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  • Old pullman getting stuck

    So I picked up an IMS shower screen and a precision 'Pesado' 18g basket.

    Now my old but lovely checker board Pullman tamper is getting stuck! I can get it in in some orientations, but it seems to pull a vacuum and i struggle to remove it again. It doesn't happen with the stock basket on my Strega

    Wondering if people know which baskets are good sizes for the Pullmans? I don't want to buy other brands and find the same thing.

    (If Greg happens to see this, I've got number 3846. It was a gift a few years ago, and my favourite coffee tool.)

  • #2
    I use the Pullman 17-19g & 19-22g baskets with my Pullman Big-Step tamper, and they fit beautifully together. I've also used a couple of VST basket's as well and they fit fine, but I preferred the results with the Pullman baskets.

    Comment


    • #3
      Greg used to make the custom tampers to fit a specific basket size, if possible. You would send a measurement taken with calipers or tell him the actual basket model and he’d know the dimensions and make the tamper to fit. So I think you’ll have to use trial and error or else measure its diameter and work out which baskets will fit. My old Pullman is a very tight fit on VST baskets and usually takes a few gentle pushes to get it to clear any coffee stuck on the sides before it goes in. I have to very gently pull it out otherwise the suction stuffs the coffee bed. The newer style tampers with the step shape avoid this issue.

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      • #4
        Could be something to that. I do remember that service, and I can't recall if it came with a matched basket or not?

        But I did locate my calipers. The tamper base measures at 58.8mm, and the basket seems to be a max of 58.9-59.0mm.

        Without a lathe I'm trying to figure out if I can still reduce the diameter by a tenth or so. Maybe I just need to keep it in the freezer...

        Comment


        • #5
          Can you remove the tamper cleanly by pressing then starting to turn it laterally while pulling it back out?

          Machining options are to get a nearby workshop to do it, perhaps even a motor vehicle brake repairer.

          Or, get some emery cloth and polished away yourself. It's a tiny amount to remove so although tedious is doable.


          Comment


          • PiccoloLatte
            PiccoloLatte commented
            Editing a comment
            I have been using it occasionally as you suggest. But it's so tight on some orientations that it gets stuck. On others, it can be pulled out with a bit of turning but I'm worried about disturbing the puck. So I tend to limit too much movement.

        • #6
          Would be easier to do if you could use the handle fixing thread to attach a shaft, then fit this into a drill chuck and use like a poor man's lathe.
          The emery/carborundum or whatever your preferred grinding medium is, would then be glued to a small piece of flat timber. This would then be held up against the tamper base while the drill is running, making sure to keep everything square...

          Mal.

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          • PiccoloLatte
            PiccoloLatte commented
            Editing a comment
            This is a good suggestion. Not sure my drill is true enough to spin it without wobble, but I might give it a go.

          • Dimal
            Dimal commented
            Editing a comment
            I was thinking something more along the line of a pedestal or bench drill press.
            I guess if you could find a way to secure a hand drill to a bench such that it absolutely will not move, then that might work...

        • #7
          Originally posted by PiccoloLatte View Post
          So I picked up an IMS shower screen and a precision 'Pesado' 18g basket.

          Now my old but lovely checker board Pullman tamper is getting stuck! I can get it in in some orientations, but it seems to pull a vacuum and i struggle to remove it again. It doesn't happen with the stock basket on my Strega

          Wondering if people know which baskets are good sizes for the Pullmans? I don't want to buy other brands and find the same thing.

          (If Greg happens to see this, I've got number 3846. It was a gift a few years ago, and my favourite coffee tool.)
          Sorry for the late reply mate. Bear in mind I sold the business 9 years ago now so my memory's a bit faint...

          That said, I do have an old copy of the database and I can see your tamper was very big, your measurements are around the mark of what I've got on file. You ordered it with a ridgeless Synesso basket so it would have been matched to that. Synessos did vary around a bit in size unfortunately between batches, which is one reason I moved to VST baskets as they were more consistent. Mark's now getting his own baskets though as that's after my time so I can't comment on those.

          If you still have your ridgeless Synesso basket the simplest option is to keep using that - that's why I sold them as matched pairs so you didn't have to worry about mismatches like this. If you do want to have it fit your new basket I would contact Mark and see if he can remachine it. It's not complicated to do but I don't know if he's still offering this service. Check the Pullman website for contact details as I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links here now they're (as it seems) no longer a site sponsor.

