I think I'm doing pretty well with my espresso / cappuccino process lately. I've had just a couple glitches that I have not totally figured out.

1. I'm ending up with some fines in my cup, which isn't really a big deal, but I'm not sure why it is happening. I replaced the main gasket above the portafilter a few days ago. Maybe this is just something not to worry about?

2. A lot of times, using the bottomless portafilter, I get some spraying around at weird angles. Well in this video it is nearly perfect, so perhaps I was just more careful with dosing and tamping in this video and that is the solution to the issue.

3. I've had milk turning out pretty well, but sometimes, as you can see in the video, sometimes I seem to get way more air into the milk than I am expecting to. (I start by stretching the milk out, then put the wand to the bottom to get it up to temperature, sometimes once the wand is at the bottom, it seems to add a ton of air into the pitcher)

[youtube]http://youtu.be/eaXijlZVidY[/youtube]

The video doesn't want to display for me; here is the link to it directly:
https://youtu.be/eaXijlZVidY

Here you go, you want to use just this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaXijlZVidY Notice no HTTPS but rather just HTTP. My suggestions:

1. You move around the portafilter a little later on while grinding. Do this much earlier and dose into corners of the basket first before letting it pile up in the center. How the 2nd half of the grinds fall is way less important than the first half IMO.
2. Don't shake portafilter, in my experience it just messes things up rather than help to distribute better. Just smoothing and tamping works better for me. I don't tamp very hard, but that's really just preference.
3. Try holding the steamwand just under the milk surface a little lower than you do for stretching and keep it steady (level will rise as air goes in slowly). You may not really need to do a specific stretching phase.

Fines in cup I wouldn't worry about too much, I get a few, but they always stay in the cup for me so I never really notice them. If it doesn't affect flavor, just forget about them.

In the video I saw a fair bit of side channeling, so I think you could improve, but maybe it was just the angle of the video.

HI;

Thanks for the reply. Sorry I didn't see this sooner. I made sure I had an up to date email address here and had notifications turned up, but didn't get one for some reason.

I've put all 3 suggestions to good use. I'm getting much better results with the extraction by paying some more attention to how it is distributed. I also am tamping a bit harder / firmer, which seems to help make sure it is even.

I'm getting a bit more consistent with the milk also.

Oddly, I still get leakage around my top of the portafilter at times. I just replaced the gasket there about a week prior to taking this video. Most of the time it is good. Maybe it is if the grind is just a little too fine and that causes too much back pressure, then it causes it to leak? It's not a issue most of the time.

Milk is doing better also, I'm still not creating fabulous latte art, but it's looking a bit more like it is at the proper consistency.

Thanks again.