Jordan,

Congratulations on your new machine! My Londinium lives with my daughter these days. I haven't used it in quite a while, but I can think of the following:

1. Make sure the beans are fresh, about one to two weeks post roast.

2. Make sure the machine is at the optimum brewing temperature for the beans.

3. Use more coffee, up to 18 grams if it will fit in the basket without being too full.

4. Use a scale under the shot glass and stop the shot (remove the shot glass) when it reaches a 1:2 ratio by weight. For example, 18 grams in and 36 grams out.

5. Adjust the grind so that the shot time with the above parameters takes about 30 seconds.

Rocky

Thanks for the help. I am using fresh beans, a week old blend I roasted 30s after the end of 1C. It is our house blend for the past couple years so I have a lot of experience with it. I also use a scale every time and am getting 30-35g in 30s.

One thing I discovered is 16g of this coffee in the stock basket severely fails the 'nickel test'. I'm pretty sure the grounds were making contact with the screen, leaving no room for water above it. I dropped the dose by 1g, grinded finer to compensate, and the crema did improve some. I may switch to the 35um screen and to the 18-20g IMS basket I ordered with the L1, but I wanted to verify the stock setup could produce a thick shot first.

Keep expiramenting with your dose weight and grind size. When I first got my lever I had similar results with thin crema and shots that didn't compare to my pump machine. Once I found my sweet spot, everything has been great since. I'm sure you will get there

Another highly caffeinated update from learning how this things works. So even with 14g of a med/dark roast in the stock basket, a nickel was pressed all the way into the grounds flat. Weird. So I pulled the screen to replace it with the 35um one, and noticed a) tons of Loxeal all over the inside of the screen (I lubed the spring to get rid of the spring groan sound, with limited success, but I'll worry about later), and b) the stock screen seemed to not be in all the way if that is possible.

The 35um screen seems to go on "further" and the same 14g nickel test easily passes. In fact, I notice the lever catches much later in it's travel with the new screen, probably meaning more head room and that I can dose more. The first shot with the new screen was absolutely beautiful. Tastes great, slower pour for the same grind setting, and somewhat thicker though not all the way there yet.

So I think for every shot before this, the dry grounds were making contact with the screen. Maybe I should've pulled the screen to clean out the excess Loxeal after adding more lube to the spring. Lesson learned.

I am getting better shots with the 18-20g basket. Still not as thick as I am used to with the Vivaldi, but drinkable and better than before.

One thing I notice is I am seeing ~15sec to first drip, then I raise the lever as Reiss recommends, and then the pour ends up being too fast (30g in 20s ish from 21g dose). It starts out great for the first 10s, then I see a giant cone that pours too fast after that. If I go finer to prevent/reduce the giant fast pouring cone, the first drip is >20sec which is too slow. Does this mean I should dose lower and grind finer or grind coarser with a larger dose? Or does it mean my PI/line pressure is too high?

Shots are getting a little better. I notice now the first drips are always at the extreme edge of the basket, and this might be causing the large cone in the 2nd half of the pour.

I have a typical picture of the grounds before and after the shot, can you can clearly see something happening at the edge of the puck. This is where I see the bloom start and also where higher flow happens at the end. Any ideas what can cause this? Here is my prep:

RDT, grind, WDT, groom, light tamp with Londinium tamper, lock and load.

Just a shot in the dark, but maybe your line (preinfusion) pressure is too high?