I was going to remove the spring to make it easy to dose and then weigh the basket. I can't see this being an issue but thought I would check. My plan is remove basket, fill with pre weighed ground coffee, WDT, sit basket back into portafilter, tamp, etc

Thanks

That's my standard routine, especially when testing. I have extra baskets to speed things up. The Stockfleths Move for Dummies video shows another advantage of "out of portafilter" dosing (easier redistribution).

jeffg wrote:... My plan is remove basket, fill with pre weighed ground coffee, WDT, sit basket back into portafilter, tamp, etc

I would tamp (in my case, lightly) before putting the basket back into the portafilter. This helps to keep the puck surface level and the compacting even -- especially if your tamp is not a light one. Since you already have the basket out of the PF, why not?

Personally I tamp before putting the filter back in the portafilter - but I must insert in with care not to dislodge the tamped puck.

If you're removing the retaining spring from the PF, you shouldn't have any problem. Simply place the filled basket in the PF. Just be a little careful when knocking the grounds out as there is nothing restraining the basket. If you leave the spring in, there will be issues if you do your final tamp before placing the basket in the PF. The "snap" of the basket into the PF will loosen your grounds.

Additionally it makes it easier to tare your basket on your digital scale if you're in to the 14.00 gram dose scene.

Makes it a little easier to wash the PF handle when cleaning up without the spring in the way of cleaning its channel in the PF head.

It's fairly easy not to loose the whole basket in your knockbox when tapping out the puck by simply sliding the edge of your right thumb (left if you're a southpaw) over the lip of the basket when tapping the knockbox bar.

It makes it easier to pull muliple shots by lining up your baskets as mentioned above, as well as jumping back and forth between double basket and triple basket shots when "playing" with a new blend.

OK, ya' need any more convincin'?

Ridgeless baskets make more sense :

- they slide in and out easily

- they don't fall out when knocking out the puck

- there is no edge discontinuity when up / down dosing / tamping

cafeIKE wrote:Ridgeless baskets make more sense :

- they slide in and out easily

- they don't fall out when knocking out the puck

- there is no edge discontinuity when up / down dosing / tamping

I've swapped the original Lil Home Rancilio PF spring from the Real Barista PF (TM) spring and vise versa. The smaller, weaker spring from the original lets me take the baskets out fairly easily, yet still keeps them (mostly) in the handle when I smack the puck out, and the old PF handle is doing blind PF duty, so it pretty much stays in there all the time.
You could either try to find an old stock spring, or you could make one fairly easily from, oh, maybe a large gauge electric guitar G string?

Just re-bend the original spring. I flatten out the corners a bit and put a slight bend on the straight portions to change the pressure it exerts on the basket. Do the reverse to tighten it up if you've overdone it.