          Cheers,
          Greg

          Comment


          • #8
            Originally posted by Dimal View Post
            Would be easier to do if you could use the handle fixing thread to attach a shaft, then fit this into a drill chuck and use like a poor man's lathe.
            The emery/carborundum or whatever your preferred grinding medium is, would then be glued to a small piece of flat timber. This would then be held up against the tamper base while the drill is running, making sure to keep everything square...

            Mal.
            This could work since it's still going into the basket, but it could take a while! If you start with some say 80 or 120 grit carborundum to get it down to the right size you could finish off with some 400 - 800 grit to get a reasonable finish. It won't look nice and machined anymore but if he's not fussed about that it might be a cheaper way of getting it to fit. Bear in mind this is going to be a very slow process if you're trying to remove any significant amount of material (i.e more than a couple of tenths of a millimetre). Have some water there to keep the paper wet and cool too.

            Comment


            • Dimal
              Dimal commented
              Editing a comment
              Hi Greg...

              Was a bit of a 'tongue in cheek' suggestion really, as a last ditch method if no other options were possible...

          • #9
            If I can pitch in here. I to have a few varying sized Synesso baskets. And agree in my experience they can leave the prod process with a minute out of round /varying inner dimension.
            OP -PL may not need to remove more than say (0.05mm to) 0.1mm to overcome the 'vacuum removal' effect he's experiencing.
            I have 3 of GP's tampers ( different sizes) and I wouldn't wish to alter the excellent finish achieved.
            Suggest he seeks out a set of digital Vernier Calipers prior to starting this and get a true measurement.

            Greg - after bringing the diameter down......would a minute amount of engineers grinding paste added to 800 to 1200 Wet Dry likely return the finish to near OEM?

            And Thanks Greg (and now Mark) for your wonderful work back then.

            Comment


            • #10
              Originally posted by EspressoAdventurer View Post
              If I can pitch in here. I to have a few varying sized Synesso baskets. And agree in my experience they can leave the prod process with a minute out of round /varying inner dimension.
              OP -PL may not need to remove more than say (0.05mm to) 0.1mm to overcome the 'vacuum removal' effect he's experiencing.
              I have 3 of GP's tampers ( different sizes) and I wouldn't wish to alter the excellent finish achieved.
              Suggest he seeks out a set of digital Vernier Calipers prior to starting this and get a true measurement.

              Greg - after bringing the diameter down......would a minute amount of engineers grinding paste added to 800 to 1200 Wet Dry likely return the finish to near OEM?

              And Thanks Greg (and now Mark) for your wonderful work back then.
              Thanks mate, appreciated.?

              Re the paper and paste, it depends what finish you're after. Paper and paste will give you a polished finish, potentially towards a mirror finish depending how fine you finish it off, but it's not going to give quite the same finish as you can from machining. Machining with a power driven transverse feed on the lathe gives a perfectly consistent speed cut with a single cutting surface point, which microscopically gives a very fine spiralled pattern. Visually the effect of this is that it can diffract light and give a slight rainbow effect to the reflection of light which I think looks stunning and which I always tried to achieve. You can't be that consistent in speed by hand with sandpaper that has multiple cutting points of different spacing and depth, so you don't get that effect, however if you're happy with a smooth, shiny but otherwise plain silver finish (which is what pretty well all other tampers would have anyway) then what you've suggested will certainly work. There were times I had to do that myself anyway e.g. if a tamper came back for resizing and I took out the scratches on the base at the same time.

              I agree it's probably worth the OP measuring the internal diameter of his basket to find the smallest point and compare this with the outside diameter of his tamper. If it is only 0.1mm or so then the method I suggested (80-120 grit then working upwards and potentially finishing with the polish you suggested) would work. I'd suggest if he's got more than about 0.5mm to take off it might be better to get it machined.

              Cheers,
              Greg

              Comment


              • #11
                GP!
                Thanks for the replies.

                Since my post I dug through every old box of coffee paraphernalia I could find and actually located the matched synesso basket! Have been using it since then.

                I still think a slight reduction in diameter would be nice to make it a more universal tool. But I can wait to do it properly.

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