how do I get behind the shower screen

You do not want to try and pry it off with a screw driver... I have seen the results of that and it is not pretty. The way that I have done it was during a rebuild. Also you can look up "Restoration of an Olympia Cremina", on the HB site and Mogo's rebuild of the "Oly Twins".

The way I did it was to pull the grouphead from the machine. Then pull the pins in the fork of the lever that controls the throw of the piston shaft. After that you would unscrew the acorn and set nuts at the top of the piston shaft. The circumference of the screen is crimped and held on to a groove of the inner cylinder of the grouphead. By gently driving the piston with a piece of wood and a small mallet the screen will pop off as the piston face forces it off.

Like I said that is the way I did it... Good Luck

So I pulled my first three shots ever! Awesome! I don't get to much time with my machine cause I'm in College and my machine is at home but now I am enjoying. I am still waiting for my custom reg tamper to come but I'll prob have to keep waiting. In the mean time to tamp I used the "Olympia Cremina Filter basket I accidentally baught from first line. the problem is the edges don't really tamp but I pulled the following shots. Firsrt one, really bad, grind must have been to coarse - water shooting everywhere. Second, VERY NICE looked really cool on the naked the entire shot combined to one stream and swirled and all of it got in the cup. Loads o crema too! It tastes like sh** either burned or everextracted or both. Finally I decided to grind even finer. Im not sure what choke means but I prob choked. I decided to force the shot out never the less. possibly a bad idea. shot tasted like crap. I'm going to wait for my tamper. Any comments?

First- Congratulations! Second- a lot depends on your beans ... and how long it took you to get the ground beans into your machine after it was ready...it just doesn't take long for the grouphead to get too hot. That equals Bitter - if that is the primary description of your shots. If they are sour- the machine maybe set too low for pressure / temp. These words are pretty straight ahead. and really describe the frist thing you think of when you taste the shot...

The basket- tamp idea is not bad. The whole country of Italy just really doesn't bother tamping- so don't sweat that too much yet. CHOKING?=Usually a shot stalls out about half way through- if that far when you have choked the machine by grinding a touch too fine. Choke then back off to know where this "zero / choke" point is on your grinder. Newness and humidity can move the prime grind for you. You will develop a feel for this shift as time goes on.

So relax, it may take you about 25 or 125 more shots to get in the ball park... The good news - if you drink a couple a day- thats about 2 months---Anybody can buy a lever machine, not all stay to dial one in. Welcome to the learning curve

This machine can last your life time- all in all a good relationship to invest in----

Merry Christmas

Quick q. I didn't do it before cause I couldn't get it off and I didn't thing I needed to but now I do. How do you get off the brass thing atop the glass water tube?

17mm wrench. Unscrew the unit as a whole- not the top most cap. This is the safety release valve, and it screws into the crossbar. The lower end of this valve is about 2 mm above the upper end of the site glass when each components is in place.

The valve has a serviceable copper seal that resides underneath it.

I've tried, but to no avail. The only thing that is going to get that thing off is an act of god. But I thing I need to adjust the safety valve because the other day I filled the boiler to the top the valve blew and its been hissing ever since.

You might try tightening it just a bit - or at least pull in that direction. Then reverse..

also a tiny bit of penetrating oil around the base perhaps might help..