Another Cremina. But it's my Cremina!



This started as a working 1987 project machine at a great price. I got to put it together without major challenges. It was missing some parts and had substitutes for others. The group worked but needed rechroming. The case was freshly painted black and packed in bubble wrap while it was still tacky, so there were bubble patterns on it. It came with a La Pavoni piston and no piston rod and was missing the drip tray and grate, and so on. The serial badge went missing while the seller was piecing it together along with other project machines, sourcing parts and then raising the price when more were found. It was a moving target but we finally reached a deal on this machine. So I sourced several parts (thank you Doug and Barb) and sent it out for case straightening, chroming, polishing, powder coating. Not all that work was perfect but it's quite good enough.



I've done a few tweaks including a Teflon heat break gasket between the group and boiler for more temperature stability. I've also added a nice group thermometer to refine shot control and finally have it dialed in.

It came with a badly scratched badge.



I sanded the raised part and stripped it for repainting and liked the way it looked just like that.



For now I plan to enjoy it for temperature surfing between different coffees while using my Conti Prestina dialed in to one coffee at a time. So far the Prestina has the edge for flavor definition, but the Cremina isn't bad at all. I felt my small lever collection was incomplete without it.

They're listed in my profile. I don't aim to own every significant lever machine. My garage would have to turn into a museum. But it's nice to get to know some of the best of them.