Coffee Appreciation

If it's coming out too fast then it's definately the grind. Get some shitty(ish) beans, set the grinder to as fine as possible. You should be able to 'choke' the machine i.e. the machine won't be able to force any water through the coffee as the coffee is so tight. Then work backwards, going one grind setting at a time til you get a shot out in about 24 seconds. A good tamper will help! What's the portafilter size? I've a got a decentish tamper going spare which you can have for a fiver?

My shots keep coming out waaaay too fast, i've made the grind finer but still coming out way too fast, I can only assume it's a result of the tamper not covering all of the portafilter so when I tamp it doesn't compress all of the coffee so I need to tamp a few other bits too. Leaving some bits where the water can just rush through. I'm getting myself a better tamper anyway so hopefully that'll sort it but has anyone got any other ideas?