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Info/reviews of equipment: Destoners.
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If you want to use it as a vacuum cleaner, you will move 10kg beans and whatever else is in with them very rapidly- perhaps in a couple of minutes. I choose to use mine as a destoner.
Have I bothered with a stopwatch. Nope... Do I intend to? Nope. Bottom line is that it will destone a batch way more rapidly than I can roast a batch to fill it with so it's all pretty academic, isn't it?
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I did'nt think his estimate would change,I was hoping someone else with the same piece of equipment may have a opinion.
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So why did you think Chris' estimate would change based on someone else saying a different thing?
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Following up on my earlier post, some results from one of today's roasts...
5kg Yemen Bani Ismail in the roaster and then into a large food-safe bin post roast...
My visual inspection turned up precisely nothing. With no destoner, I would have just bagged and shipped it.
Ran it through the destoner and about 15 small stones- most about 1/2 about the size of the smaller Yemen beans were deposited into the dregs tray...
I'm rating this my bargain equipment buy of the year.
Thanks again Andy for a terrific solution for we small guys
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Great info thanks Chris, we are currently looking into one ourselves. Rob (Tasmania).
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Info/reviews of equipment: Destoners.
Machine Name:
CoffeeSnobs destoner
Price:
$2765 (as of July 2012)
Features: As per graphic above:- 10A
- 10kg+ feed hopper
- easy to clean
- returns filtered air rather than all light debris to working environment
- Very easy to operate!
Notes:
In the early days of our roasting operation, our typical roasts were 2-5kg and it was not too difficult to run a visual check on our browns to remove any debris. Fortunately, we have been lucky and prior to the purchase, nothing capable of causing damage went through our grinders or those of any of our customers.
I knew that Andy had made a small and effective destoner for CS operation and I was keen to do something similar as commercially available units were huge, expensive at >$10k and really not suitable for our typical 10kg drop. I asked Andy if he'd consider selling plans or building another for us to purchase. Around 6 months later after prototype testing/revisions etc, the CS destoner became available for purchase and I understand that we got the first to be released into the wild. We have had ours for a couple of months now.
I had never used a destoner before, so first task was to create a test batch of beans. Enter a small dud roast and some leftover browns which had not been sold and I had 10kg of test fodder. Into it I added 40 random bits of junk:- small and large twigs
- nails
- screws
- nuts/bolts
- a bottle top
- some pieces of perspex and glass
This unit has to be dialled in as the strength of the vacuum dictates what is raised from the hopper up the tube and into the the top collector. A little work on the easy feed thumbwheel and I achieved a slow flow of beans. Soon after, the reassuring thunk of debris dropping into the lower catch tray under the vacuum tube. A bleed valve on the top of the unit allows the strength of the vacuum to be adjusted.
After 4 trials, the average number of impurities removed from my test roast was 38- the only issue being 2 small twigs which were around the same mass as a roasted bean. These were easily visible on a quick hand sort.
Does it work?
A resounding yes!
Quick?
By nature, no.
A slow feed is required. I have not used a timer, but I'd estimate 6-10 min to sort a 10kg roast.
Money well spent?
Absolutely.
For me, this end-process gear helps us to improve the quality of our product. We smaller roasters need to step up and operate as professional operations. I am thrilled with the purchase and now wonder how we managed without it. We're happy to demonstrate to any Melbourne CS'er who might be considering one.
Thanks Andy for creating yet another fantastic piece of gear for small roasters.
ChrisTags: None
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