Hi

My routine involves dosing and tamping into a basket while it's out of the portafilter (I keep the portafilter in the grouphead as long as possible, to maintain heat).

Thing is, the bottom of the basket is slightly rounded. Soooooo, I was thinking about buying a holder of sorts (think a bottomless portafilter, without a handle), to ensure that the basket stays level while tamping.

Any ideas, other than buying a second naked portafilter and a tamping mat?

thanks,
madhu

If you fill and level the basket, taking out the portafilter long enough to drop in the basket and tamp shouldn't bet that much of a detriment to the whole process. Question, do you keep the basket retaining wires in the portafilter? I am just wondering how you clean out the basket if there is no retaining wire. Just pop the basket in the sink and rinse out? Thanks

Thing is, my dose/tamp ritual is fairly involved. I usually double tamp (i.e. dose half, WDT, tamp, dose rest, WDT, tamp), so it would be a minute or two that the PF is out of the head.

I removed the retaining wires from my portafilter, so I just pop the basket under the faucet to clean it

If it were me, I'd probably get a hole saw and cut a hole in block of wood. The other solution is take your basket to the hardware store plumbing section and look for a pipe fitting that will accept the basket -- PVC, copper, or ABS. You could cut a notch in the top to allow easy access to remove the basket.