Jim wrote:The cloth beats my tinfoil driptray; but you can keep the rubberband -- I prefer dosing directly into the basket, since it's easier to level that way.
You obviously don't have customers! Oh wait, neither do I ;P
espressme wrote:I have a sliced sponge in the tray for the shots i do in the morning. Usually I flush at the beginning into the cup for heat and then the at the end to clear the dispersion screen.
Do you do these flushes into a cup or just onto the sponge? I'm guessing into a cup, right?
Hmm ... I have a sponge in fluoro green ... might match my Peppina and fluoro coffeetool ;P
espressme wrote:I don't know about others, but I put the very end of my index finger on the basket rim and flip my hand upside down to knock backhand. A blood blister will ensue if you are not in "zen" accuracy mode, though!Laughing Works with the La Pav Europiccola too.
I think I'll stick with the rubber band, thanks! But now you've got me curious ...
espressme wrote: I went to your blogspot and learned a good deal! It was worth the time.
Wow, thanks! I'm humbled! There's a lot of knowledge out there, and I'm certainly not at the top of any game. But I have never really been good at keeping roast logs or anything, so I had to systematise it. I'm so lucky to be able to taste fantastic coffee from all sorts of places. Just last week, last year's Australian Barista Champ dropped off a custom blend for us (next week) and I got to try some Code Brown ... amazing in Australia, where the postage costs 3x what the beans do! But so many of these great experiences have gone unrecorded ... the knowledge completely lost. For example, I can remember enjoying an espresso made for me by Ron Cook in LM's break room, but I can't really remember anything detailed about it. The same goes for stuff like Tim's WBC blend that I had a while back and even the great Yirg that I roasted at the beginning of the year. Anyhoo, seeing as it was incumbent on me to start recording things in order to learn, I figured that I might as well join the blog bandwagon. People are pretty good at sorting out what is BS, so I'm quite happy to make my own personal opinions known. My posts are certainly not up to the level of conciseness and insight as Jim's Coffeecuppers page, but I'm having fun!
See; this reply is turning into a long ramble, exactly like my post that was supposed to be a few general observations accompanying photos of different machines!
espressme wrote:Do the La Peppina's idiosyncracies cause an extended set of Barista understandings?
And would you do a separate thread under "lever machines" with what you have learned as to the dosing and operation of the little beasty?
Using any machine that is different certainly aids in understanding. Having the Linea and Maver on one bench and the BFC HX opposite it sheds a lot of light on how a blend is going to perform.
Ignore the mess; the espresso cupping room is for cupping, not for looking pretty!
I'll certainly do a blog post or start a thread on manipulating peppina extractions at some stage in the future, after I have taken apart my machine, cleaned it up and reassembled it, using the
seal kit that Timo sent me (thanks again!), but for the moment I really have a lot more to learn. The person that I'd really like to hear from is Jim!
Maybe one thing that we could do in the future is start up a more detailed peppina techniques analysis thread ... hand out some 'homework' for all participants to do ... something like delegating the variables to be focussed on. Collating a bunch of information like that might well shed some light on the beast. Speaking of which, Timo, the seals have made me antsy - where's my BEAST kit? ;P
Cheers,
Luca
Unfortunately, I wouldn't know a home "godshot" if I expired from it in ecstasy! 
