No decent tampers sold in my country, so I built my own

[avk_dh]

hi i'm new here, recently i bought mi first espresso machine and i've been reading this forum and the how-tos on this page to improve my coffee. the machine i bought didn't came with a tamper, so i started looking for one in local coffee/food preparation related stores, for my surprise and disappointment none of them sold a decent tamper . i live in santiago de chile, and it seems that there's no coffee culture around here ........ i'm a mechanical engineer student, and i have access to mechanizing machines, so i just bought a solid 2" diameter aluminum cylinder and machined it until i got what you see on these pictures :





i hope you like it .


i also wanted to ask you if you know any online store that ships espresso gear to chile.

[Psyd]

I dunno, there avk_dh, it looks pretty good! I'm thinking that you need a bit of a website and more access to the machine shop, and you might be the tamper supplier in Chile!
I'd look to polish the base to a bit more of a mirror look, it other than that, it looks great. More importantly, though, how does it feel to you?

[HB]

Looks like nice machining. The base looks rather thick; I like the top of the piston to be slightly above the rim basket so I can confirm by feel if the tamp is level.

[avk_dh]

I dunno, there avk_dh, it looks pretty good! I'm thinking that you need a bit of a website and more access to the machine shop, and you might be the tamper supplier in Chile!
I'd look to polish the base to a bit more of a mirror look, it other than that, it looks great. More importantly, though, how does it feel to you?

it feels very comfortable since i had the chance to hold it and feel it in my hand as i machined it .......

about becoming a tamper supplier in chile, good idea except for the fact that there's very little market for good espresso gear and products here, espresso coffee here usually means overpriced coffee made with very old pre-ground beans on a very dirty espresso machine, no tamping involved ......

[espressme]

Welcome!
You do very nice work. Congratulations.
sincerely
richard

[KimH]

Hi

Very nice work. I was thinking about doing the same thing, but when I realized that it has been 8 years since I stopped working with machines like that, I ended up buying one instead

I don't know if it is a good or a bad thing, but it looks like the chamfer in the bottom is bigger than on tampers I have used. Maybe it is good to prevent side channeling - I don't know......

Keep up the good work.

Regards
KimH

[civ]

Hello:

I see I wasn't the only one with a tamper acquisition problem. =-D
I couldn't get myself a tamper either and importing one was not economically feasible.

So I drew one up and went to my friendly neighbourhood machine shop to see if they would spare some time to turn one for me.

Stainless steel or naval brass were too expensive and aluminium too light and soft for my liking, so I chose to have it done in Dupont Delrin. It's FDA approved, easy to clean, low friction, tolerates temperatures in excess of 90° C and can be machined by means of traditional methods.

Here's a pix of the tamper and the drawing I sent the shop.

Everything is in millimiters and the diameter (arrow/circle) will obviously change with the portafilter size.

Cheers,

CIV