Hi all. I just received a new water sight tube and gaskets in the mail which I purchased from a place in Calif. that repairs machines. The shop is Tom and Dave's Specialty Coffees and the person I spoke with is Chris Rygg.

CRygg@aol.com


He repairs lots of Creminas and has many of the parts one needs to "keep them running" as he says. He has all the gaskets and parts fabricated for him with original equipment standards for materials. He carries sight tubes, sight tube gaskets ($25 for the tube/gaskets), grouphead gasket, piston gaskets, and other parts. I've read here that a number of people are looking for glass sight tubes. I've got mine and it looks fine although I haven't put it in yet. The gaskets are only about 3 mm in height, which is less than the ones in my machine, but Chris says they work fine. The tube, btw, has a red line down the back and not the blue background mine had originally. I'm sure some others out there might need some of these parts to get their Creminas running. Chris was very helpful and promptly replied to all emails. I told him I was going to post him as a source which was fine with him. Michael

Thanks for the valuable resource- ! Just for grins - how did you find Chris?

He was advertising pf gaskets on eBay and I wrote him to see if he had other parts and he did. Michael

A few weeks ago, I saw the portafilter gasket on eBay (about $15 plus shipping IIRC) and asked at the time if he had the piston seals, but he didn't.
Regards
Timo

I did request if he had the lever and drip tray grate for a Cremina and he did. Charged a reasonable rate and I received the merchandise as described. Don't bother asking if he has any portafilters though...

However Lino is willing to make a batch of bottomless portafilters for the Cremina out of stainless steel. Would anyone else be interested in this venture. I would be sending him mine as a prototype to go by.

I'm pretty sure he told me he had piston seals. If you need some, I would check with him. Michael

Anybody had any experience with his piston seals? Are they any good? I ask, because, from descriptions, they seem very similar to the pavoni seals for the pre-millenium models. Anybody, for that matter, tried original pavoni seals on the cremina?

Yep- I am using Pavoni seals on my Cremina- with 2mmx35mm o-rings as spacers -The LP seals are 5mm thick- Oly are 7mm tall.

Hey Greg, that's good news since La Pav gaskets are easy to find. But I have three questions.
1. What are spacers?
2., Are they absolutely necessary, or can one just get by by using the thinner pavoni gaskets?
3. If the spacers are absolutely necessary, where does one by 2mm O rings you mention? General hardware stores?

The spacers referred to are just 4mm o-rings. They would take up the hieght differential needed so that the u-cup seal on the piston would not slide or shimmy up and down on the piston. This would probably cause excess wear on the seal.

I am about to order some through McMaster Carr... Part # 9262K199...Metric Buna-N O-Ring 2 mm Width, 37 mm ID, Packs of 50 ... $11.94 Pack