After seeing the price of Barista Hustle WDT, I decided to pull the trigger on Etsy version. It arrived yesterday and I put it to use this morning.

It even looks like a trigger.

This is before stirring .

After 1 turn.


After 2 turns.


After 5 turns.


Extraction was very good. This is "used" puck.



I'm satisfied with this device, especially for 1/4 of the price of Barista Hustle and 1/8 of the Moonraker.

I received the same device last weekend. It works very well and makes it very easy to get absolutely consistent puck prep.

It requires some assembly but not too complicated. Basically, it's a toy for grownups.

It reminded me of a song, etsy btsy rotater stirred up the grounds...

I just received one of these from etsy. Put it together in about 10 minutes including using the digital calipers to set the depth of the needles.

Tried it this morning and I have to say I was surprised at how much messier it was than manual WDT as you have to remove the funnel after grinding to put this on the portafilter. That part is manageable, but what I wasn't expecting is how much worse it was at distributing the coffee than doing it manually with a Levercraft tool. Both the pattern of the bottom of the basket filling in during pre-infusion and the 5 second faster shot time indicate that the puck integrity is worse with this over my version on manual WDT.

The Levercraft tool has the stock 9x 0.35mm needles. I put the recommended compliment of 0.4mm and 0.3mm needles in the etsyraker.

I'll give it a try for a few more days but this might make a faster exit from my bar than the puck screen did.

And that's sayin' something!

Wow, my experience is on the other end of the spectrum.

I have used mine for a week and I think these have been the most evenly distributed pucks I have ever had and the easiest to create. The shots are coming out at least as good as previously.

To remove it from the basket I gently raise it straight up a few inches and tap the top before moving it away from the basket. My grounds do not go above the top of the basket so there is no mess.

pizzaman383 wrote:Wow, my experience is on the other end of the spectrum.

Mine also. I've been using the Etsy device for several weeks and prefer it to my Kafatek and Levercraft devices.

The Umikot WDT tool is also very good at distributing/leveling the puck.

I'm very meticulous about each step of puck prep and try to eliminate any variability. Using the Levercraft WDT took some practice to perfect. I can notice measurable differences in back to back shot times when changing over to any of my other WDT tools. I try to use the same benchmark coffees when doing these experiments so it gives me a broad reference as to the flavour profile I should be getting.

Yes, I've tried a bunch of WDTs. The Kafatek doesn't have splayed needles, the Sworksdesign has the taper on the handle the wrong way around so that your fingers continue to slip lower rather than having a natural stopping point like the Levercraft. The cheap DIY ones were better than nothing but not great until you get to 0.4mm or finer needles and add an angle. The $1 knockoff Levercraft was decent but lacked the same tactile feel due to being very light. All of this leads me back to the same tool time and time again.

The end result of all this is I get very little variability in shot times and output with the Levercraft and not only does the bottom of the basket fill in almost simultaneously during pre-infusion but the shots always run slower at the same grind setting on the Monolith Flat. If puck integrity and uniformity is the goal, those seem to be the best metrics to use to judge performance. Of course none of this trumps taste and the shots that run slower and fill in more uniformly always taste better and more balanced. They typically also measure higher EY% when I bother to go to that step.

The spinning tool seems to promise greatly improved reliability but ultimately may have a limit to how homogeneous it can make the bed due to it being in a locked pattern.

I learned early on that I got the best results by using stages in my WDT routine. I begin with more vigorous mixing of the whole portafilter, first in a cross pattern to break up the mohawk shape the Kafatek leaves and then whole basket circular mixing. Only then do I slow down and begin the three level spirograph pattern than ends in a gentle raking of the top surface. All of this takes maybe 10 seconds and for someone who makes 3-4 shots a day that's acceptable. In a cafe setting I can see how something exactly repeatable by anyone is better than something that is better only in certain hands and variable the rest of the time.

PIXIllate wrote:but what I wasn't expecting is how much worse it was at distributing the coffee than doing it manually with a Levercraft tool.

How many turns did you make? How deep did you set the needles? ... etc. More details would help to understand your situation.

When you used Etsy, did the grounds look like the picture I posted above?

I tried both 5 and 10 full rotations. As I mentioned I used digital calipers to get the needles as close to the bottom of the basket as I could without touching. The bed of grounds looked like yours but not as good as manual WDT with my usual Levercraft routine outlined above.