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allenb
Top  #281 Print Post
Posted on 06/04/2011 7:46 PM

Quote

dja wrote:
Heres the follow up on the roast from yesterday with the Burundi that I had purchased from Roast Masters.

It needs some more rest 12 hours isn't enough. The flavors were a diffenate dark chocolate flavor with some other flavors that were hiding in the background for the moment. The aroma from the beans I could smell all through the house all night was a very pleasant aroma which has carried on out thru the day. I haven't tasted the Butterscotch that R/M said was there, but all in all I am happy with the purchase. I think that with a couple more days on this roast should see a very good cup. I think also that I need to get control over the roaster, its back on the learing curve with the new tube. I know that I really need to switch the pref plate out with one that has more holes(now where did I put those other plates at). And with a couple more roast I should see a very big improvement in this bean.

I do think that I will be ordering up some more of this one.


The Burundi sounds intriguing. Let us know how it cups out after the additional rest.

I think to pick up the butterscotch you'd have to have the palate of a master sommelier.

Looking forward to seeing a vid of a roast with the new tube with correct perf plate. I'm sure you're ready to get the roaster in it's final configuration and be able to just get on with roasting. You've probably learned more than all of us combined with the time you've logged in fluidbed roaster re-modifications!

Keep up the fight,

Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
dja
Top  #282 Print Post
Posted on 06/04/2011 10:12 PM
Your right I am ready to just sit down and roast some coffee beans and enjoy them the old fashion way. But it seems like everytime I try to do something with this darn roaster it wants to fight me, and as I have said before with only me here to drink up the test results and working out of town it makes for long streaches between roast.

But it is coming to a close, I do wish that with this 5 inch tube that I had of gotten it shorter, 16 inches is just way to long for a two pound roaster, even three pounds in this thing won't fill it up once they are roasted and have expanded.

The 5 inch tube did stop the binding up that I was seeing in the smaller tube, (one that I was calling 4 inch actually was 3.75 OD) way too small for the amount of beans that I was putting it in, but it gave out some great coffee.
I am seeing ( two roast so far) some of the same circulation patterns in this 5 inch tube that I had in the smaller one, but not the binding up. I promise the next roast will be on video for all to laugh at, this last one was a real rodeo, had the tube hooked on with bungee cords and it was trying to blow off anyway.

I think that the biggest thing that I have found is that the beans don't need to be spraying all over the place to roast, anyway in my roaster they don't, and they can't hide from me I made sure of that. It is really something to watch a roast in this roaster because you can see everything that is happening to the beans, from the moment the chaff starts coming loose thru the changes of color from the mottled green to the yellowing stage while they are loosing moisture to the golden stages all the way up to the final finish at finsih time.

As mentioned in an earlier post the last roast took less then fifteen minutes and it was 1.5 pounds of the Burundi, this was one of the best coffees I have had in a while, mostly due to my plastic teeth things don't taste the same any more.
This bean to me had a distinct flavor that I hope will prononce itself more in the next couple of days.

Below are the notes from Roast Masters on this bean. They went on to say that this would work as a single Origin Esspresso, but that it works better as a French Press of Drip brew. The full write up ca be found at http://www.roastmasters.com/burundi-1.html

Cup Characteristics:Very clean and crisp with no detectable taints. Long finish. Dry. Tart, green apple character; semi-sweet chocolate, smooth texture. Aroma: vanilla, butterscotch. Flavor: Juicy, dark chocolate notes. Acidity: Grapefruit dry that shows as a pleasing tartness. Very classy Bourbon character and extremely well balanced.

Anyway I will post what I find in the next couple of days with this last roast.

I finally got my molding sand dried out enough to use so hopefully tomorrow I will get a new bottom section casted and machined before I have to leave town on Monday afternoon.

I'm holding em off but the little brown buggers is wearing me down something fierce!ThumbsUp

David.
Edited by dja on 06/04/2011 10:16 PM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
seedlings
Top  #283 Print Post
Posted on 06/05/2011 7:40 AM
I had a fantastic Burundi last year!

You say that 16" is too long for your RC? Mine is 18" long for 2 pound roasts and sometimes I can blow some beans out. So I built another similar roaster for a customer and made his 24" long to roast 2.6 pounds, and I don't at all feel it is too long. (4" square steel tubing.)

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
dja
Top  #284 Print Post
Posted on 06/05/2011 11:33 AM
if I take the top off of my roaster Chad I can unload all the beans from the roast chamber. I run my fan a lot slower then you do I think. No way to know without the roasters sitting side by side.

You have a lot more holes in your pref plate also. But with the 6 inch tube and the original pref plate from the smallest tube that I started with, which had 3/16" holes about twenty of them I just could not build any heat. I went to even more holes that were smaller still no heat, I hit on a plate that has 13, 8 mm holes this plate gives me the heat that I need for both the 5 and the 6 inch tubes.

