walking out the door this morning on my way to work the white fedex truck pulled up and handed me the box containing the la pavoni europiccola i won off ebay last week. YAY

i quickly unwrapped it and brought the portafilter / basket to work so i could measure the inside (have tools there not at my house) since the ebay seller wasn't sure what year it was made or the proper tamper size... they were using a Charbucks one that "workd OK"

at work we can precision cut paper and cut some blanks out of cardboard at 49, 50 and 51mm

51mm is too big, pre-millinium it is, im OK with that

49mm has some slop in it from side to side

50mm fits about 1/8th or a lil more down in the basket with a nice snug but not too snug fit.

now a friend of mine is going to machine a tamper for me, i'm thinking of having him do 50mm

question is.. is this a common "issue" w/ pre-millinum pavoni's to have a side-to-side slop issue with 49mm tamper and basket? there is no one local that stocks tampers so my options are to buy one and deal w/ a little slop of a 49mm or have one custom made - which ill be doing blueprints for and meeting w/ my friend tomorrow night.

Baskets are often slightly different sizes. I have a Millenium model machine and bought several double baskets for it. Each of them is slightly different. One of them is just perfect for my tamper (51mm precisely) and the other two have about .5 mm of wiggle room. My single basket that came with the machine is also a bit larger, to the point that I have a hard time locking it into the portafilter.

If you are planning to get more baskets to go with the machine you may want to consider going with 49mm just to be on the safe side. If not make certain the tamper will fit the single and the double basket and you should be just fine. Having a tamper that fits perfectly isn't the end of the world IMHO.

Mine is a pre-millenium and yes you're right, a stock 49mm tamper has too much play (for my liking). I was going nuts trying to hook out all the coffee that would stick to the inside of the basket above the puck. I eventually sent one of my baskets off to a very good tamper manufacturer in Australia and they made a tamper to fit. At first I thought it was a little too snug but now that I'm used to using it, I couldn't be happier. It kind of forces me to make sure I tamp level otherwise I have difficulty pulling the tamper out. Anyway, I would definitely recommend a better fitting tamper. It may not make a significant difference to your shots, but it makes the process a tad easier. Enjoy your machine.
Sam.

BTW 50mm sounds a little too big to me. I'd be surprized if it would go deep enough into the basket.