Coffee filters.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, I have this nice stove top percolator. [actually I have two] We keep one in our trailer and one in our house. Problem is, we need a filter to keep the grinds out of our coffee. I could use no filter, a disc filter, or a drip filter. None of these choices work well. So I have decided to custom modify my own filters.

(1.) This is our coffee pot.

(2.) This is the disc filter that works, just OK.

(3.) This is a drip filter with a hole pushed through the center.

(4.) I take a stack of filters and flatten them out. Use a small dish to make the new size. I staple them together, and mark the center.

(5.) I use a block of wood, a hammer, and a modified Lincoln air fitting to punch the hole.

(6.) With the filters laid on top of the block of wood, I use my hammer to drive the Lincoln air fitting through the center of the filters.

(7.) Next I use scissors to trim the outside excess off.

(8.) Now they are all punched and trimmed.

(9.) Now I have filters that fit nice into the basket of my coffee maker.

(10.) Since they tend to lose their shape during this process, I found two little bowls to put them in to put them back into the proper shape.

Anyone else do something like this or am I the only one?

[Nuvite-F]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

(5.) I use a block of wood, a hammer, and a modified Lincoln air fitting to punch the hole.

(6.) With the filters laid on top of the block of wood, I use my hammer to drive the Lincoln air fitting through the center of the filters.

I think you may be the only one!

Love your "tooling".

We carry an electric drip coffee maker and an old fashioned percolator in the trailer. Make coffee with the drip coffee maker when there's adequate electric power available and the percolator when there's not.

Before drip coffee makers came along everybody just depended on the little holes in the percolator basket to strain out the grounds, but then, in those days they sold coffee in different grinds for perc and drip pots.

Nowadays when using the percolator in the trailer I either put up with the coffee being a little muddy or just jam a drip filter down over the stem to punch a hole in it and use that. I tuck the excess material down the side of the drip basket and it doesn't seem to hurt anything.

Do you, like me, remember the "good old days" of camping when we boiled coffee in a blue enamel pot and strained the grounds out with our teeth? Supposedly throwing the egg shells into the pot "settled the grounds", but I can't say as I could tell any difference.
.

[wahoonc]

I have a couple of percolators like that, still use them occasionally. I don't typically use filters in mine. I just use a coarser grind of coffee. Many, many years ago you could buy whole bean coffee in the stores and they had a big grinder where you could grind your pound of coffee the way you wanted it. I still grind my coffee but do it at home.

I do everything from percolator, to drip to french press depending on the mood I am in.

Looks like you found a solution to your problem though...

Aaron

[AirsDream]

I used to do that, back when I still used a percolator. I quickly found out that not using a filter gave me too much grounds in the coffee if I ground the beans fine enough to give me the flavor I wanted. And the little "disc" filters were pretty marginal. So I too started experimenting. But I wasn't as organized as you are. I'd just do them one at a time. Usually I was too slothful to do this in advance, so I'd have to cut one while I was getting ready to make the coffee in the a.m. It gave me something to do while I woke up enough so that when the coffee was done, I was awake enough to enjoy it.

[xrvr]

Seems like a lot of work paid off, a good cup of coffee is worth it. Jim

[mimiandrews]

I just fold the filters in half and clip the center with a one-hole paper punch. Can do two or three at a time this way. Any extra paper at the edge folds down when I put the lid on the coffee basket anyway. Works great in the 1950's Revere Ware percolator I inherited from my mom.

[Landrum]

I love our percolator.........makes the best coffee. You know they make/sell filters for percolators.

[aftermath]

Wow Captain, those are some expensive filters. We use, and have used for over 30 years, the square shaped filters in the photo. We pick them up at the local grocery store and get something like 40 for just a couple of bucks.

I like the idea of using coarser ground coffee in the percolator but then that would require having access to fine grind for the drip, medium for the french press and coarse for the most often used perking pot. Ugh, this is against my KISS principle so we just go with the square shaped filters.

[jm2]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, I have this nice stove top percolator.

Anyone else do something like this or am I the only one?

we sometimes just spike a brown (unbleached) drip pot paper filter in the basket, folded not too critically - as long as the sides are still higher than the grounds! the basket lid holds things down, too.

we do it to absorb some of the oils in the coffee that occasionally cause a little agita.

our grocery store still has the big old Hobart coffee grinders that you can adjust for coarse / medium / fine....

Originally Posted by aftermath

Wow Captain, those are some expensive filters.

that's $18.29 (plus shipping & handling) for an entire case of 12, 40-filter packages - 480 filters total....

[Lily&Me]

We have just gone to all stove-top percolator, all the time, in the Interstate.

The 12 cup percolator takes up less space, is a singular rather than duplicate item, looks nicer in the interior and....most importantly....makes better coffee than the drip maker.

Before, we had a 9-cup percolator for when boondocking, now only one pot for all mornings.

We can use the drip maker filters we already had in the basket of the percolator, just poke them down on the round thingy in the center.


Maggie

[Airtandem]

Doesn't or didn't Folgers sell coffee in "tea bag" or a "donut shaped filter with the coffee inside? This would save alot of work; but being retired, what is time?

[MrUKToad]

Excellent work, Bob.

I just love the way coffee assumes such importance in the Airstream world; not quite as divisive as towing but everyone has their own way of doing things.

[VtTim]

Umm, perhaps I am missing the point here, but why not just buy whole bean coffee and grind it yourself so it's a little more coarse and less apt to fall through the filter? Some major brands even sell a coarse ground coffee specifically for the percolator lovers among us.

[Landrum]

The filters do make clean up much easier.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, I have a new Bodum burr coffee grinder, but some of the grindings are still tiny. My grinder has 12 positions I set it on the 3rd one from the largest. We like to grind our own now. We also have an electric drip coffee maker in our trailer, but I don't like the idea of my coffee brewing in plastic. [we don't use this one anymore] And we have two electric / stainless steel percolators at home, but they seem to be too hot, too cool, or too medium, so we like our stove tops better.

[Phoenix]

I was punching holes in the drip filters, too. The coffee service at work was trashing several packages of filters that came in the boxes of individual coffee packets every week, because they were too small for the big catering-size tanks we use to make coffee for the office. I started taking the regular size filters out of the boxes and leaving them on the counter, and people started taking them home.

Anyway, used these for awhile before finding the Bodum stainless steel French press pot we have now. However, we also use Tasters Choice instant coffee sometimes, when we are in a hurry to get going in the morning and don't have time to clean the pot. Taster's Choice actually isn't too bad when you get used to it, but still not as good as fresh (real) coffee.

[ASwifey]

Great idea! I love percolated coffee, but hate the clean up. This would make it much easier.

[CA_Tallguy]

Very interesting. I can't live without my coffee. FYI I have seen a couple propane powered coffee makers too, by Coleman. One is a stove top type so I wonder if it would work on our stoves or if it needs a coleman stove underneath.

http://goo.gl/qXVAXW propane powered

http://goo.gl/XoSgBw stove top drip type with glass carafe

[Excella CM]

After tasting perk coffee, I can't imagine that a few grounds (or perhaps any foreign substance) could make any appreciable difference.

[Lily&Me]

Originally Posted by Airtandem

Doesn't or didn't Folgers sell coffee in "tea bag" or a "donut shaped filter with the coffee inside? This would save alot of work; but being retired, what is time?

They do, and they are palatable, but not really "real coffee", in our opinion.



Maggie