I was recently installing a new gasket set for a customer's Olympia Cremina which was well worn, to say the least After installing a new gasket set which I got from the awesome Olympia lever gurus @ Orphan Espresso, I tested the machine to make sure it was functioning properly. I soon found out the lever when moving up and down (mimicking a pull) was sticking about halfway, my first thought was that maybe the piston gaskets were catching on the inside of the chamber. I did a search here on HB and found this article which mentions Cremina solutions (and briefly references what I later identified as the issue). At the time I didn't have a clue and I eventually figured out on Saturday in a moment of synchronicity, special thanks to RAS a fellow HB'er (I had never met previously) who just happened to walk into the shop at the perfect moment, that it was the uneven wear on the inside surface of the oval shaped hole in the grouphead (see pic) that was the problem. This is the surface that guides the lever roller bushing and when worn unevenly, likely by the repeated downward pressure of pulling down the lever, it causes the lever to get stuck. So I carefully evened out the inside surface with a Dremel and small grinding wheel and SHAZAM, it was fixed!! Just thought you'd all get a kick out of this story and appreciate the overall uniqueness of the situation... Hopefully this post helps somebody with the same problem as well!

That doesn't look that worn to me at all... at least not compared to my C67. Some Dow 111 usually does the trick for me.

I got this pic off the web, its not the actual machine I was working on, I posted it just to illustrate where the uneven wear occurs... sorry I guess that was a bit misleading

Yup, Brian's telling me that absolutely made my day. I also thought there was some imperfection inside the piston-chamber on which the piston was getting hung up on. Haven't had a chance to work on it since getting back from the Minneapolis area, but I'm hoping to have some time over the holidays (also have a leaky three-way solenoid on my Livietta to troubleshoot).

If you're ever in the area, be sure to drop in on Brian and the rest of the bunch at Coffee & Tea. Just a great group of folks who are passionate about coffee. And they have a clientele who are equally appreciative about having a gem like this close by.