I would love to hear the stories of older machines. Where they have been, who had used them, what kind of coffee did they make, what parties did they host? Take for my humble example this Cremina from 1975, that came to me from Cambell, Ca(near San Jose/Silicon Valley)........ shipped upside down, on its head, across California..... I am so happy it made it unscathed! The piston on this machine is stuck for the time being..... I have soaked it in JoeGlo and just need to get the piston rod pin out(I got the one with the roller out). When I look at the environmental impact on this machine, I would have to think that she was living at the ocean, maybe over the hill in Santa Cruz, or maybe it is from some big estate down in Carmel by the sea, or Pebble Beach..... She has seen some activity for sure.....though I don't imagine she was abused until she was put in storage..... and there her piston became annealed to the cylinder waiting to be freed by a HB such as myself.... Her boiler element shows me 12.4 on the ohms scale which gives me hope that I might resurrect her fire....... Her asbestos covered boiler of 36 years, tells of another era when I was 11 years young running around with my friends outside, before computers, before we knew the badness of asbestos particulate.... before I knew what espresso was........ here is a picture of my little project: Hey, drgary, you were right! I am about to get a full course in restoration......

Yesterday, I found Doug and Barb's OE youtub video series "So you got a Cremina".......WOW! It is like a video learning center..... a virtual classroom....an (amateur's: me) technician's tutor..... Watching the videos is like watching Doug work on the machine I just got. I think they might be cousins of the same boiler batch.... I found a stamp on the bottom of my boiler that has a bunch of zero's and a 74 at the end(1974?).... the plaque on the machine has a serial number starting with 75.....

Accolades to Doug and Barb for taking the time to film everything that they have!!. Barb, that's good cinemaphotography!! And I love that it is all in REAL TIME unscripted reality. I am sure you guys are happy that a beanhead wannabe espresso mechanic like myself won't be calling/emailing you daily, with all sorts of questions, when you guys are obviously very busy with your wonderful business and lives.
All the best, you guys are fantastic. And no, I am not trying to brown nose...... I just really appreciate your hard work, because it is going to make my work on this Cremina much more clear and straightforward. I can't wait to order some parts....

I am thinking about making my lever arm from a piece of carbon fiber nordic ski pole shaft..... It might give even more "feeling" and response during extraction. Could somebody please measure their Cremina lever from the yoke to the end of the handle and let me know what that length is??? I am not sure what the lever length is since my machine didn't come with the lever. Thanks in advance.

Ah, so you won the Cremina with the incomplete parts.

I can give you my dimensions. (67, 1982 model). The handle is locked tight so can't help you beneath the wood. I had Dave Cannonfodder go a little long on the wood:

The length of the lever rod, unscrewed from the yoke
^ Tip of lever to end of wood handle, 8.75"
^ Tip of lever to beginning of wood handle, 5.125"
^ Length of threaded portion of lever rod, where it screws/seats into yoke: 1/2"

If levers could talk, La Peppina would talk to me and explain how the hell she got her round kettle to become oval-shaped without chipping the enamel. The oval-shape is so bad that the kettle-base o-ring doesn't fit and I have to use sealant. Which develops leaks from time to time. I have not been able to find a sealant that's acid resistant at 100+ degrees C and doesn't die and develop leaks after a while.

Frozen lever rod pin...soak the pin to rod junction with Kroil or PB Blaster penetrating, for days if need be. Rig up an anvil using a vise and padding to brace the fork side. If you can hammer the pin even one mm, add oil and keep trying to move the pin back and forth. Careful not to mushroom the end of the pin, which means it would not pass the fork hole and then you would have to cut the pin out.

If they could, the collection of approximately three and a half microcimbalis I gathered throughout the years, could possibly answer my question to italian engineers what sort of half wit would combine their materials in an otherwise so beautifully built machine...

yes- I would like to ask the sama I am working on how it got over IKG of scale/lime in the boiler and still kept working... I am sure it would tell me a sad story about abusive Italian owners- more interested in squeezing out another espresso than doing a little maintenance...

claypriley wrote:Hey, drgary, you were right! I am about to get a full course in restoration......
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And on a very worthwhile project, too. You've already found Doug and Barb, and you'll discover many other people on here who are so very generous with their expertise, really whatever you need. Your new ward was living very near me but had your name on it. I'll be interested to watch your restoration.

I have had little discourse with lever machines re:their personal histories - although these are certainly of interest, and probably have some bearing on their ultimate functioning.

I have hitherto largely contained communications with my levers to discussions pertaining the the extraction of some 30 ml of the elixir of life, namely espresso. I can assure you, however, based upon thousands of such dialogues (i.e. not monologues) that lever machines can undoubtedly "talk" if one is willing to listen. I can't even begin to detail the innumerable fine points pertaining to the roasted coffee bean, that my lever machines and I have discussed the past seven years. I find it surprising that others have not already pointed this out - Lady Duchessa, for one, must have a stellar voice.

Good luck with the restoration, and helping the old Cremina to find it's voice.

PC

Nice going everyone! Thanks for the lever measurements Dave. Thanks for the advice Doug. I have been using Liquid Wrench for soaking the pin, and I will look for the products you mention. Any advantage of heating up the pin, grouphead, with a torch to get the penetrating oil to penetrate better? I haven't gotten it to move yet, but it has only been one day. I really wanted to get the 3# singlejack hammer out and smack it.....but I am trying to be patient..... and out think, out manuver, the rusted little pin.... I only have to be a little smarter than rust.... then it is on to Un-sticking the piston. I got the grouphead gasket out, and the shower screen off (which looks like some other "hacks" have done a little damage to by sticking a screwdriver on the inside of the gasket and prying, which broke a little bit of the ridge off in two places....and man, isn't Olympia proud of their shower screens and filter baskets? whew, tres chere', non?) The piston is at the bottom of the stroke, so once I get that pesky pin out, I will soak to my hearts content in JoGlo... I am building up a nice order! I can't wait to finish the tear-down and send it off. I

I can only do a little at a time though to keep my patience at a cool level. Each one of OE's 13-15 minute videos takes me more like 20-30 minutes to perform.... and in the rusted pin case.... days of patience.
This is fun though.... I will snap a picture of the piston, it has a nice hack mark in the bottom... what's the story on that I wonder?