Bread Machine Chaff Collector

[DavidPx]

I recently made a chaff collector of sorts for my bread machine.  So far I like it because my heat gun doesnt melt and theres not chaff flying all over my garage and into the heat gun.  On the downside I cant readily see the beans and theyre harder to hear.  Thoughts?





Full post:
http://www.tracezero.net/Beer/2009/02/12/coffee-roaster-chaff-collector/

[redzone121]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

Thats one tricked out BM there David, well done.
Personally I have removed the lids from my BMs to see the action and just blow a fan over to keep the Gun cool, but I still love that set up !

[Koffee_Kosmo]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

Tempered glass (for safety) is your only answer, if you want to view the beans

Cut another hole or square in the steel lid/plate and glue on the glass piece with high heat silicone. And you have a viewing window

But its good not to have chaff all over the place well done

KK

[Thundergod]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

I pulled apart my BM after its earth leakage act.
I found plenty of chaff inside the BM.
It must have got there through some small holes under the bread pan.
Considering how many roasts its done I suppose its not much.
My point is that you wont collect it all with that setup.
I too just blew it away, as I roast just outside my garage door.

As it is though, if you cant blow it into the garden, its a good setup.

Let my recent finding encourage others to occasionally open up their BMs for a spring clean.
Im not sure if the chaff contributed to my correttos demise.

[DavidPx]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

I had a nicely-sized piece of tempered glass but that was before I knew that tempered glass cant be cut. Its comical really how many pieces it exploded into

[Koffee_Kosmo]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

I had a nicely-sized piece of tempered glass but that was before I knew that tempered glass cant be cut.  Its comical really how many pieces it exploded into  

You need to Anneal the glass that is heating a piece of glass to remove stress (may not be to easy without the right equipment)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annealing_(glass)

I wonder if laminated glass will work

KK

[DavidPx]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

Id probably be better off just scavenging a piece from another small appliance. The problem with tempered glass is that youre not going to find cheap remnant pieces because its treated after its been cut to size...

[fishinglizard1972]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

buy a pyrex jug and sit it in a hole in the metal, then just look through the bottom of the jug. No cutting

[bolb]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

Given the chaff gets collected on its own momentum, you may collect more with a short pipe??

TG - how did your BM die, were there any symptoms? My BM appears to be vibrating more than it used to.

Mal

[Thundergod]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

TG - how did your BM die, were there any symptoms? My BM appears to be vibrating more than it used to.

I was getting earth leakage trips to the power half way through a roast and actually suspected my new Aldi heatgun or new bean cooling bucket.

The last time everything tripped, the first thing I turned on (and the only thing plugged in) was the BM.
Tripped again immediately.

Ive pulled it apart for a quick look and everything appears normal.
i.e. no burn marks on th circuit board etc.
The only thing was a fair amount of chaff had built up that had worked its way into the guts from small holes under the breadpan.

I doubt the BM was earthing via the chaff though.
I havent put it back together to test that theory though as the portable ELCB I was loaned has been taken back.

[DavidPx]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

you may collect more with a short pipe??

Youre right on this one. There is always more chaff left amongst the beans when using the exhaust lid than when "running free". The airflow from the heat gun isnt that great and the stream doing out the pipe wouldnt be uniform enough to assertively carry off the chaff. Hence the drum roaster design!

[reubster]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

Nice one DP,

Im interested in your other coretto mods, how are you implementing the PID? [or is it Just for temp display].....also what do the other switches do?

Fell free to post this in another thread if you want to keep them seperate.

Cheers

Reuben

[bassway]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

Great job DP!

I have found that looking at the bean colour not that important. I am sure many home roasters would disagree!

More important to me is the bean mass temp/time and crack temp/time.

Heres my Corretto;


The fan and chaff hole means the chaff ends up on the same place in the garage floor. Quick sweep or vac and its gone.
The hole also allows for the sound of the beans crack to come out loud and clear.

You can also still see the bean colour but it is a lot harder;



A few other Coffee snobs have done similar. As you have found out you can lower the temp that the heat gun puts out.

[stuartgrant]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

Hi all,

Weve adopted a reasonable balance between collecting chaff and leaving the beans visible during the roast.

We used wire flyscreen mesh nailed to a little wooden frame. It sits on top of the breadmaker and the (slight) breeze from the heat gun blows it over the side of the BM pan and into the BM itself - where it collects very quickly!

Not entirely easy to see through, but good enough. Im kinda with Bassway on this one; we go by temp rather than bean colour anyway.

[NB. I didnt build the chaff catcher! My roasting mates, including CSer "humphrey", made it in my absence...]

Oh, and the last couple of photos show our set-up for the HG - we turn the temp right down and submerge it in the bean mass.

Cheers
Stuart.

[Humphrey]

Re: Bread Machine Chaff Collector

We used wire flyscreen mesh nailed to a little wooden frame. It sits on top of the breadmaker and the (slight) breeze from the heat gun blows it over the side of the BM pan and into the BM itself - where it collects very quickly!

Im the Humphrey that stu mentions.  I was surprised how well this mesh works.  Pretty much no chaff is left in the bowl but it all actually sits in-between the BM casing and the bowl.  Then we just have to take the BM outside and tip the chaff onto the garden.  The chaff does sit on the stirring mechanism but it hasnt effected the spinning at all.

The main weakness with this method is that some chaff still floats up between the screen and the heat gun.  However this is mostly because I did a crap job at cutting out the mesh.  BTW Make sure that you use a metal mesh - PLASTIC MELTS!  I originally had a plastic-y mesh held onto the frame with gaffa tap, and the tape just melted!

The fan and chaff hole means the chaff ends up on the same place in the garage floor.

I really like the idea of this fan!  That would great improve our approach because the chaff could just get sucked out into a mesh container or something.  Although, there isnt really anything wrong with it piling up in the bottom of the BM. :-)

Id like to add in some sort of fan to our system to suck away the smoke. We roast inside mostly because (a) moving the setup is effort, and (b) we live in Tasmania, so for 362 (365 - 3 warm days) its usually cold, windy, and wet outside :-P Placing a vacum cleaner near the top of the machine eliminates every bit of smoke, but its very noisy. I wonder if I could use a side fan and use it to suck away the chaff as well?

The other reason to eliminate chaff is to keep the heat gun internals clean. We are on our 3rd or 4th heatgun now (thanks bunnings warranty).