question. This is the face of the piston. What are those 4 holes for? I have never seen this on another machine.

[IronBarista]

The only thing I can think of is they let a little water onto the seals to help lubricate them. Have you tried the factory?

[espressoperson]

CAUTION: Sunglasses may be needed for viewing the following pictures in this post.

Indeed! Beautiful job! Having lived with my Cremina for decades and knowing it will outlast me, I know it is well worth all the time and effort you have spent! Thanks for continuing to allow us to ride along...

Now to see if I can get it put back together without screwing up this great work.

None of us have any doubt of your success!



MichaelB
LMWDP #24

Olympia Cremina 67
Mazzer Mini
100% Thor Fittings (No plastic!)
----

[HB]

With piston now complete, I get to ask my mystery question. This is the face of the piston. What are those 4 holes for? I have never seen this on another machine.

A Swiss engineer wouldn't dare leave behind holes as part of the casting process, so it's safe to assume they serve some useful purpose. I'll go for either (a) extending preinfusion, (b) reducing the puck temperature shock, or (c) both. Essentially I'm guessing that it's a poor man's expansion chamber, i.e., a space for the initial hot water to go, allowing the group a few extra seconds to stabilize without scorching the top of the puck.

[srobinson]

Well time to get this thread going again. I apologize for the absence, but work at the end of the quarter is a bit consuming...and that pays the coffee bills.

Now in my last post I had left you with a bit of a riddle on the four holes on the piston and questioned their purpose. Well it turns out that they appear again in the design of the Olympia.

So the next step in rebuilding the head is to insert the piston shaft gasket:



Followed by a brass washer with those 4 holes again.



My belief is that what these holes on both the piston and on this washer do is allow water to be used to flare out the gaskets to give them a tighter fit when on the downstroke and in turn allow the gaskets to compress in the opposite direction thus allowing for a much smoother upstroke than I have seen on other machines.

[srobinson]

OK, calling all Olympia 67 owners. I need some help double checking some wiring.

I finally got my parts from Switzerland for a new heating element and new switches and I rewired based on how I got the machine. Now while I have the boiler rolling, I cannot get the status light to fire up. Before I dig out my probe, I wanted to see if any of you could double check my wiring so see if I am doing something stupid. This is one of my last frustrations before I simply start from scratch and rewire it.

Here are a couple pics of how I have it wired:


Off the boiler:

Off the switch and status light:

and off the pressurestat:

sorry that last pic is fuzzy..was in a rush. blue in the back, white in the front.

Would appreciate any quick check before I burn some hours on it. Also note that the new heating element does not require a ground like before.

Many thanks.

[oly_puller]

Hey Steve -

Here's the scoop -

From the power cord from the wall, I have brown, light blue and yellow/green. Brown goes to the rocker switch right side, light blue next to it on the left - yellow/green looks like a ground. My rocker switch has 4 prongs on top and 4 on bottom - so from left to right on top you have Light Blue, blank prong, blank prong and then Brown.

On the bottom of my rocker switch I have 4 prongs, and they go from left to right - blank prong, white (double wire), dark blue and blank prong.

Ok - white and dark blue of the bottom rocker head down to the boiler bottom with new brown (not to be confused with power cord in brown). Second white off bottom rocker goes up to LED light and the other side of LED light connects to new brown (mentioned above) and heads down to boiler.

So, down on the boiler we've got our three colors from the rocker - White, Dark Blue and New Brown. We also have red, which comes over from the pressure switch with the adjuster knob.

So - White from bottom rocker is connected to one of the heater element and ends there. Then New Brown goes to other heater element and then from there to one side of the thermal fuse (blue guy with red button on it to make sure the thing won't over heat [though I don't trust it!]).

Out of the other side of the thermal fuse we pick up Red Wire. Read goes over pressure switch.... My pressure switch has two prongs out of the bottom and one facing toward the front of the machine... The two on the bottom are aligned front to back - and red wire connects to the one furthest back (closest to the back of the machine where your snazzy Olympia logo will be!). Now, Dark Blue connects to the front (single) tab on the pressure switch.

The only other thing I have is the yellow/green that grounds by the rocker switch, also grounds on the bottom of the boiler - but you don't have one of those so no worries....

Anyhow, I hope this makes sense and helps... If you want some pics, PM me.

Wallah!

Cremina 67 forever!! Woot!!
Pt

[srobinson]

You are THE MAN!!! Many thanks. I had wired it exactly as it came to me and the whites were wrong....or at least my whites. Your descriptions were great. I now have heat and a light show.

[oly_puller]

Glad to hear it (or read it- as it were...)! Glad things are working - keep us all posted! I want pictures of Cremina cremma!

Patrick

[espressoperson]

Glad to hear it (or read it- as it were...)! Glad things are working - keep us all posted! I want pictures of Cremina cremma!

Patrick

I will post cremina crema if you can tell me how to attach a picture...



---
MichaelB
LMWDP #24

Olympia Cremina 67
Mazzer Mini
100% Thor Fittings (No plastic!)
---

[HB]

See Posting images on HB. If you don't want the hassle and only have a few pictures, I'll host them for you (my contact info).

[srobinson]

My plans are to flood the site with pics in just a few days. Waiting on the handles from Les and then we are there. Dan came over last night and we were about temped to fab a boiler cap just to try it. I will do a few more posts to catch up this week...we are in the short rows now.

