I've lately found that I see much less channeling from shot to shot when I grind into a pitcher, shake the grinds and dump them into the portafilter. I do tamp to level and compress the bed of coffee, but I don't concern myself with the amount of pressure.

I used one of those great amazon 3 vane distribution tools and found that my puck integrity was much worse. My shots were more prone to channeling. I must have been using it wrong somehow since a lot of people are loving them.

cannonfodder wrote:I have used many things over the past couple decades. My conclusion is the best tool for the job is attached to your hand. A finger works wonders, you never loos it and it is a wonderful multitask'er.

And you do great work!
Do you have a pattern for Pesado bases that have the counter sunk handle? I have an old style base but no handle..

I use the Kafatek leveling tool and LevTamp only to compress, after WDT with the Londinium tool, side taps to level, and vertical taps to settle. Every shot is textbook, unless I am extremely careless.

I like how these grooming tools have rims to self-level against the portafilter so you're not leaning off-center. Has anyone invented a tamper with a similar concept?

I can't tell if your joking or not but yes, many have. Kafatek has the Levtamp, Artpresso has one, and others..

Nope, had no idea these existed. Thanks! I'll check into them.

I bought a 3 vane groomer + palm tamper off amazon.

I get satisfactory results with my compak k10, no RDT or WDT by doing the following:

1- Dose into portafilter
2- 2-3 side taps to even out the mound
3- sometimes i use the flat tamper just to get the top surface even (barely any pressure at all)
4- start rotating the groomming tool before makin contact with the gounds.
5- keep rotating until the groomong tool compacts the grinds and makes contact with the basket rim + a couple extra turns.
6- finish the tamp with tamper. Tamper only compacts the grinds an additional 1-2mm if grooming tool is adjusted properly.

ncrc51 wrote:I use a chisel shape grooming tool and puck style tamper with my Vivaldi. I like the consistent results I get with this approach.

+1 on the Chisel type (wedge shape).

I feel it holds on to less grounds especially if you use it to go deep and do the work of tamping also. You can spend about 20 bucks on one of the knockoff styles. Lately I've been using my tamper again because my pucks were clinging to the shower screen and causing a mess if they dropped onto the drip tray. Seems that if I just set my tamper on the surface after grooming/distributing and polish the surface...no more cling!

Got one of each. Both work fantastically. I don't even tamp any more. Just set the tool depth deep enough to collapse the grinds and give proper headspace.



The wedge was $20 from Alibaba, the "clover" was $20 Amazon Prime.

I never seek or employ shortcuts to good technique though. Every shot every time is:

RDT/grind/WDT/tool (or tamp)

When I say these tools work well, what I mean is that they don't necessarily make a better shot than by traditional tamping, just that they make a higher percentage of good ones. Especially with challenging super light roasts, and even more so when I'm using a VST basket which adds yet more challenge.

I switch coffees frequently, and sometimes you need to adjust the tool depth for each. No biggie. Each adjustment takes under 15 seconds. I made a mark with a sharpie on the threaded stud, and one on the female threaded handle, under the top cap where you can't see it, to use as reference.

-Peter

3cordcreations wrote:Wanting to see who uses the grooming/ distribution tools for leveling the puck? If you have one, what brand/ style and do you see a benefit in workflow and puck results?

My tools of choice are the Mahlgut Dozer & Palm Tamper.

Procedure is to grind into naked portafilter with 18gm VST basket then dump contents into a LWW Blind Shaker fitted with a canning funnel sitting atop of a tared scale. When desired weight is achieved Shaker then sits on portafilter to transfer coffee. I no longer WDT, just tap portafilter on tamping mat, groom with Dozer that produces a very level puck, tamp with palm tamper that always produces a level tamp - even if the bottom ring doesn't touch the rim of the pf basket. Last but not least, I 'test' the puck by turning the pf basket upside down over a saucer to see if the puck falls out, if it doesn't then its all good - 'Lock & Load'!