Just an update to conclude.

I pulled a delicious shot this morning of 14 grams of 3 day old Tanzania Oran. Tamped just until the top of the tamper piston was level with the basket lip. Pull lever down, three small pumps, hold at first drops for a few and let it go, second pull 2/3 of the way (I'm now seeing that most everyone does not do a second pull) and stopped at blonde around 1.5-2oz. Mind you I made a cappuccino out of it, but it was so yummy and the normale-ish shot really stepped through the milk boldly but graciously. The main thing I wanted to point out that led to my success was adjusting the grind appropriately. I kept hearing "finer" when I said "no crema" and was worried when going finer was not working. Last night I took home a pound of the freshest coffee I could find in my store (starbucks: 19 day old cafe verona, it's free) Just to play around with the grind setting and my technique. The coarser I went, the better the crema got, and the eye-cupping score increased. I have now ended up coarser than what I run on the Livietta (almost 1/8 turn coarser on the spong clone) which makes sense since the La Peppina runs at much lower pressure. Now the crema still isn't as much as the vibe pump produces, but I want everyone who reads this to know, it doesn't really matter! The flavor is ten times more important, and the flavor is great! I want to thank all of you for holding my hand while I got to know this machine, and specifically Roeland (Bluecold) for tipping me off on the coarser grind. Happy pulling to all, and to all a good morning!

Glad to hear things are looking up. You're going to have a lot of fun with you La Peppina.

I forgot to mention before that there's a spring lever video thread. I posted a video of my double and single technique (at the time, it's probably changed a bit) there and there's lots of other good videos here