Just wondering what you guys do. When you grind coffee finer, you can compact it more in the portafilter, so you can put more coffee in it to have the same volume (reaching same point on basket). When you adjust your grind, do you adjust the amount of coffee as well? I've found that this for me is a sort of juggling of grind and coffee amount to get the right shot. 
I wish i could keep the amount of coffee the same, and adjust just grind, but if i do that, and dial my grind finer, then it sits lower in my basket and doesn't touch the shower screen (which is what we E61 users like)....so what do you guys do? Do you juggle like ido?
jason

I use the tap the PF a couple times to settle and scrape excess grinds level
method before tamp, so I guess the answer is yes, finer grind equals greater
PF load by weight.
That's with Miss Silvia, no E61 group head...(yet:-)
Kona Konnaisseur miKe mcKoffee
URL to Rosto mods, FrankenFormer etc.http://mdmint.home.comcast.net/coffee/Rosto_mod.htm

That's what I do.  And I do use the E61.  It's another portion of the 
problem set to a constant.  My tamp is the same so all I adjust is the 
grind.  It determines the weight.  
Brian
miKe mcKoffee wrote:
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Like Mike and Brian, I tap the portafilter sideways on the fork of the the Mini
but I dose a rounded top vs. scraping level.  But I'm using an E61 group head.
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When I upgraded to a La Marzzoco portafilter, the instructions said to fill the
portafilter such that when tamped, it met the line in the basket.  Which seems
to make the recommendation to use more coffee as the grind gets finer.
Bob
--

As a caveat... I don't own a home espresso machine and have never pulled a
single shot on one, so the following is perhaps not relevant to home
equipment or working conditions...
In general, we train folks to focus on consistent dosing and leveling,
consistent tamping style and pressure and consistent shot volume and
extraction time - and only change the grind. By doing this, you can
eliminate a number of variables, and only make adjustments via the grinder -
resulting in more consistent quality.
Given that the tamping style and pressure are both consistent as is the
dosing and leveling, the actual weight of ground coffee shouldn't vary
*significantly* as the grind changes.
The method we teach is:
 - rinse, wipe and dry portafilter,
 - dose rounded mound,
 - level (slightly crowned),
 - Staub tamp, 30 pounds of pressure (I'm opposed to any portafilter tapping
myself, so I teach the Staub or modified Staub method),
 - blow and wipe any loose grounds,
 - pull shot.
The above ignores flushing the group for clarity's sake. The portafilter
rinse is under the hot water spout, not the group.
Target time from removal of portafilter to pulling of shot is 30 seconds or
less (to minimize cool-down of the portafilter).
-c

Brian, what you're saying is that you DO adjust the ground mass by fineness, since if it is finer, and you tamp and scape, you'll have more mass in the filter than if it is coarse and you tap and scrape.
jason
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Right... I said I vary the grind therefore it determines the weight 
(mass).  
Jason Molinari wrote:
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Jason,
Have you tried using semi-pods? These are disks cut from coffee filters 
which are placed ON TOP of the coffee grounds. You could put as many as you 
need to "shim" up to the level you are happy with. They have the added 
advantage of keeping the grounds from touching the shower head and also in 
breaking up the flow, which might otherwise produce channeling...They can 
also be made from baby wipes from which all the scent has been 
washed,,,,these will last for a very long time and are easy to clean...
Ciao,
Angelo
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On Feb 25, 2004, at 2:01pm, Jason Molinari wrote:
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I find that the amount of coffee I use for a shot varies mostly 
according to the degree of roast and the particular bean/blend, in that 
order. Darker roasts seem to be puffier and less coffee fits in the 
(E-61, large, double) basket (~17g for the darkest roast I do which is 
a not too oily vienna) than for a lighter roast (~18.5g for a pre full 
city central or south american, which, as JS has noted, makes a very 
fruity cappuccino).
This does correlate to grind fineness, since the the lighter roast 
requires a finer grind than the darker, but I've found it simpler to 
think of it in terms of the roast level and bean rather than the grind. 
The grind tends to wander a bit but the amount of coffee for a given 
batch seems to remain more constant. I basically determine the 
appropriate amount of coffee for a given roast level and bean through 
past experience and trial & error and over time I've gotten pretty good 
at guessing at the right amount for the first shot for a given batch.
Of course, I do some heretical things, like varying my tamp force based 
on the dispersal pattern of grounds in the doser, so you may not want 
to follow my example.
John Blumel