I don't know if this will help, but here goes....I have a Silvia which is 
my main machine. In the course of my thrift shop travels I happened to find 
a Cimbali MicroCasa(spring-loaded) and 2 Olympia Cremina's (one sold to my 
friend)...I haven't used the Cimbali in years, at least not since before 
getting my Rocky...I'll have to drag it out and try it.
Recently, I have started using the Cremina, and am having a lot of fun with 
it. I use it for my Americano in the afternoon because it holds a little 
less coffee than the Silvia double basket(8g vs. 16).
It's a lot less finicky (to me) than the Silvia...I have yet to get the 
surfing thing down. It looks like a PID is in my future :-)
I enjoy the physical input into making the shot vs. pressing a button, and, 
I'm loving the shots I get from it...Maybe, this week, I'll fire up the 
Cimbali and see if i do better with it now that I've gotten all this 
knowledge from this list....
One interesting thing about the Cimbali is the amount of scale it 
produces...I've never seen anything like it. We have pretty soft water 
here(NYC) and every time I open the hot water/emptying tap on the machine, 
I get these white flakes. I may have to do a complete breakdown. Not 
looking forward to it...
Well, that's it. I think everyone should have at least one lever machine in 
his/her arsenal....
John should have a few words to add. He's owned a Pavoni for quite awhile, 
from what I understand....
Ciao,
Angelo
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Angelo -
If you ever decide to part with either the Cremina or the Cimbali - please 
let me know, I've been trying to find either of these machines at a 
reasonable 'user,' as opposed to Ebay collector, price for some time now.
Cheers
Jim

Brent -
I wrote a fairly long note on alt.coffe a few days ago about lever machines, 
if you've not seen it, drop me a note and I'll dredge it out ....
Basically, we've lived with a LaPavoni for about 8 years now, and it's a 
very capable and useful machine for 2 people. With care you can produce some 
very decent shots and dense, sweet foam - but the process is somewhat 
painstaking and a bit bass-ackwards from how more modern machines work.
We use filtered water and try to preheat the machine with the steam valve 
open until we hear the water boil - then close the valve and allow the 
pressure to build until the relief valve stutters (this model is quite 
ancient, S/N 779, and has no thermostat or pressurestat, we're basically 
brewing with a chrome-plated bomb) - then open the steam valve to release 
the false pressure. Next, we close the valve, build pressue again, and do a 
second bleed to get rid of any water. Now, we get very light, dry steam and 
can foam 8 oz of milk in about a minute.
We set aside the foamed milk, flip the AC switch from the 1000 to the 600W 
setting, build our shot into the double basket, and bleed down the steam 
pressure by steaming into the portafilter which warms it, and cools the 
boiler.
After a minute or so the boiler is under 100C and we can try pulling a shot, 
we raise the lever and pre-infuse for 5-10 seconds, then pull down at a 
steady rate, watching the coffee flow - it should be a pretty solid and 
dense stream for the first half of the pull - if you get bubbles, crema, or 
light colors - you've either blown the grind/tamp process or are pulling too 
fast.
The second half of the pull should be a mixture of crema and coffee, in a 
dense stream which may thin slightly towards the end. The Pavoni basket is 
fairly small, you'll only get 3/4 to 1 oz per pull - but for milk drinks a 
2nd pull will work just fine.
Remember - there is no nifty 3-way valve, the portafilter will hold 1/3 to 
1/2 bar pressure for a surprisingly long time - we build one drink, then 
carefully 'jiggle' the portafilter to bleed off any residual pressure before 
releasing it.
Cheers
Jim
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