Do not twist and press down, there is good risk of breaking the puck. Twist while not applying the pressure, it simply gets grounds off of the tamper. No need to twist either except for that.

Wow! that's quite a bit of tapping!
you can try thumping instead - a two light thumps against the counter, that's what I do (credit for this goes to an ice dicusssion in a 'to tap or not to tap' thread).

I also use espro (53mm).

What type of tool are you using to evenly distribute the grinds? Is it home made or some sort of dental pick? Quite like to get something similar but hook and pick sets or dental scalers don't look quite the same.

Cheers
Jason

IMO, judging from your photos you're putting a tad to many grinds in your portafilter.

Also, I hope that you're cleaning off every stray bit of grinds from where the baskets lip meets the portafilter, from the lugs and from the top inside of the basket.

After I tamp my grounds I do a no force light twist, which doesn't affect the puck one iota.

Too many grinds?
If the twist doesn't affect the puck, why do it?

What else would you venture to say caused all of those stray grinds?

The reason for the twist is simply aesthetics.

Prompted by a discussion here where I realized that maybe my K10 shot prep routine is unusual in that I don't weight my bean column (instead I just throw it in the hopper), I figured I'd post my prep routine. Seemed like here was a better place for the video, so... here it is.
Finca Mauritania SOE, 17.1g / 26.9g / 64% / 25s / 200°F

The shot's a little fast, as I've mostly been using 17.5 g at this grind. However, it was a good extraction and was bright, sweet, and pretty typical of my pours with this coffee.

Shadowfax,
My heart was beating each time you brush the chute with the grinder running! Won't it get stuck to the spinning blade in the grinding chamber? I had that happened once on my Major with the grinder spinning down. Nice Illy Nude crystal cup btw!

Nicholas,
I'd prefer a close up shot with a naked portafilter so I could better critique your distribution.

samuellaw178 wrote:My heart was beating each time you brush the chute with the grinder running! Won't it get stuck to the spinning blade in the grinding chamber?

Indeed, I've gone back and forth on whether I do it, but one great advantage to the chute mod on the K10 is that I can see the burr carrier spinning in the chamber as I sweep, so it's very easy to see the brush as I sweep and avoid hitting the burr carrier vanes compared to other grinders (e.g. the Super Jolly or the Roburs). It's not something to do if you're not in the mood to be careful-overenthusiastic brushing will get you for sure-but it does save a lot of motor pulsing compared to sweeping out the chute with the grinder off. That's the K10's most annoying weakness to me, a consequence of its greatest strength among the 68 mm conicals: its motor is so slow that it gives a weak throw out of the chamber. You can deal with that by doing what I did above, or pulsing 5-6 times, or just accepting half a gram or so left in the chamber. I prefer to waste as little as possible, so I waste an extra 20-30 seconds cleaning out after every shot.

pjones wrote:I'd prefer a close up shot with a naked portafilter so I could better critique your distribution.

I'm too intolerant of eye cupping by now; I don't even use my naked portafilter since I got the SS portafilter. So easy to keep clean, it solves my one OCD issue with spouted portafilters.