RB tamper

[simonp]

Well, I feel I am a proper espresso officianado now, I have a Reg Barber tamper .
It is, of coarse, seconhand in excellent condition from our own Hugh. It is a 58mm stainless one withe a convex bottom, so it will be interesting to see how it compares with my flat bottomed alluminium one.
It certainly feels nice in the hand.

[NottmSteve]

I have the same one... bought it a while back from espresso wharehouse. You'll never need another! This is one area I have no upgrade urge whatsoever!

[HughF]

I have the same one... bought it a while back from espresso wharehouse. You'll never need another! This is one area I have no upgrade urge whatsoever!

Me too, but unfortunately I don't have a lathe to turn it down to 53mm from 58!

Cheers,

Hugh

[simonp]

I used this for the first time this evening. Interesting, obviously the tamper leaves a convex puck, but when I lock the portafilter in the rim of the puck now hits the showerscreen which compresses the puck flat! I must not have enough gap under the puck anyway as the srew imprint is very deep.
It is odd that my old dosing method that worked with the Isomac grinder - half fill, shake and tap to settle the grounds, over fill, distibute, level, and tamp which left a couple of mm gap under the showerscreen - seems to give different results with the Rocky grinder, doing this gives a puck that is much thicker, and touches the showerscreen . Either the grind settles better using the doser into the portafilter rather than gring into it, or the particle shape is different and so distributes differently.

Ah, the mysteries of espresso

[johara]

I have just ordered a very similar tamper from reg and look forward to receiving it in the post.

[pault]

I think the Reg Barbers are fine - they do a good job,

but if you look on my other tamper thread - in terms of both weight and handle I've found the Auzzie ones at http://all.at/coffeetampers are better to use

to repeat nothing wrong with the RBs (before people shout at me) but all in all I think the Auzzies are better and don't be put off by the distance - I ordered tampers from both the US and Oz at the same time and the Auzzie ones came on Monday and I'm still waiting on the US ones ...

[simonp]

Used the RB tamper again this evening, I gorund a little less coffee, and didn't do my usual half fill, and shake/tap, then overfill. I just overfilled and loosely moved the grounds around and levelled, this gave me a lowr puck upon tamping.
The pour (Daterra espresso blend, 4 days rest) looked very good, slow and oozing crema, tasted great too.
I'm guessing one of the points of the convex tamper is to distribute grounds to the edge better, and so lessens the need to distribute with your finger, whivh seemed to work for me.

[HughF]

Glad it's working out for you. My new RB (ordered at 53mm size) is really a bit small in the S1 pf - I suggest anyone else waits for their pf to arrive, measures it and then orders their tamper to obtain as close a fit as possible. I think pault did this, I was too impatient; if I'd known about the installation delay then I **would** have waited and ordered the precise size. Maybe I'll try a NESW tamp after the main tamp to sort out the edges next time.

Cheers,

Hugh

[pault]

my measurement for the Spaziale (my basket at least) was 53.6mm at the smallest point

don't know how accurate that is for other baskets - but it is worth doing the proper caliper measurement at 6 different diameter points and taking the lowest - sounds o.t.t. but it produces a perfect fit ...

the Auzzie tamper maker really takes his measurements seriously and the Thor hammers fit great as well ...

my sense is good as the RBs are - they're a bit more like a mass-produced brand, maybe they're just too busy/big to take the care that some of these smaller producers do ...

cheers,

Paul.

[Joey]

does anyone of youn spaziale guys need 53mm tampers, new, I forgot how they are called - the ones with the colorful middle of the handle...like a glass, they have been on CG, they are convex, stainless steel, nice heavy...

found out that I need 54mm with the original baskets, the old ones could use 53. Now I have 3 53 tampers, just one is in use....
here's a pic:
I have the red, orange and green one....
joey

[Steve]

OHHH ME MISS ME PLEASE (rasies his hand waveing it in the air) I'd love the red on if thats OK,

[Joey]

the red one is the only one we used the last 3 weeks, so if you don't mind that.... but it has no signs of usage. We always let them stand on the handle (upside down) so that we don't ruin the surface of the bottom.