Olympia Express Cremina 67 Rebuild

derrilex · April 2012

Going for a round 2 showdown against the 99 AM ? Heavyweight title fight :rofl: :rofl:

Kelsey · April 2012

Oh yeah, absolutely drop around if you're free. Lacehim's up in Sunshine Beach up Coolum way.

Koffee_Kosmo · April 2012

I like photos Is there a likely chance that you will take some nice ones of the Cremina 67 and post them And leave Kelsey alone >:( He is a nice bloke on P plates KK

Kelsey · April 2012

No no, he's right. My latest roast wasn't up to snuff. And the Cremina certainly steams at much greater volume and power than the BZ99. Much fun was had by....well... me, at least.

My wife came in afterwards and asked me if all this was some kind of elaborate ruse and if there was a lever machine hidden away in the garage somewhere. "No," I said. "That's AM's trick". :rofl: :rofl:

Muscles · April 2012

Here you go AM, hope it gives an idea of grind size

Kelsey · April 2012

Provided the only payment is your amusement at the fallout, I'm good with that. :laugh:

derrilex · April 2012

Must be something seriously wrong with that BZ Kelsey if it was whooped by AM's egg cup lever :rofl: :rofl: Although, that thing is basically all boiler with a pimped element.

derrilex · April 2012

Whats the stability like on the little lever AM ? from a on the bench perspective ( not temp). Do you have to clamp it down while using ? :rofl: I can just picture pulling the whole thing over while activating the lever

Muscles · April 2012

:coffee2: Just got my new sight glass from OE in the mail so I can rebuild it tonight with the anti-vac and have some more lever fun. AM, how many and what sort of washers did you use when putting the antivac where the Safety valve was? I really don't want to crack this glass too and wait another 2 weeks for a replacement part...

derrilex · April 2012

All sounds a tricky for you lever boys

Muscles · April 2012

Thanks man that helps a bit. I have 1 x copper crush, several rubber and teflon washers and standard copper washers. I thought the copper crush would not seal properly if I used 2 or would need replacing if I ever removed them - perhaps I am wrong? Anyway, first time round I used 2 x Teflon. The Anti Vac looks like same one used by CoffeeRenos ie this part from CoffeeParts -Item code: 618968 - first one in their list. I think this time I will try to seat it lower and have a good look for clearance before tightening. Float ball you say? Now you have me wondering where I could find one small enough to use. I would have thought it would end up either in the boiler or in the top rail... might leave that to others to play with.

Muscles · April 2012

What I meant was... This time I will seat the sight glass lower, it has about 3-5mm play in where it sits. I'll lube the tube before inserting to get it in as far as it will possibly go - tight fit I know but I reckon that extra couple of mm will allow the AV to fit with 2 washers and not crack the glass... Will take some pics :thumb: EDIT: also, this is IF the new glass is same length. If not, maybe I will have to sand some of the length off....

derrilex · April 2012

on 1335239399:

I'll lube the tube before inserting to get it in as far as it will possibly go

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: geez I must be bored

Kelsey · April 2012

on 1335225671:

Due to the smart people behind the development. You can use two hands and almost bend the tever and it does not move. The fulcrum point is very smartly placed. If your seals are bad or the system needs to be cleaned. Then when lifting to load the shot, it may be an issue unless you use your hand to stable the unit.

Or if you grind too fine on your BSG. :rofl:

derrilex · April 2012

Could there be a few short comings starting to appear in the mighty mini lever ? :rofl:

Kelsey · April 2012

Nope, not from my perspective. I liked it a lot. Definitely a keeper.

Muscles · April 2012

Keeper for sure. The silence while using it is deafening ??? Just need a hand grinder now so I can make espresso's in stealth mode...

Kelsey · April 2012

That's exactly what I was thinking when we were playing around yesterday. Was tempted to bust out the hario.

derrilex · April 2012

Oh my god, Kelsey has caught lever fever - fair enough, I want one too but dont tell AM

Brett H · April 2012

I don't know about all this hand grinder business. I want a coffee in 30 seconds, not 30 seconds + 275 turns of a pepper mill. Surely there must be a grinder on the market so quiet, and so expensive that the mere knowledge of it would scare our families into allowing us to grind with our domestic rattlers whenever we wanted... lest we blow the kids investment fund on a silent bean chomper. Also, with two little ones at home I don't need any sympathetic winks from colleagues when I turn up to work with one arm clearly bigger than the other!!!

derrilex · April 2012

I hear that having kids forces you to take matters into your own hands Brett :rofl:

