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renatoa
03/25/2024 12:38 PM
coffee drink, Ramper?

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My first attempt at building a roaster
revyve
So after many months (I have a 2yr old & 8month old) of construction and perseverance, I am nearing the end of my roaster and thought it was about time I share what I've built with this great forum (since pretty much 100% of the ideas came from here)! I've shamelessly borrowed most of my design from OGH, and can't say enough how awesome these forums are for figuring stuff out. So here goes:

Basic design is 1.5HP spa blower with (2) 1600 watt heatgun elements in series with the sink-drain / cocktail shaker. Then the bakearound chamber. PID controlling 2 SSR's and a SCR/SSVR for the blower control.

I built all this into a cheap harborfreight tool chest that I got off craigslist. In hindsight the amount of work I had to do (and still have to do) to it for it to fit/work may not have been worth it...

Anyway thought I'd post some pics and hopefully contribute in some small way for great stuff that's already here!

And lastly thank you so much OGH for your awesome documentation of your build. I know I couldn't have done this without that.
Edited by revyve on 07/10/2020 9:41 PM
 
revyve
And now for more pics of during the process...
revyve attached the following images:
img_1938.jpg img_1865.jpg img_1864.jpg img_1819.jpg img_1749.jpg img_1748.jpg img_1740.jpg
 
JETROASTER
Really nice build!! Thanks for posting.
....and how's the coffee? -Scott
 
revyve
Thanks, just finished my first roast in it... so have to wait till tomorrow to sample. But because it was my first ever attempt I over roasted and it went into second crack before I could abort.

Personally the temps I'm seeing on the PID and in roast chamber make me think i've got way too much heat coming off the coils. Every time the ssr's kicked in the temp in the roast chamber would jump like 25-30F which made it really hard to control satisfactorily.. at least I'm guessing that's a bad thing. I'm still very much a n00b when it comes to roasting... and I've never used a PID before and wasn't really sure what I was doing. So once I've finished all construction, I prolly will be posting some questions on how I can fine tune the PID or maybe get some ideas of what I'm doing wrong...anyway... still super excited cause it knocks the socks of the popcorn popper I was using.
 
oldgearhead
Very nice build, and thanks for the kind words. If you are roasting 500 grams of high-grown coffee, you might try leaving one of the heating elements on all the time and running the second one in 'manual' mode at about 30% ( more if the ambient temp is less than 45?F). I've found that it takes 12 minutes for the best coffee and only enough heat to hit first crack in 9-10 minutes...
No oil on my beans...
 
ginny
rev:

that is one fine roaster you have built.

thanks for posting the pictures of your creation.

ginny


smoking
 
turtle
Impressive. Looking forward to hearing what you think about the roast with it!!!
Mick - "Drinking in life one cup at a time"
"I'd rather be roasting coffee"

Roaster 1: San Franciscan SF-1
Roaster 2: Hottop B-2K+
Roaster 3: 2 kilo Chinese drum
Grinders: Mazzer Major - Forte BG (x3)
Pour over: Hario - Bee House - Chemex - Kalita - Bodum
Drip: Bunn CWTF15-1 & CW15-TC (commercials)
Espresso: Pasquini Livia 90 auto
Vacuum: Cona - Bodum
Press: Frieling - Bodum Colombia
 
allenb

Quote

revyve wrote:

Personally the temps I'm seeing on the PID and in roast chamber make me think i've got way too much heat coming off the coils. Every time the ssr's kicked in the temp in the roast chamber would jump like 25-30F which made it really hard to control satisfactorily..


Make sure your PID controller's time base is no longer than 1 second. If longer, you will get a hefty swing while it cycles.

Edit: This is an outstanding build and one of the coolest I've seen! You are going to love this roaster!

Allen
Edited by allenb on 02/19/2014 7:11 PM
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
coffeeroastersclub
To repeat what others have said, excellent design. Reminds me of a high end speaker system design; minimalistic, esoteric. My favorite type of design. ThumbsUp

Len
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee." ~Abraham Lincoln
 
alexcampbell
If your temps are jumping all around, your PID settings are off. There are some great youtube videos about tuning PID and I would recommend starting there. You most likely need to increase your P setting initially to avoid the spikes.
 
ginny
sweet build Rev...


-g

party
 
revyve
Thanks guys for all the comments. Things move super slowly around here. Finally got a dedicated 30amp line for it and finished off all the electrical odds and ends. Plus I put in a vent to the outside since my filter kept getting plugged up and thus the inevitable spewing of chaff all over my basement.

The couple of roasts I've attempted, I think I need to run the autotune on the PID and or attempt to edit the values myself. That being said any pointers? I know @alexcampbell you said there was stuff on youtube, but it's proving hard to find something applicable as I don't have a logger to see the curve data as (just a simple Auber ramp soak PID). If you could find one of those links I'd be very grateful. I am thinking of switching to one of the Fuji PXr4's to get those cool graphs but gunna have to save some pennies for a while methinks.

