[germantown rob]

There are only two people in this world you should be listening to about a moka pot. Everything else is just filler.

Seriously if you have a cup at the end that taste good to you than you have made a moka pot. To make it do the extreme of what the pot can handle than you have graduated. This can't be accomplished with out a good burr grinder, a grinder that gives of to much fines will throw results off.

Packing, whether you tamp, pile high, or tap the filler basket to compress are all doing the same thing, getting more grind in the basket. This is nowhere near tamping for espresso which wants 30lbs of pressure.