My hand built coffee roaster ( lots of photos )

[Primate]

That is a thing of beauty, love the design.

Do you know the capacity of her yet?

Hey Roz not sure but my mate who started me on this whole project (he asked me to build him a roster and this is what I came up with his circumstances changed but I was already hooked so I built it any way thinks I should be able to do a 1Kg roast batches I'll have to play around and see .

[Primate]

Just a hunch, but I'm guessing mr Primate is also the name behind some damn fine custom steel bike frames, but regardless the craftsmanship and ingenuity on show here is just... wow. Please keep us informed about how this thing goes!

You got me bro two big passions in my life bikes and coffee really what more can a brother ask for

[beabeabeaner]

Looks great
you asked for suggestions....
do you have enough heat?
bean temp probe positioning
smoke extraction
chaff collection
cooling tray
drum hole size v small beans?
vanes in drum for agitation

[Primate]

Looks great
you asked for suggestions....
do you have enough heat?
bean temp probe positioning
smoke extraction
chaff collection
cooling tray
drum hole size v small beans?
vanes in drum for agitation

Hey beabeabeaner
well lets start at the top
heat- I have an oven element same as is fitted in most fan forced ovens so up to 300 deg will be no issue.
Bean temp probe - after talking to my mate on this I fitted a Swiss made oven thermometer in the front face of the roaster this is on the low side or the drum and about 5mm from the beans so I'm hoping this will give me a good reading . Then there is the thermostat probe for the actual oven element this also runs along side the drum so I'm hoping for good heat control in the drum . I'll have to see
Smoke extraction - I'm lucky enough to have a 44' square work shop that was an old fish and chip shop so has a kick ass extractor and I have left three big 10mm smoke holes on the front face.
Chaff collection - this may be an issue I am banking on the force of the fan witch is driving from the back forcing the chaff towards the door and I'll catch it when I open the drum but if this don't work I'll look at cutting a hole in the base of the drum and drawing the chaff out from there.
Cooling- as the drum is independent of the roast chamber the idea is that the drum is drawn out still rotating I had at first planed to have a fan run cool air past the beans but I hav found that with the fan of the oven running it actualy draws cool air in and blows it over the beans but I'll have to experiment with this to see if it enough .
Drum hole size - the mesh I used has a hole size of 3.5 mm I'm not sure how it will fair on the pea berry's
but it is the same size mesh as the boys who are roasting on a big scale use so I'm hope full.
Agitator blades- I Only finished fabricating and fitting the agitator blades 2 days ago and it was a shit of a job very fiddly but I have 6 offset curved blades running in diffrent directions so the beans will be getting plenty of movement.
Well that covers it so far fingers x it works well other wise it could be a very expensive art piece

[beabeabeaner]

Hey beabeabeaner
well lets start at the top
heat- I have an oven element same as is fitted in most fan forced ovens so up to 300 deg will be no issue.
Bean temp probe - after talking to my mate on this I fitted a Swiss made oven thermometer in the front face of the roaster this is on the low side or the drum and about 5mm from the beans so I'm hoping this will give me a good reading . Then there is the thermostat probe for the actual oven element this also runs along side the drum so I'm hoping for good heat control in the drum . I'll have to see
Smoke extraction - I'm lucky enough to have a 44' square work shop that was an old fish and chip shop so has a kick ass extractor and I have left three big 10mm smoke holes on the front face.
Chaff collection - this may be an issue I am banking on the force of the fan witch is driving from the back forcing the chaff towards the door and I'll catch it when I open the drum but if this don't work I'll look at cutting a hole in the base of the drum and drawing the chaff out from there.
Cooling- as the drum is independent of the roast chamber the idea is that the drum is drawn out still rotating I had at first planed to have a fan run cool air past the beans but I hav found that with the fan of the oven running it actualy draws cool air in and blows it over the beans but I'll have to experiment with this to see if it enough .
Drum hole size - the mesh I used has a hole size of 3.5 mm I'm not sure how it will fair on the pea berry's
but it is the same size mesh as the boys who are roasting on a big scale use so I'm hope full.
Agitator blades- I Only finished fabricating and fitting the agitator blades 2 days ago and it was a shit of a job very fiddly but I have 6 offset curved blades running in diffrent directions so the beans will be getting plenty of movement.
Well that covers it so far fingers x it works well other wise it could be a very expensive art piece

Good work, sounds like a functional art piece.

[habahabanero]

A thing of beauty. If only I had a tenth of your talent! Have you considered replacing the oven thermometer with a thermocouple from beanbay? It would certainly make your first roasts a little less likely to end up as charcoal so should be money well spent.

[oldman]

A work of art. I to love building technical equipment that you could
probab
ly in all honesty buy for less, but its not the same as the thrill you get from saying, " I did that"

[Primate]

A thing of beauty. If only I had a tenth of your talent! Have you considered replacing the oven thermometer with a thermocouple from beanbay? It would certainly make your first roasts a little less likely to end up as charcoal so should be money well spent.

Sounds like a worth while investment I'll look into it thanks

[taco]

A very impressive piece of engineering

[C-man]

looks unreal!

so how did it go?

[rat_tat]

WOW! awesome job. Puts my new little roaster to shame, hehe

[greenman]

Re: My hand built coffee roaster ( lots of photos )

brilliant effort Coffeesnobbers never cease to amaze me

[GrahamK]

Looks really nice and solid. Lovely job.

One thing I can't work out from the pictures how do you eject the beans for cooling?

GrahamK

[EspressoAdventurer]

So Primate ..... is that Bike Frames as in - Motorcycle ? or Bicycle Frames?
Fine work just the same.
Proves the point - ART is not just an ...expression of emotion ...that hangs on walls!

EA

[matth3wh]

My hand built coffee roaster ( lots of photos )

Amazing stuff. How did the first roast go?