Thanks again
 
oldgearhead
A 40-mesh screen from Wal-Mart and all the chaff stays at the top of the RC,
then after cooling, the chaff falls on top of the beans, and I simply vac it up.

I always use %output instead of PID. That insures the temp is always advancing. Then I use the blower control to set RoR.
oldgearhead attached the following image:
dsc_7372_2.jpg
 
revyve
OGH yeah I was using one of those... But it would completely plug up creating an almost complete vacuum in roast chamber... Which just made the beans travel up and down vertically and no rotation as it were. So not sure what I want to do to combat that other than vent direct outside getting rid of chaff. Since I roast in basement thankfully my input temp is fairly steady. I had once entertained the idea of recirculating but with the two heating elements and a constant 68F input didn't feel the need to over engineer that part... I guess time will tell.

As for the PID I'm game to try the percentage way but I guess my hesitation is that I don't know even the first part about how to proceed that way? How do I set the PID to do it that way?
 
oldgearhead

Quote

revyve wrote:

OGH yeah I was using one of those... But it would completely plug up creating an almost complete vacuum in roast chamber... Which just made the beans travel up and down vertically and no rotation as it were. So not sure what I want to do to combat that other than vent direct outside getting rid of chaff. Since I roast in basement thankfully my input temp is fairly steady. I had once entertained the idea of recirculating but with the two heating elements and a constant 68F input didn't feel the need to over engineer that part... I guess time will tell.

As for the PID I'm game to try the percentage way but I guess my hesitation is that I don't know even the first part about how to proceed that way? How do I set the PID to do it that way?


?? I've been using the screen for a couple of years now and the only thing I've noticed is dry processed beans require an increase in blower speed at both the 4 and 6 minute points in the roast, but wet processed beans require a decrease in blower speed at the same points. This is because dry processed beans produce a lot more chaff. Maybe I'm getting different results because I run a 'sealed' RC??

The first ting I noticed when I started using convection air to roast coffee is two things influence the BMT (bean mass temperature); the air temperature and the air flow. Increasing the temperature increases the BMT, but increasing the flow decreases the BMT. For me it's much easier to set an air temperature (using % output manual) before starting the roaster and then adjusting the blower control during the roast. The first thing I did was map the air temperatures in the RC at the flows used for roasting. In other words:
60% = 435?F = 997 watts
70% = 500?F = 1075 watts
80% = 620?F = 1234 watts
etc.
 
revyve
So it?s been forever, since I?ve posted here, and wanted to give an update on my roaster. Absolutely love it, and my coffee. Since the initial build I?ve made a few improvements. First I?ve opted to vent direct to outside and I now utilize a camlock hose fitting with a high temp flexible hose. The camlock allows me to quickly and very easily disconnect top of roast chamber to get the beans out. Still using a PID to control 2 SSR?S and keeping my air constant.
Edited by revyve on 07/10/2020 9:42 PM
 
revyve
Picture of the camlock and hose outlet from top of roast chamber.
revyve attached the following image:
img_0673.jpeg

Edited by revyve on 07/10/2020 10:05 PM
 
revyve
Well the reason for my return to this illustrious forum, is I was looking to modify my heating coil design, as when one of them die it's a pain in the but to take apart and replace. So wondering if anyway has tried using a heating element like this: https://www.amazo...HZI9P1116E

A heating element from a plastic welding heat torch.

Anyone have any thoughts? They look a little nicer than the generic porcupine open coil heating elements that I have been using.

As always thanks!
Edited by revyve on 07/10/2020 10:09 PM
 
CK
On a new build I'm working on, this is the type of element used. They are hugely resistive to high airflow, but they are cheap, easy to work with, readily available, and heat the air very effectively. The numbers I learned in practice are; with a 42 cfm blower these will restrict/choke off airflow down to a max of 23 cfm. (There is considerable loss of static pressure that I can't measure) My output temp rises quite a few degrees even with no power applied, I beleive due to compression and friction, and/or the addition of blower motor heat. The ones I have fit perfectly (with their mica sleeve) into a 1.25" copper pipe fitted with 1.25 to 1" reducer couplings to entrap the element. R&D required for your build.
 
allenb
I agree with CK that these can be a problem and unless your air mover has vacuum motor static pressure capabilities it may be a challenge to get the cfm through them needed for a 1 lb batch. It would be interesting to do a calculation to figure out the effective surface area of all openings combined and subtracting the area consumed by the nichrome and then multiply x 2 to be relevant to your roaster.
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
revyve
Well after a bit more work... I added to blowers with a manifold and added in (4) 3400W heat torch elements. Converted everything to true 220 vs the dual 110 circuits I had before. Low and behold my new roaster 3.0 can lift and roast 3 lbs at a time. I think I could actually lift more if I added another manifold since everyone was correct those plastic welder heating elements really cut down on what you can do.
revyve attached the following images:
img_0913.jpeg img_0914.jpeg img_0915.jpeg img_0923.jpeg
 
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