Keyhole fill plate for vertical multi-tamping cigarette herb filling system and method

An apparatus for making cigarettes, comprising:

• a holder plate having a matrix of vertically oriented first holes adapted for holding cigarette paper rolls having a filter on a first end and open at a second end, the holder plate resting on lifter pegs on a support surface, such that a paper roll in a hole in the holder plate has the open end up and the filter end proximate the support surface;
• a cover plate substantially thinner than the holder plate, having a matrix of second holes matching the matrix of holes in the holder plate, the cover plate engaging alignment pegs in a top surface of the holder plate, aligning the matrix of second holes with the matrix of first holes;
• and
• a fill tray having a matrix of third holes matching the matrix of second holes in the cover plate, the third holes having a common diameter larger than the diameter of the second holes in the cover plate, the fill tray having a thickness greater than the thickness of the cover plate and two keyhole corner openings adapted to engage the alignment pegs of the holder plate in a manner allowing a range of lateral positions of the fill tray relative to the cover plate;
• characterized in that one of the lateral positions of the fill tray is a closed position with no passage between the third holes in the fill tray and the second holes in the cover plate, enabling a volume of smoking material determined by a diameter of the third holes and the thickness of the fill tray to be placed in the third holes, and in that another of the lateral positions is an open position with the third holes aligned with the second holes, wherein moving the fill tray having third holes filled with smoking material from the closed position to the open position allows the smoking material in the third holes to fall through the second holes in the cover plate into the paper rolls in the first holes of the holder plate.