[srobinson]

OK, I am a bit behind on my posts, so let me pick up on finishing putting the grouphead back together. With the piston gaskets and the piston shaft gaskets now in place the next step is to insert the piston shaft into the piston and then insert it back in the grouphead. I did a light lubrication of both the shaft and the inside of the grouphead. Since the piston shaft is threaded, I thought it would be wise to tape the end of the shaft to keep from damaging the new gasket in the grouphead.



Next insert the piston into the grouphead and carefully work in the top edge of the gasket on the piston head. The tool to use here is again the handy scribe that I have shown before which makes an easy task of it.

Next step is to add the grouphead gasket and snap on the dispersion screen. This finishes off the piston side of things.



To finish up the grouphead, add the gasket on the back:



And finally, put the siphon tube in the back. This is one of the parts that I had ordered from the factory and as you can see...money well spent since the old one is close to impossible to clean properly:



Then reattach the handle and lubricate the roller pins and the two screws at the top of the piston to lock it on.

[oly_puller]

Steve-
You mentioned light lubrication on the head assembly - do you mind sharing what you used. There was another thread around here which mentioned mineral oil and other stuff... What was your choice and where can it be found? I'm about to replace the gaskets in my group head.
Pt

[srobinson]

When I ordered the gasket set from 1st-Line they included some lubricant. What you need is any food grade lube. Olly, I can't recall if you are in Europe or not, but check with a camping/outdoor store and it would be the same lubricant that they sell for water filter/water purification lubrication. There are other posts on HB that talk about this as well.

[srobinson]

Well, those that have followed this post know that I had been waiting for a few parts to come in from Switzerland and in doing so there have been several questions on whether I had had any luck working with the factory. As you know parts for these machines can be quite expensive. And before rolling the dice with international mail I tried one of the local suppliers to see if they had the parts in stock. What happened next was yet another twist to this crazy story on trying to rebuild this machine.

To my amazement this is what I got in return:

We derive income from repairs on these machines..... Although your posting does get a lot of traffic, I sincerely ask you to keep in mind that it can "pull the food off our employees' table." Although the post can drum up a lot of interest in Olympia, it can also create more demand for used machines..., The same goes for our repair business.... Please understand that I am not asking to stop what you are doing, but to keep in mind all parties....

Now knock me over with a feather. I was shocked that the work that I was doing on a beat-up coffee machine would threaten the livelihood of a professional repair shop.

With that uplifting offer to supply me parts, I decided that I would deal directly with the factory.

Now the factory has a great little site

http://www.olympia-express.ch/

And when you go to their support pages, they offer schematics of the machines and the ability to click on the blueprints and order your parts. Very slick, but still a bit old world, since they contact you separately to get your credit card information before they send the parts off. So giving it a shot, I put one order in for a new heating element and another one for new switches, siphon tube and an extra basket.

Well it does take a few weeks, but then the mailman is calling with registered mail and the parts show up on your doorstep. No customs, no duty, no fuss. Here is a pic of my new element:



And the new status light and switch. I was very pleased with the new status light since it came with a cool new chrome ring around it that was much better looking than the original:



So with the parts all in I am simply down to waiting for my handles and parts that I loaned out to Les from Thor Tamper to complete the machine. Wiring is done and I am close to final assembly. So the next couple posts will start unveiling the finished product...stay tuned.

[srobinson]

The Gods are finally smiling on me. Les out at Thor Tampers has really been swamped with his real job and as such it pushed out the handles that he had been working on for me. Well, he pings me today and says that he is ready to send them out. Knowing how impatient that I have been to see his work, he dropped me some pictures to hold me over until later this week.

Here are the parts in the rough:

and of course I had to beg for some shiny pictures of the finished product...so let me walk you through this work. Now since it has been a while since I had discussed the handles, let me remind you that these are being made out of Desert Ironwood. This is a very heavy and rare wood and permits are needed to harvest it. The burl from the tree is almost impossible to find and Les is a true artisan in this wood. In our discussions I had also wanted burl inserts for the handles and Les surprised me with not only the caps out of desertwood burl, but the tamper, custom sized to the Olympia basket out of burl as well. Take a look at this baby:



Next comes the handles. Now the Olympia has a shortcoming that you also see on the Elektra Microcasa, and that is a short stubby handle on the portafilter. Now when you go custom you can fix this, which Les did for me by making the portafilter handle a bit more substantial and longer, to my liking. These handles are out of regular ironwood:

And finally the knobs with the burl inserts. I was not a bit fan of the original scrolled boiler cap on the Olympia and asked Les to see if we could do something like the triangle shape on the newer machines, but allowed me to see the chrome base on the older style. With a little improvisation Les hit the mark. This will add more uniqueness to the machine:

So these are all on the way. To get these built to an exact fit, Les has had my boiler cap, steam valve and a handful of other parts. With these on the way I should just be down to rebuilding the steam valve and final assembly. As we say down South, we are in the short rows.

I'll try to get those posts out as soon as my parts get in and see if we can have some espresso shots by the weekend.

[espressoperson]

The Gods are finally smiling on me.

Spectacular! Interesting idea to make the handles oversize. And the 3-cornered hat to top it off makes it real special. Les is more talented than I thought - able to turn a triangle on his lathe.

As beautiful as these pictures are, wait till you're seeing them and holding them in person!

Looking forward to seeing this completed...

[srobinson]

I think Les scratched his head a few times to figure that triangle out. He would not show me the failed attempts but said that it was quite the puzzle to figure it out. He has a friend with a new high end scroll saw, but the knob is also contoured which to me means he put alot of hand work into it. I get back into town tomorrow and hope the mailman delivers quickly from the west coast. I think we are all ready to see this thing complete.