Of interest would be how much of the PF lugs are exposed when the fit is tight. There exists many manufacturing tolerances that could possibly "stack up" such that full engagement is difficult. I would think that the groupheads and portafilters are manufactured in house whereas the baskets and the grouphead gaskets are likely sourced-out parts.

I'm a little surprised that the dealer did not ask to receive the PF and the basket in addition to the grouphead. I'm also surprised that this particular machine got past the final QA inspection in Switzerland.

erics wrote:Of interest would be how much of the PF lugs are exposed when the fit is tight.

My father did take some pictures of the portafilter when locked tightly to send to the dealer when troubleshooting. I will post some showing the pf ears when engaged after he emails them to me.

erics wrote:There exists many manufacturing tolerances that could possibly "stack up" such that full engagement is difficult. I would think that the groupheads and portafilters are manufactured in house whereas the baskets and the grouphead gaskets are likely sourced-out parts.

This was my first thought. Everything could be within tolerances but if every piece starts to drift towards the tolerance limit, you can get into a situation where things don't fit together quite right yet each individual piece is still within the tolerances.

erics wrote:I'm a little surprised that the dealer did not ask to receive the PF and the basket in addition to the grouphead.

They did ask for the portafilter and the basket in addition to the group. Using different baskets and swapping the group gasket similarly made no difference in the fit.

Lerch,
I never noticed that until now but if you saw my progressive glasses prescription you might understand. I put a mirror under the group and about half of the level part of the ear clears now that the pf w/basket goes in about 1/2 inch turn. Prior to yesterday when only a 1/4 inch turned, I reckon it was even worse. I'll have to ask the importer about this.

Attached are some pictures when the portafilter is locked into the group as far as it will go. You can see that the ears of the portafilter do not engage very much into the grouphead channel and it appears to jam up on the angled portion of the ear.

And one more picture from the top down when the portafilter is locked in as far as it goes:

Nice pics - really shows the situation. As you know, more so than I re an Olympia Cremina, something "ain't" right and borders on being downright dangerous. I would like to think that, if not the dealer, then Olympia Express would want to make this "right" ASAP.

A couple of years ago, I measured the rise of the PF on an E-61 w/ dial indicator and it was 1/32"- not that it helps your Dad's situation.

How does it fit with gasket removed? Maybe worth a try? Possibly a too-thick gasket?

I'm not sure I understand. Without the gasket it would most likely fit loosely into the group. The group gaskets also have a tendency to rip. The original gasket was destroyed when swapping in a new gasket that the dealer provided. Both gaskets displayed the same behavior though.

Without a basket the portafilter does lock into the group about where you would except it to with the basket in place so the difference between locking and not is a very slim margin, about the thickness of the basket.

Hey Everyone.

I just joined home-barista.com to help answer any questions or concerns anyone may have regarding Olympia Espresso machines.

We have been selling the Cremina's and Maximatics for over a year now and this is the first complaint regarding the Handle not going in all the way. I'm not saying that it's not an issue with Lerch's machine, but I don't think it's related to the whole production.

We are aware of this situation, and will let everyone know when we have more information..

To go into a little more detail regarding the issue at hand. We did receive the group head back from Lerch, and after first inspection we noticed the filter holder was a little tighter than a normal new machine.

That being said, we were able to successfully lock the handle into its correct position without any repairs or adjustments.

We are looking for a small error, probably less than 1/2 a millimeter is size.

So, I started to test different baskets, filter-holders, shower screen, and the group gasket.

Nothing seemed to make a difference besides the filter-holder itself.. So we have replaced the filter holder for Lerch, and he should be all set.

We will continue to monitor this, and will work with Olympia to resolve and tolerance issues that exist (if any).

Your Olympia USA Rep,

Johnny Cerini
Cerini Coffee & Gifts





http://www.cerinicoffee.com/espresso-pa ... parts.html

Lerch,
Your pictures of the lugs and the position of the pf w/basket is exactly what I have. I'm going to stop worrying about this, though I have been making espresso without any problems except for using a rubber mallet to uninstall my pf after brewing. Just kidding. No mallet but my wrist is starting to hurt.