New tamper & channeling
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 9:35 am
When I bought my Mini II, Chris suggested the Bumper 53mm tamper. However, while it was close to a perfect fit below the ridge on my double baskets, there was a fair amount of free play above it. So I borrowed a friends inside micrometer and determined that a 53.4mm tamper would be close to a perfect fit for my baskets above the ridge.
I had Reg build me a 53.4mm tamper, which I've been playing with for the last couple of days. I'm dosing 16g and use my finger to roughly level the grounds, then I'm using the 53.4 to lightly compact the dose to the ridge. Since it's almost a perfect fit there are no grounds left above the ridge, which is a vast improvement over just using the 53mm tamper. Then I use the 53mm tamper, with ~ 25lbs of force, to compact the grounds.
So far the results have been close to perfect, with no channeling whatsoever; which was a common occurrence when I was only using the 53mm tamper.
I had Reg build me a 53.4mm tamper, which I've been playing with for the last couple of days. I'm dosing 16g and use my finger to roughly level the grounds, then I'm using the 53.4 to lightly compact the dose to the ridge. Since it's almost a perfect fit there are no grounds left above the ridge, which is a vast improvement over just using the 53mm tamper. Then I use the 53mm tamper, with ~ 25lbs of force, to compact the grounds.
So far the results have been close to perfect, with no channeling whatsoever; which was a common occurrence when I was only using the 53mm tamper.