Cannonfodder [Dave Stevens] posted the image here: How much do you have to spend on basket/tamper?

With three fingers correctly positioned, the basket rim is detected and the tamper is immediately square to the rim.
Simply push down with fingers on the tamper base and the palm on the handle.

I have relatively small hands. My first RB was custom made by Reg. I'd learned from the Tamper Road Show that not every tamper fits every hand. [RB factory was in my home town]

A common failing I see is people put the bottomless PF on the counter and make the tamper handle vertical. MY BPFs are ancient and the bottom is not square to the rim. I always rest the handle and the BPF rim on the counter, regardless of basket size. When using a triple, the basket protrudes slightly and would throw off the muscle memory if I placed the BPF body on the counter. I suppose I could use a tamp stand, but one more piece of cafe junk might exceed the missus' limit

cafeIKE wrote: Cannonfodder [Dave Stevens] posted the image here: How much do you have to spend on basket/tamper?

Ah, thanks for this. My only issue is I just got a Tidaka funnel that I love (thanks to recommendations I found here on HB), and I've been having fun just pushing the tamper down through it. Got the Plus and the fit with my Profitec tamper is really tight so it's almost like it's leveling in a way. Kind of.

But I'll also tap the portafilter a bit, remove the funnel and try that better grip. It does look pretty easy. It's all experiments, huh?

cafeIKE wrote:I'd learned from the Tamper Road Show that not every tamper fits every hand.

Oh wow - now this sounds like it would be fun...


Many thanks!

I use the Koonan funnel w the Niche, level with funnel, remove funnel and tamp.

HB Roadshow - Espresso Tamper Reviews & my take, August of aught six

I'll try that tomorrow. I actually was able to squeeze a few fingers down in through the Tidaka funnel with the tamper - I like doing things the hard way.

But honestly, it turned out pretty well.

Will try tapping and removing the funnel tomorrow.

And the roadshow looked amazing. What a great idea...

hangint3n wrote:So if you have the tamper please tell me I didn't make a mistake.

It's a great tamper and worth it if you need help with your tamping technique.

When I got my most recent setup I got a bottomless PF. It took about three shots with it to realize I had been tamping all wrong for the last 25 years! That led me to Gilberto and his tamper which I used regularly up until the past few months. I also listened to Cafe Ike and a few others here on HB about tamping technique. Their advice and the Bravo really made it easy to eliminate some really bad muscle memory issues that I had been making for years. For the past few months I've been successfully using a beautiful tamper made by Laczkó Gábor. That said, I still use the Bravo every now and again to check my tamping pressure.

The Bravo is an excellent tool to have and use.

Great choice! I love the design and build quality of these. I don't think there is a better one out there.