Today I revisted the Peruvian Ceja de Selva estate. Wound down the grind to rather very fine and played about with tamping pressure. Result got 1x perfect pour and shot and 2x acceptable. (Thats it for this mornings coffees).
Examined why this one was so different a setting up both in grind and tamp to other beans, and suspect its the grinder, the user and a little about the beans.
It looks like the "correct" position on the grinder at my usual tamp pressure gives me a rather uneven grind including a fair whack of powder. Did a side by side comparo grinding technique and noticed that with these beans there is a tendency for the round and round motion to be jerky (they feel "harder"?) to some other beans Ive used. When it gets harder to push/almost stops, one of the corners that is screwed into the wood lifts somewhat. It looks like this mount point / screw down has stripped the wood that used to hold it in place allowing movement/flex in the bit that spins compared to the burrs embedded deep within that down.
What worked was stepping it down into the way too fine grind category, and tamping with finger pressure. Issues experienced were - over tamping (choking), under tamping (the initial issue), over dosing (the super fine grind blew out my procedures for proper dosing - choked). The perfect shot I got was delicious. The others were acceptable because well we all add milk to our coffee - Ive gone from a full blown latte to a doubleshot picollo latte).
A replacement grinder is already on the cards, and looks like it will be bumped forward, just got to wait until we have enough to get the right grinder. (I currently have a rrpd BCG-800 available, but am not sure if that grinder is "good enough" in terms of longevity, consistency and ability to grind the beans for the Silvia. May head over to the FS section and the Grinders section
.In the mean time, Ill just have to focus on a smooth grinding motion and find some beans that surrender to the grinder more easily and smoothly. Im not sure if I should attempt to repair the screw point because if I ruin the grinder in the attempts, Ill be most sad. Now that I know whats going on should be easier to work around.
Thanks for the comments and help, its invaluable could not have worked it out without you guys.

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