When my roaster is running I try to keep the beans circulating and start out with the beans spouting like a water fountain. This pattern was easy to hold in the 6 inch tube thru the whole roast.

In the 5 inch tube I find that (don't forget I'm fighting to keep the thing together also while roasting) I can start with the beans spouting like a water fountain, but as the roast gets closer to the end that they start calming down and start circulation more like the smaller tube that I started with.

Basicly my roaster and yours are the same, we have to agree on that, where they grow drasticly apart is in the roast chambers your's is square and mine is round, there is no way that the two roasters will circulate the same amount of beans in the same manner. The air is entering the beans totally differant, even thou they both have sloped bottoms, funnel shaped. Which is exactly where I got the slope angle that I have in my roaster, was a little yellow funnel that I used to see if I could actually move the beans in the small tube something like a year ago.

I say that 16 inches is too tall, because in my roaster it is. I don't blow the beans that high to get circulation. I could actually roast the same amount of beans in one 8 to 10 inches high, and probably have more control.

No I have no plans to order a shorter tube, the things cost an arm. Tom said I didn't have to cut the leg off till I ordered a 12 inch diameter one.

This has been a very fun project to build, and I have had some really good coffee from it, now if I can just stop the rodeo act that I have to put on to use the thing I will be happy, I have clamps on order to secure the top to the bottom, I am or should be outside tying to make the bottom section, but I can't get the mold to turn out right and it has gotten to hot this morning to be pounding sand into a box.

I do have the top plate almost finished, I have to install a hinge on the door so that it will stay in place, drill two more vent holes and make some type of control plate to cover them with.

the rods to secure everything together with I can't do untill I have the bottom section to measure them against.

there isn't much left to do to have a finished roaster, if there was a contest going on I would enter it into it. I doubt that it would win, but who knows, but alas there is no contest except in my own mine and I have way exceded the goal that I set for myself when I started this project.

I want to thank you and everyone else that has helped me build this darn monster that I call a coffee roaster. THANKS TO EVERYONE.


The one thing that I do wish is that I could get the thing to run on 110 volts. That would make it a ton easier to take somewhere else and roast with it. Most people don't have an easy acess 220 plug and some get a wild look in their eyes when you break out a screwdriver and head towards the breaker box in the Garage.

I guess if all else fails, I can melt the darn thing down and make a boat anchor out of it.

David.

Thanks again everyone for all the help that you have given this project.

One question I have Chad,how hard is it to clean the 4 inch square tube with it being that long. that was the one reason that I wanted a bigger tube was so I could get my hand into it to wash the oils, and chaff particles off the tube other wise after about three roast all you would see would be a blackish brown tube. I know some of this is due to me blocking off most of the top. but with the right setup on the top I can roast in the house and be smoke and chaff free.
Edited by dja on 06/05/2011 11:42 AM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
seedlings
Top  #285 Print Post
Posted on 06/05/2011 7:35 PM
My arm fits all the way down to the bottom in the 18". The 24" gets stuck on my arm above the elbow. The only thing I clean is the glass. I figure it's like a cast iron frying pan, right? Well seasoned!

CHAD
Edited by seedlings on 06/05/2011 7:35 PM
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
dja
Top  #286 Print Post
Posted on 06/06/2011 1:51 PM
well the gods have smiled on me one more time.

I was able to get something most foundry people wouldn't call a mold, but i was able to mold the pattern and get it casted .

Plus I have most of the machine work to do on it but that will have to wait till this weekend when I get back from Texas, I just need to drill and tap some holes in it and make a new pref plate this one will screw directly onto the bottom of the transition.

I also found on my front porch a small brown box from the man in brown that had my two clamps, these are a lot nicer that I thought that they would be, sorry no picture of them. but I did take some pidtures of the roaster part that I have been working on today.

http://s1222.phot...erdave257/
Instead of inserting a whole bunch of pictures I am just going to insert the link to the album.

Enjoy.

David
Edited by dja on 06/06/2011 1:52 PM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #287 Print Post
Posted on 06/06/2011 2:05 PM

Quote

seedlings wrote:
My arm fits all the way down to the bottom in the 18". The 24" gets stuck on my arm above the elbow. The only thing I clean is the glass. I figure it's like a cast iron frying pan, right? Well seasoned!

CHAD


won't the oils that will collect on the inside of the tube go rancid, I do belive that the big commercial roasters are kept basicly spotless in between Roasting sessions.

Anyway that was one of the reasons that I wanted a larger tube, not that it would roast more, but so that I could get my arm thru it. someone suggested to me that I get one of them big round brushes, a tolet bowl brush would work as long as someone didn't use it for something else.

But this way with the 5" tube all I will have to do is to unscrew four wing nuts lift the top off slide the tube out, you can figure out the rest.

