Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

[gregpullman]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Interesting project HV! I just hope the list of this and that and so on doesnt end up as a discovery as to why the 1kg versions are in fact $8k!

[marcstolk]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Im watching this thread with much interest! :-)

[HV_MAN]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Im currently looking at some curved IR burners....they look nice and 1 or 2 would contour the drum very well, IR burners produce good radient heat however Im not sure how well they heat air....I was hoping to have a good balance of hot air & direction conduction thur the drum, allowing the operator to adjust the amount of hot air flow thur the drum to their liking via a variable speed fan.

I going to call a few local control supply places that specialise in gas hardware for a chat.
Gas roster is a bit more complicated from the operational point of view, unlike a BBQ, the roaster is a pretty closed up system so startups & restarts etc will require purge cycles etc which = more control equipment hopefully I can source a compact burner control system with ignition cheaply that can be manually adjusted and also allow electronic control.....

[Dimal]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

There might be some small-ish Bakery Oven LPG Modulating Control Valves that would be suitable Craig, although like you say, I dont think they would be all that cheap. My only experience with this sort of thing consists of large industrial scale systems, Lime Kilns et al and dont have much of a handle on anything suitable for domestic use.

Bound to be someone only a phone call away though....

Sure is a great project to kick off, cant wait to see some of the prototypical examples down the track mate....

Cheers,
Mal.

[HV_MAN]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

A top idea Craig.

From all the devices that I have tinkered with I would strongly suggest that you forget about electric heating. Once the bean mass is larger than 400g the electric just doesnt offer enough heat to get creative with the profiles.
Well at the domestic 10amp anyway.

GAS - cheap, easy and most have access to a BBQ bottle so fittings etc are familiar.

Hi Andy

This has been a major concern to me...getting enough heat into the roaster in a sensible time..coming form an electrical background electric heating would be the easiest however I agree gas would be the way to go. The larger electric roasters Ive seen >1kg have all been 15A single phase to 3 phase units which the average home would not have, so with this in mind now Im going to focus on a gas solution. gas may = more expense due to the cost of the burner control etc...need to do some more investigating.

Craig A

[speleomike]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Hi HV

Good that your an EE with a trades background - its a good predicator that you have the knowledge, experience and practical ability to do this. I manufacted for a while a cave communications system. I got away without having to have EMC cert as I could show the product was designed to be used "within an electromagnetically screened environment" :-)
Anyhow a nice project and many people here will be following closely and making suggestions.

One thing I think is that a 1kg size is a nice size for retired people to roast enough beans and sell to their neighbours in their street or to friends. My neighbours like the beans but I cant really offer to give away any as the Gene doesnt have the capacity to produce enough. I just keep my in-laws supplied.

Mike

[andy]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?


A top idea Craig.

From all the devices that I have tinkered with I would strongly suggest that you forget about electric heating. Once the bean mass is larger than 400g the electric just doesnt offer enough heat to get creative with the profiles.
Well at the domestic 10amp anyway.

GAS - cheap, easy and most have access to a BBQ bottle so fittings etc are familiar.

[Dimal]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Sounds really interesting Craig 8-),

Cant wait to see the first published information..... Hows the Bezz going by the way? Still performing like a champion ?

Mal.

[HV_MAN]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Hiya

Yes I think there is a market. My Gene is too small and 3 kg is just too big.
But if your planing on developing and selling a 1kg unit then as well as the mechanicals there are the electricals too - like circuit boards, power etc. You will need to get compliance testing for electromagnetic compatability and quite a few other pieces of paper before you will be able to sell it. I was manufacturing and selling an electronics device for some years and its a lot of work. Even if its a kit it will still be subject (AFAIK) to the same standards requirements as any other product.

I dont wish to dampen your enthusiasm though. I want a unit that I can easily program to do a roast profile. (The hottop digital does not have a good interface.) And one needs to be able to modify the profile during the roast as well. Anyhow this is a good site to get a customer wish list from.

Mike

Hi Mike
Just as a heads up Im an electrical engineer who has come up from the electrical trade.
With regard to certification this is no problem its basically a heater, EMC compatibility certainly wont be in issue as it components eg VSD are already certerified
If I was designing the variable speed drives and all the control and having custom boards manufactured and sold to the masses it would probably be a different story.

Dont worry it will be put though its paces electrically, thermally, and mechanically before one unit is released and all results posted here. I will investigate it further, I have a mate that involved in appliance certification etc

My electrical background is one reason Im leaning towards electrical heat source as apposed to gas, Im not ruling gas out however if I do do gas I would enlist a consultant have the gas side of the design certified, I dont want anyone blowing up their house!!...

With regard to the electrics I keeping things to pretty much off the shelf, eg Fans and drum control etc will be via micro VSD s (variable speed drives), keeping to off the shielf items make my job easier & also future repairs easier for the end user.

With reguard to the roasting profiles it will be extremely flexiable the manual basic verion is completely up to the operator, where as the computer control version will have numerious adjustments.

For example a 20min roast might have a temperature adjustment for for every 10-30 seconds for instance so a roasting profile table can created, saved and recalled etc. more of this later have to get the hardware going first....software is really no problem Ill be creating it all in Nation Instruments LabView8 so nearly anything is possiable eg roast from work via the internet via a webcam anyone? LOL

Craig A

[speleomike]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Hiya

Yes I think there is a market. My Gene is too small and 3 kg is just too big.
But if your planing on developing and selling a 1kg unit then as well as the mechanicals there are the electricals too - like circuit boards, power etc. You will need to get compliance testing for electromagnetic compatability and quite a few other pieces of paper before you will be able to sell it. I was manufacturing and selling an electronics device for some years and its a lot of work. Even if its a kit it will still be subject (AFAIK) to the same standards requirements as any other product.

I dont wish to dampen your enthusiasm though. I want a unit that I can easily program to do a roast profile. (The hottop digital does not have a good interface.) And one needs to be able to modify the profile during the roast as well. Anyhow this is a good site to get a customer wish list from.

Mike

[Christop]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

From what I understand Craig, gas would be a better option - as I believe it would allow you to control the roast process far more.

Will be interested to hear/see more of your ideas!

Chris

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Fantastic. Cant wait to see more details.

[HV_MAN]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Well it looks like a positive response,

sorry for not posting sooner, Im currently pretty snowed with work this week and going away this weekend so Ill post some the initial designs for comment toward the end of next week.

My biggest internal debate ATM is deciding on gas or electric heating.......probably end up doing both....

Craig A

[wherealien]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Hi Craig, a big YES PLEASE from me. The Hottop is great but 300g batches is time consuming. Please forward more details when you go further with this great idea.

Thanks
Ian

[Bill]

Re: Is there a market for a 1kg DIY drum roaster?

Sounds great. Id be interested to see more detail.