Starter Pack contents

[grendel]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Can you get a 240 volt RC car motor? Or do you run it then on an independant power supply of the appropriate voltage?

[Dimal]

Re: Starter Pack contents

A pity we didnt get the West Bend Poppery here in Oz..... From the pics one sees from people who use these over in the States, they are one very well engineered and manufactured piece of hardware (the older ones I think). Some of them have a high quality Universal Motor driving the fan and the fan too, is made of metal. Id imagine that with reasonable maintenance, youd be able to keep these beauties running reliably for years and years.

Has anyone pulled one of the Crazy Poppers apart? Itd be interesting to see what sort of quality hides beneath the skin of these little rip-snorters :-?,

Mal.

[Dimal]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Can you get a 240 volt RC car motor? Or do you run it then on an independant power supply of the appropriate voltage?

No Grendel,

From the kits Ive built for our sons when they were younger, they nearly all use 7.2V NiCad battery packs with the motors typically rated for 6V DC. There arent many motors rated for mains voltage that would be suitable for this application. You might get lucky though if while tearing an old appliance apart you come across something that could do the job.... a bit hit and miss though.

The best idea seems to be to separate the Heating Elements and the Fan to make it possible to separately supply the Fan Motor via a 240/30V Transformer, with an electronic Ceiling Fan speed control inserted in the Primary circuit of the Transformer. This way, you have a lot more control over the air flow rate through the popper to suit varying batch sizes, yet maintaining a suitable roasting temperature. Theres a lot of info around on these types of mods both here and in other specialist coffee sites. One thing though, this involves exposing live conductors and components that routinely operate from mains power at 240V AC, and this can KILL. If you are not knowledgeable about such matters then you should hand it over to a licensed electrician to do the job for you..... As good as freshly roasted coffee is, it just aint worth dyin for. All the best,

Mal.

[nunu]

Re: Starter Pack contents

If I remember correctly, the popper has a rectifier inside, and the motor runs on about 20VDC.

It is very possible to mod the popper to run with the aforementioned hobby car motor. Youd need to completely isolate the motor circuit and utilise a separate power supply. The problem is attaching the fan to the motor. The torque at those high rpms will probably shear the plastic of the fan.

[marcstolk]

Re: Starter Pack contents

These are all quite good ideas..

Im sure I saw someone here has posted something about modifying an Aldi Popper with a control unit. The search button is my friend....

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1132286143

Marc

[grendel]

Re: Starter Pack contents

The coffee snob world needs to evangelise more electricians and sheet metal workers to its ranks. . .

[marcstolk]

Re: Starter Pack contents

This is very true... I know a quality Sparky so I may have a chat with him and see were it leads...

[grendel]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Ok - not sure if your pun was intentional or not, but i must retaliate.

Just make sure it is a positive chat.

I have a sparky (or ex sparky) as a colleague - still has his trade cert. though. May have to arrange a barter system with him - I provide the coffee beans, he provides the expertise.

[marcstolk]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Grendel,

OK... Ill keep it positive :-)

Yep, I think Ill do the same Bartering - positive Bartering.... :-)

[mj]

Re: Starter Pack contents

mmm... seems like this discussions a little off track but as its my first post Ill go with the flow!!!  

Entered that ranks of newbie roaster yesterday by aquiring a crazy popper... my other half thinks Im the crazy one though.

Was helpful to find another couple purchasing one for exactly the same purpose (see dear, Ive not completely lost the plot really)... if Im not mistaken it was marcstolk???

Now to get some beans and learn from those who have gone before....

MJ.

[marcstolk]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Gday MJ, yes it was me - Glad you found a Crazy Popper... now, just get yourself some beans and start roasting. I found the Starter Pack from here a good start - gives you a good amount of 4 different bean regions. Enjoy.

Glad ya signed up :-) Let me know how you go.

Marc

[grendel]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Ok exactly what are the chances of two blokes buying poppers for coffee roasting at the same time - obviously getting shorter odds on that one every day.

Im loving my crazy - I used it tonight to roast a total of 800 grams, and alternated a couple of roasts in the B&D to compare - but the crazy has a much better fan by far.

[marcstolk]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Yeh, the Crazy Popper is by far the best...

I roasted some El Salvator... 160g...with the chimney

1st crack = 4min
2nd Crack = 10min..

I dropped the amount to 150g and 2nd Crack started at 11.30 mins pulling the roast at 12mins...

As an experiment, I roasted 180g of decaf (swiss water) and 1st crack hit at 3:30 and 2nd crack started at 7mins, pulling the roast at 20secs after...acknowledging that decaf does roast faster.

This popper is a screamer.


May need a second one as Ill be doing some coffee beans for Christmas Presents for friends... need to up compacity

[grendel]

Re: Starter Pack contents

Ya - Im hitting the capacity wall as well, makes the hottop look interesting - hell, I even emailed about a 1kg sample roaster but $6500 is a bit out of my range at the moment!

[mj]

Re: Starter Pack contents

The chimney being a Heinz soup tin I gather... also assume that this just slots into the top of the popper and not fixed on in any other manner? Time to get some beans!!! Next I guess Ill be undergoing the coffee machine overanalysis crisis routine... lotsa spreadsheets comparing price/performance/bling... :