A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roaster

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

This one shows the microdrive (sitting in front of the motor) I bought so I could run the motor on US current and which also gives me full control over the speed of the motor.to the left of the roaster is one of my workbenches, actually a rolling cart, where Im working on the bad barrel.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Here we have the assembly (the interior side in this pic) I made for venting the roasters exhaust out a window.

The piece of plywood is cut so that with the window open and the screen removed it can slide into a channel on one side of the window and then over into the channel on the other side with the wood being inserted 1-2cm on both sides and then the window closed on top of it (with the wood sticking up into a channel on the bottom of the window. This should hold it in place nice and firmly with minimal leakage around it which can easily be taken care of with a few strips of foam insulation.

I put the two handles on so it can easily be moved as it will only be in the window when Im actually roasting.

The assembly was made using 2: 4" all alum dryer vents with the outter hood cut off of them and the flaps removed. A 4.5" hole was then cut into the plywood so no wood touches the actual pipe. One of the pipes was cut down to reduce the stress on it when the exhaust hose is connected up to it.

I then liberally coated one of the mounting plates with a high temp make your own gasket caulk, presses the two plates firmly together, and then screwed the entire assembly onto the outter side of the plywood after putting some more of the caulk on the plywood so it would seal nicely.

I used the 2nd vent so that the hot exhaust wouldnt be coming out right next to the house as its possible that the exhaust temp might be high enough to cause problems with my vinyl siding.

For now Ill be connecting the roaster to the vent with a flexible alum hose. Once I settle on a permanent home for the roaster I plan on putting in a double walled exhaust vent (like you use for a fireplace) directly through the wall.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Heres the exterior side of the vent.

[stratford]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Oops,

I apologise for calling your friend a troll then.... : The roaster is looking fantastic!....

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

No prob Stratford. Our language was a bit esoteric there.

Yeah I must agree with you, the roaster is indeed looking pretty darn nice. It looks even better in the high res (original) versions of the pics and even better in person.

Java "Not asleep yet!" phile

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Ggggggrrrrrr..What next!?!

Javaphile bangs his head against the wall a few dozen times

A barrels drum had been cleaned of the coating on it and things were in the final stages of firing up a barrel and roasting with it. The barrel just needed to be remounted, a freestanding worklight set up (for good viewing of the beans) and the vent hooked up and Id be ready to fire it up.

I unfold the legs of the worklight and *snap* the hinge of one of the legs breaks. OK, not good, but not the end of the world. I put the two good legs under the radiator and strap the vertical post to the top of the radiator and alls good, onto the barrel.

I slide the barrel into place and start bolting it in using the new stainless steel bolts. The first bolts go in no problem. A bit tight but thats to be expected as theyre new bolts and the threads arent worn down at all and theyre cutting their way in on threads that have the coating on them plus who knows how much rust under it. Then on the last bolt as I get down to the last turn *snap*!! The bolt breaks!! It wasnt turning any harder than the others and I had certainly put more torque on other identical bolts. As Im standing there with the head of the bolt in my hand I let loose with a few good cuss words and then look at the piece of the bolt still in the barrel hoping to see enough of it sticking out that I can grab it with a pair of pliars and remove it. Not only is there not enough to grab onto, I notice a nice big void in the middle of the bolt. Now the cussing turns into a round of invectives harsh enough to strip the paint off the walls and raise the room temp by 20 or 30 degrees. #*&(#^&@! ARG!!

OK, calm down, its not the end of the world, just another setback. Time to get the easy-out. I run downstairs to grab the easy-out, drill, and drillbit. Theres the easy-out, theres the drill, ARG no 5/64ths drill bit!! This time the cussing goes on for an extended period of time and probably registered on the spy satellites as a good sized nuke going off. Sheesh, what next!?!

On the good side the void in the bolt will make it easy to drill the pilot hole for the easy-out once the stores open here and I can go get one. I also got a sample puller made from some of the alum sheeting I cut off the one vent and a piece of 1x2 as well as a nifty little device to weigh the green beans in and then pour them into the drums with from some of the same alum sheeting and a veggie can.

OK, now that Ive calmed down its time to strip the coating off another drum and mount that one. Hhhmmm...maybe Ill pick up a 5mm tap for cleaning out those threads when I pick up the drillbit, just in case!

Java "I WILL roast before I sleep again!!" phile

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

WooHoo!!!!! We have coffee!! [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif] [smiley=thumbup.gif] [smiley=tekst-toppie.gif] [smiley=cheesy.gif]

Gotta keep this short as I have to jump in the shower and head out for an on-site but WE HAVE COFFEE!!! No explosions, no fires, just some smoke and chaff! WooHoo!!!!

Only one barrel is running currently but it easily took 300g to first crack at 6-7 minutes with the first of 2nd crack at 10-12 mins, right where its suppossed to be according to the guy out in California whos a big cheese in the cupping area I guess and who owns the same roaster.

The first two batches (intended as throw-aways) ran through the roast way too fast even with the gas at the half-way point. By the third batch I had somewhat adjusted to the burner and managed to hit first crack at 6 minutes with the first of 2nd heard, and the roast stopped, at just over 10 minutes.

Ive put about 2.5kgs through it so far and its already had its first visitor come to see it do its thing. [smiley=beer.gif]

More later but for now I must run.

