There was alot of asbestos between the element plate and boiler. I really did not want to risk spreading asbestos all over my workshop. I did toss up using a spray bottle to spray water over the area. In hindsight it wasn't the brightest idea drowning the whole machine. Whats done is done. No Doug unfortunately I don't have a spare element!!

I was planning to bake the element in my oven for a few hours and test it out with the multimeter. I'll let everyone know if I have destroyed it.

BTW Doug what is the oldest club you have seen? Francesco seems to think they were first made in 1970. HVBean thanks for advice BTW thinks around 1970-1971.

This was Olympia's reply to my email:

"sorry, but we have no documents from the old Olympia company, I presume that the Club has been built up from 1972/73, may be one very early "bird" is from 1971"

Don't despair if baking it the first time doesn't do the trick...sometimes if you pick out the stuff around the terminal, and rebake it, that will do the job. (then you repack it, and seal it) So don't give up.
Barb

Thanks Barb for the tips. What is the ohm reading for this element anyway?

Leaking Pstat:


Another hiccup. I've taken the pstat from the club to put into my olympia cremina 67. My cremina 67 pstat has sprung a leak since I descaled the machine. There is a pin hole leak in the copper bellow that obviously was plugged by scale. I tried to solder it with gentle blowtorch heat. The fragile copper fell apart and now it has a torrential leak. I'm hoping someone has a vintage pstat available that they are happy to sell to me. I only really need the copper bellow which has a 1/4bsp male fitting. I'm hoping I won't need a mater or ceme replacement and keep it vintage.

You want an open loop reading from each unconnected element terminal to the plate(no short) and a fairly stable reading across the terminals. Guessing somewhere around 9ohm?

So the asbestos has been finally removed. All the fibres just peeled of by rubbing the boiler with my hand. All safely done under water. I needed an old toothbrush to gently scrub residue from around the pipes. It is a pretty ugly looking boiler actually.





I've also taken off the element plate and pstat pipe. Needed a long soak with penetrating oil but they all came out ok. Olympia obviously took alot of care and used high grade stainless steel screws.

Now I know why the machine was giving out black soot. The boiler is horrible inside. The copper tube you see inside is the hot water pipe.



The elements is very crusty. The fibre gasket is stuck firmly on the plate



Imagine drinking coffee from this machine!

So I started to hand sand the boiler with various bits of sandpaper and steel wool. Not really making alot of progress merely scuffing the boiler.

The progress with the element is just as slow.

I am most toy envy watching Doug's Olympia Cremina youtube videos. Wish I had his soda blaster cabinet. I've bought various drill brass wire brushes and one of those irwin drill extenders. And the dremel is getting a workout.

Looks like I will be spending a few hours in the workship working on this boiler.

On the soda blaster theme. I stumbled on this item today at my local Supercheapauto. For the people not in australia they sell car bits and pieces. The quality of there car accessories are somewhat questionable. They are however a good source for a lever restorer. Cork gaskets, gasket glues, stainless screws, copper washers.



Needless to say I parted with my $13.97 (AUS). Same price as a bottle of pellegrino at a flashy restaurant. The olympia "engine" will get some blasting.

Please show us your own video!

I'd stick with baking soda in that blaster as it is designed for liquids & any abrasive media will most likely destroy the tip in short order.