I see what you're saying about the tamping pressure related to springs. I don't have the normcore, but something like it. There are two things that can provide tamping pressure consistency 1) From what I see there is really not much room for the tamper head to move at all in the puck, so I would believe I'm

I've been using rpavlis water since getting this machine because I was worried about creating scale but if I'm being honest, I never actually tasted the water after I made it until yesterday. It was really flat and had no flavor at all (for water). I'm thinking of just switching to my water that comes through the brita filter

I've had my V2 for approximately 9 months. I do a chemical back flush every month. After I do the chemical back flush, the lever is stiff for a day or so, as expected, then loosens up again. However, since my last back flush the lever has remained somewhat stiff. This corresponded with me starting to use a puck screen

Well, I've just reinstalled the brass valves and cam after a complete clean and polish on a lathe, and added MolyKote 111. Everything is smoother than ever now, so this is me counting the days until the stiff, squeaky lever returns I will try not to backflush but instead clean the showerhead maybe twice a week

Thanks for posting your impressions Chert. This Onyx Gem Guatemala was a great learning experience for me. I'd never had a coffee want to take off during FC as much as this one. I ended up getting a well mannered roast with very low heat levels. I still ended up with mild tipping that showed up

Tough crowd

First, it depends on the grinder. Some are intended for general purpose and some for espresso only. On the GP grinders, the small knob turns quite a few times from coarse to fine. Espresso-only grinders, on the other hand, such as my ZF64w {link} turn through fewer turns. Also, while some, usually espresso only models, may have numbers on the

Hence "heralding."

The truth is that there are always people who will be skeptical of "professional reviewers". It's healthy to have a bit of skepticism and not take everything as 100% factual but realize that there's always some bias and opinion mixed in. It's nothing personal. That said, regardless of whether or not I completely "trust" a review, I still

Well, I've had mine for a day or two and so I'll try to answer my original question - namely how does it work. First of all, do watch the video @slybarman posted as it is very helpful. The Normcore has two springs - a very light spring ("alignment spring") and the "tamping spring". The