Java "Im so happy!!" phile

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Alrighty then. Are you ready for the details? ;D

Using a fiber stripping wheel I tackled the coating on the outside of the drums being *very careful not to hit the sides of the barrel. These fiber stripping wheels are a wonderful tool. Theyre made for stripping paint etc but you can cut through steel with them so it pays to be careful!

Taking my time and doing a thorough job it took about 45 minutes of work to strip each drum. I stripped off not just the ceramic coating but went ahead and did the entire drum, cleaning it of all the carbon and other crud that had built up over the last 50+ years on it.

The barrel on the left in this pic shows the ceramic coating on the left side of the drum and on the right side of it is all the carbon etc build-up. The barrel on the right has had the drum cleaned. The shiney reflections (on the right barrel) are not areas where the coating remains, rather it is the light reflecting off the bright and shiney polished steel. When completed the drums have an almost mirror finish on them. The old socks are there to keep the grease on the gears from migrating to a new home. 8-) Two of the 3 barrels have now had their drums stripped with the third sitting on the bench waiting its turn.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Once I had the 2nd drum cleaned up I brought it upstairs and installed it on the main body of the roaster throwing together a shield for the rear of it from some heavy duty alum foil and covering the other 2 barrels air channels with a piece of foil leaving just a small opening so that not all the air would be drawn through barrel #1.

It was then time to install the vent in the window, hook the gas up, and cross my fingers!

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Here you can see the conglomeration of a setup I have going (Can you tell it was my kids room until recently? ;D ). With everything from the roaster itself, to fire extinguishers (both CO2 and Dry Chemical), to a laptop for logging my roasts.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Heres a view from the doorway showing most of the set-up. Im using the dresser on the left to weigh up the beans and to hold both the green and roasted beans.

The work light (tied to the radiator because of its broken leg) is there so I have good light for judging the beans color.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

And here it is! The long awaited first roast!! WooHoo!! A bit overdone for my tastes but thats OK, its going straight to the trash once its cooled and examined.

I had quite the surprise when I popped the lid open to dump the beans! There was no smooth and slow flow of beans exiting the drum. They all came flying out at speed with the result that probably 10% of them ended up on the floor with one very hot bean finding a home on my foot. I may design a new dump chute with higher sides so that it will get all the beans into the cooling tray instead of only 90% of them.

The beans (300g of Bolivian Cenaproc Caranavi D´Montaña) were solidly into the rolling 2nd crack and even with the cooling vent open all the way they continued to snap and pop for 30 seconds after being dumped into the cooling tray. I suspected that it would not cool the beans down fast enough for my tastes so I had set up my BBC (Bean Bucket Cooler http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1092462710/11#14 ) which took their temp down fast enough to almost immediatly stop the cracks and had them at room temp in about 30 seconds.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Heres a close-up of the first batch of beans from the new (now working WooHoo!!) toy. Not the most even roast Ive ever done. LOL

I was surprised at how low a flame was needed for a proper roast temp with this roaster. I had started this first roast off with the flame adjuster set right in the middle figuring that wa a good starting point. Boy was I wrong! The roast took off like a rocket with burned tips showing up at only a couple of minutes into the roast. Playing with the flame adjuster it quickly became obvious that the adjustment was very touchy right about 2.5 (midpoint is 3) with the flames going from just barely managing to stay lit too a blowtorch level with only a couple of millimeters of movement. It definately took some getting used too but by the third roast I had a pretty good feel for it. Touchy as heck, but controlable if youre careful.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Heres the roaster having its first visitor. My friend had called me and when he heard the roaster was up and running he swung by after an interview and was facinated by the machine and the whole process. He had never seen coffee roasted before and was amazed by all the different smells and at how loud the cracks were. He was leaning over right on top of the barrel listening for 1st crack (if you look into the barrels opening you can see the beans yellowing up and approaching 1st crack) as Id explained the process to him and he wanted to hear it. LOL I told him that there was no need to be so close, that he could stand out in the hall and be able to hear it.

After having to sometime struggle to hear the cracks in my Z&D roaster I was pleasantly surprised at how loud and clear the cracks were from the Gothot even with all the ambient noise. One of the differences though was that you didnt get much warning of the onset of the cracks. Yould only hear a couple and then BAM youre in the full roll. At which point I have to quickly drop the flames until they are almost out or it will go straight from 1st into 2nd crack. By dropping the flame height to just a bit above the absolute minimum you can let the momentum of 1st crack carry the beans over and then after a couple of minutes bump it up just a touch and reach 2nd crack 3-4 minutes after 1st.

[Javaphile]

Re: A (Epic?) journey in search of my perfect roas

Here we have my Trier and Loader v.1.0

I already have v.2.0 designed in my head and I picked up some sheet alum this afternoon and will be making up new ones from it tonight instead of just using leftover scraps from the vent.

The sampler is too large for easy use. I hadnt realized how far down the vanes in the barrels come from the top when its in use. If you stick a sampler straight in the loading opening the vanes will hit it, and seeing as theyre turning at 40-50 rpm its not a gentle nudge. I now understnad why the vanes were so bent up. LOL The new one will be only half as wide and about 2/3rds as deep and as long.

The loader, a 16 oz. veggie can, works really nice as filled to the top is almost exactly 300g. Its only downfall is that the sides of the chute are not high enough and the beans will spill over as youre dumping if you dont use your hands to build up the wall height. Which brings them a mite too close to the barrel cover for comfort. ;D