WOW! Thanks tons! Amazing!

You guys rock!

Follow-Up. A success story!

When my Cremina switch broke and shorted out, it fried several of the wires (as well as blowing the fuse in the apartment) -- leaving me an electrical mess. Doug and Barb at orphanespresso.com were helpful well beyond the call of duty! I replaced the wiring harness with the one from orphan espresso, gave all the cleanable parts a total cleaning, replaced the piston and steam wand gaskets (which severely needed it) -- in the latter case using the propane torch method that Doug uses in his youtube video (brilliant idea -- using the torch was definitely a conversation starter with my student neighbours in the courtyard of my building.)

The current solution to the broken switch is that I have shorted across the switch -- as Doug suggested -- such that the machine is always on when plugged in. The broken switch is still installed, but wired such that when the current is on, the power light still comes on (this involved, among other things, a toothpick through the spring mechanism to hold it in 'on' position.) The machine is turned off and on using a small heavy-duty power bar with a lighted on-off switch.

Yesterday morning, pulled the first shot in years from the machine. Okay: It wasn't till the third shot that I was in coffee nirvanah (It took a few tries to get my Cremina technique back -- I've been using a Pavoni Pro.)

I want to thank the posters to this thread, and Doug and Barb at orphanespresso.com for the info and advice for making it possible to bring my Cremina back to life.

... and if anyone hears of a pre-1982 switch that works, please let me know -- we can probably arrange somehting.

Thanks again,

Mike



Note the burn marks on the insulation from when the switch shorted out...

Michael
Could you tell what broke on your switch? On the broken switch I received from Robert the switch would not lock into the on or off position. Turns out there is a channel with a spring and 2 ball bearings and the channel had chipped out on both ends and the spring bearing were sloppy and wouldn't lock in. I'm looking for a small metal tube with a ID of slightly more than 4mm (the ball bearings are 4mm). Found one that's 4.5mm ID and will try it if I can't find something closer to 4mm. I will drill the channel slightly to fit the tube. Should work, hope.

Ed,

Thanks for your reply and the photo! (Your photo skills are way better than mine.) It is really helpful to see another switch. If you can tell from the photo below, the spring tube in mine broke clean away -- there is nothing holding the spring tube in place at all. One of the bearing balls is lost -- the other is still there, along with the spring.


another angle:


Right now I have reattached the spring tube using nylon ties, but it is not trustworthy -- and the nylon ties interfere with the smooth operation of the switch


The issues that I see are 1) the shear stress on the tube is huge so gluing it back is hopeless, and 2) the switch needs to be able to press the contacts on the base of the switch (as opposed to the rocker which holds the spring tube), breaking the connection for off. With the ties, the movement is not smooth enough for me to trust.

Any ideas you have, I would welcome!

Thanks for your post!
cheers,
Mike

p.s. ALSO: I do not have the cross-bar in the foreground of your photo. Which would help to make the switch more stable. How is it connected to the switch? mlh