Hi Folks,

I'd like to revive this thread for educational purposes. There's another Cremina listed on eBay that has something badly broken where the lever attaches to the group. Is that the end result of the pin wear problem Doug was pointing to?

Here's the listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/360372139012


Is this even fixable, and if so, how would you do it? BTW, I've got no budget for this, so this isn't a tease to get someone to say "go for it."

That particular damage is not caused by no lube on the pins as the top of the group is nice and flat with no bulge....but THAT is some wild damage. Looks to have been caused by someone who had an attack of dougheaditis. It looks like they managed to install some soft metal cap on the rod and not be able to get it off and then crammed it down into the rod channel until it chipped off the lower part of the channel. Looking at the pictures is had to figure since the threads you see are not the rod threads but the threads of some other foreign object stuffed in there. And since the piston is hanging out of the group bell it likely will not go up or down but is just there in mid stroke (ouch). At least it does not have an eagle grafted to the boiler cap!

Looks like someone like Drgary with a lot of patience and newly acquired metal working skills and a good steady hand with a dremel tool would be a good candidate for this one. Aren't you currently running a tab at the metal plating shop? You could at least tell us the name of the shop so we could all take our projects in and say "just put it on Drgary's tab"!

Gary I seen the one you posted, like the guy said in the auction, looks like it was probably dropped or fell off something and landed real hard.

Cant say if its something as simple as a new handle and piston rod or if its something more serious. As bad as its bent it may have trashed the entire group head.

I think the stuff youre seeing in the threads there is actually the internal threads of the nut that got ripped off (stripped)

Something weird's going on there, and it's not a machine like the seller says has had little use. It looks like the half the chrome is worn off the brass in that photo.

orphanespresso wrote:And since the piston is hanging out of the group bell it likely will not go up or down but is just there in mid stroke (ouch). At least it does not have an eagle grafted to the boiler cap!

Looks like someone like Drgary with a lot of patience and newly acquired metal working skills and a good steady hand with a dremel tool would be a good candidate for this one. Aren't you currently running a tab at the metal plating shop? You could at least tell us the name of the shop so we could all take our projects in and say "just put it on Drgary's tab"!

Orange County Plating Company ... not on my tab!!!

So how would you get the piston out of there? Would you drill or grind it out somehow? This really isn't one for me right now. But I think you're saying, Doug, that the chip can be massaged with a Dremel tool and the group replated. And it looks like it needs a new lever, doesn't it? The existing one is pretty bent.

Alright now drgary...
I was bidding on this thing...

Don't you have enough espresso machines??? (Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!)

BTW, I hope you've seen that we're trying to get a new San Francisco gathering to happen. Check out the new Cafes section.

... listen... I'm trying to do something up here (she says with a Brooklyn accent).
Hey I'll check the gathering out. I'm driving down to the Bay Area in July.

Good thing it's was DoubleO, or you'd need to buy some more boxes.

More like larger storage unit...

drgary wrote:The existing one is pretty bent<image>

And not just bent but twisted....

I'd factor in a new group head, while nurturing the hope it might not be necessary. Quite clearly a lot of force was applied, possibly torquing force, which may be why the piston/rod is stuck.