Muscles · April 2012

You guys all crack me up! :rofl: I too have a lil girl in the house and not that the SJ has ever woken her but if by coincedence she should wake while I happen to be making a coffee, well, let's just say the look from the Mrs is one of those you don't wanna see! So tonight I installed the new sight glass and slowly and steadily tightened all the nuts. In fact, it took me 3 goes (and 3 drain and refills of the boiler) to get it to the point where it no longer leaked. I really didn't want to crack the sight glass again and my patience paid off. I must say there is a fair bit of water coming out of the anti-vac as the boiler initially comes up to temp. I suspect it will be reduced with subsequent power-ons as less false pressure would exist. All up I'd say that initial power-on spat out around 1.5 tsp's of water. The good news is that within 5 minutes the majority of it is vaporised by the heat coming of the boiler and the top and bottom rails. I took the opportunity to insulate the boiler while the covers were off and came VERY close to meeting Mr 240V for the first time in my life. I now know why everyone stresses the dangers of working with or even near electricity. Thankfully, while reaching for the switch assemble from inside the case I heard AM screaming at me to "turn it of at the wall and unplug it just to be sure because 2+2=5 and Muscles + 240V = dead!" Thanks AM! :thumb: Anyway, back to the insulation, with the boiler now insulated I have increased the time in between boiler cycles but only very slightly (maybe added 20-30 seconds to the off-period) but the noise made during the boil is pleasantly nearly non-existent now. It used to sound like a kettle boiling and could be heard as it came up to temp but not any more

What's left for me to do: I have the 2 temp strips still to attach but can't decide where I want to put them, I am still going to re-paint the cover as there are 3 decent chips down to bare metal on it but again I can't decide on color and lastly I am going to rellocate the power cord from the side to the rear but need to figure out how to seal the hole that will be left behind and how to secure the cord in the near location. Anyway, will post pics tomorrow...

Lacehim · April 2012

Nice job Muscles. What did you use for insulation? I'm going to strip down PV lusso, insulate the boiler, fix up the sight glass with a bit of reflective aluminium to help see the water level (an idea by a CS member Bullitt). http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1265525881/250 That might work with your cremina too? It's the little blue bit, and just clips over the sightglass.

Muscles · April 2012

Cheers Lacehim, I used a closed cell high temp silicone sponge almost identical to the one on the OE site. It was a bugger to fit under the hood but I got there eventually. I had this stuff left over from when I made my own sous vide bath a couple of years ago and had bought it by the square meter on the bay of evil. There is a mob in Australia that sell it but you have to buy a (large) min qty and at present they are out of stock on everything thicker than 6mm which wouldn't really do enough. The stuff I have is approx 15mm thick and VERY flexible. Here are some pics of the anti-vac mod that AM and I have both done as per the original mod design by coffeerenos - so credit to them for the idea :thumb: This is the Safety Pressure valve screwed on the end of a 1/4" female to female union. The steam wand comes through the top rail and screws in to the other side of this. The safety valve was originally located on the LHS of the top rail.

This is the anti-vac itself, now positioned where the safety valve was right on top of the water level sight glass. I used one solid copper washer between two teflon washers and it fit in height wise perfectly.

Today I fitted the two LCD temp strips on the group so I can calibrate myself against the machine and get an idea of how to monitor and maintain temp.

Oh, and the first shot after replacing the cracked sight glass, tasted good but I know the machine can do better

Here is how the coffee shrine looks at the moment

Gra · April 2012

very nice setup Marc :thumb: Well done mate. Cheers Gra.

Muscles · April 2012

Thanks Gra

I think I have upgraditis at bay for quite a while now ::)

Lacehim · April 2012

Nice set up. I've seen the antivac mod before on these. I did a lot of reading about levers and projects.

You'll have to let us know what you think about the difference between your BDB and the cremina when you get use to it.

Muscles · April 2012

Thanks Lacehim :thumb: The operational difference is massive with the anti-vac and the temp strips. Now I just turn it on and wait for the temp strip to indicate it's time for a shot, no more bleed, wait, bleed, pour... I still need to build a correlation of water temp coming out the group to the temp displayed on the LCD strips, then I can match the temp to and compare with the BDB. I realize it won't be absolutely accurate but if I also use the same method on the BDB I should get a fair comparison.

derrilex · April 2012

Awww, its so cute. Looks great muscles, better than great. You have to junk that high tech jigger on the bench and go fully retro :thumb:

Muscles · April 2012

hehe out with the new and in with the old hey?? Thing is the Cremina will never do what the BDB can do. I need a machine with dual boilers, dual levers and PID control so I can adjust temp between shots/beans. These two will keep me occupied until I find the perfect beast.

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