I have to leave for Texas in a little bit, so no more roaster work today, but as soon as I get back, I will get some things throwed together and set up the video camera and video th enext roast.

I may not have the clamps mounted by then but if all else fails I will use some of that ole Redneck Bailing Wire to hold the d%^mn thing together, just have to remember to have wire cutters handy.
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
JETROASTER
Top  #288 Print Post
Posted on 06/06/2011 2:57 PM
I look at photo #13. .....pick-up truck....coveralls......molten aluminum.
Then I read the tasting notes from the Burundi.....searching for the butterscotch. I believe 'juxtaposition' is the word I'm looking for.

You are a renaissance man! Looking forward to the video.
Great build. Cheers, -Scott
 
dja
Top  #289 Print Post
Posted on 06/06/2011 5:10 PM
those were some pictures that were already on photobucket that I didn't take the time to move or erase of me melting and pouring cast iron to make a part for my 12 inch metal lathe.

The part that I made this morning is the bright shiny thing laying on the shelf on my smoker, it makes a good place to roast coffee and take pictures of things when its not being used for its actual purpose which is cooking ribs.

I am fixin to leave for Texas for a few days should be back Thrusday night, or Friday mid day, once I get back I will wire everything together and see if I can get some video of a roast in the 5 inch tube, without me having to hold the thing constantly.

The Burundi beans have progressed right along, both me and the nebighor like it. I haven't found the butterscotch yet, but have found flavors (don't know how to explain)that I do like. My cupping skills are not very good. I can say that there is a lot going on with this bean.

One thing that I didn't mention was that went I dumped this last roast to cool I dodn't force it, I let it cool naturaly by just pouring from one collander to another for a couple miuntes than just let em cool down. Nice thing about this roaster is that there is no chaff left in the beans when they are don't, bad thing is if I ever get it to the roast indoors stage, I will have to have some type of large chaff trap on it, or the stuff will over take the living spaces.

Oh yea I'm not a renaissance man, just a poor guy that likes to make things the hard way.

David
Edited by dja on 06/06/2011 5:11 PM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #290 Print Post
Posted on 06/12/2011 4:02 PM
heres a little video that I did this morning, I have the new tube just about completed, the only thing that is left to do is to finish the clamps to hold the two sections together, I have the clamps installed just need to make some thing that will let the clamps hook onto the top section but I haven't been feeling all that hot the last couple of days.

One thing that I will mention is that the roast you will see in this video was ruined, not by the roasting that went like it was suppose too. But by leaving the beans in the collender after I dumped them, they continued to roast or I should say burn. After bringing some of the roasting equipment back in the house I picked the roast up and shook the collender and there was this large mass of burned beans in the middle of the batch. I had intentionally not put them on the cooling fan as I not been using it, I guess that I will have to change my ways and go back to using the fan. Expensive lesson.

Hope you enjoy the video.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-KRPYJAEC4[/video]
Edited by dja on 06/12/2011 4:08 PM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
oldgearhead
Top  #291 Print Post
Posted on 06/12/2011 6:20 PM
Awesume!
I hope to do 1/2 as many beans in about the same time.
Thanks for sharing.
OGH
No oil on my beans...
 
JETROASTER
Top  #292 Print Post
Posted on 06/13/2011 1:41 PM
Really Nice!
With this diameter tube, what do you think would be the minimum required height to do say...2.5# ? -Scott

Was that boro from Tom at TEC?
Edited by JETROASTER on 06/13/2011 3:35 PM
 
dja
Top  #293 Print Post
Posted on 06/13/2011 4:03 PM
Scott as you can see in the video that was a full 1 pound 8 oz of beans after roasting and expanding they reached a height that almost doubles what you see showing in the tube.

This is the 5 inch tube that I received from Tom, it is mounted in its final resting place, or to some it has the bottom transition piece on that was made to fit the tube. Tube heights is 16 inches.

Without out doing any more roast and measuring the bed height before and after roasting I would say that for 2.5 pound batch of beans that the tube really doesn't need to be any taller that 12 inches.

Now heres the hard part for me to understand. both mine and Chads and a couple more roaster are almost identical in design. If you take all design differances and add them together they really don't add up to one being much differant then the others.

As we have seen in Chads Roaster via his window into the process, his roaster has this very tall plume of beans spraying constantly.

And I think that GreenCardigan's hope I spelled that right. His roaster, except for a couple minor differances is identical to mine. Except for his pref plate, which is slanted at somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees, his roaster has a plume of beans.

One in Canada can't remember his S/N same type of roaster, had a water fountain plume of beans.

My roaster 60 degree bottom transition to the pref plate, has 13 1/8" holes, does not need this giant plume of beans to roast. with barely enough air to move the beans I have great circulation.

Now one thing that does bother me is my heat setup, same setup as Chads, but if I make the smallest change to the pref plate I loose the heat, even if I turn the air down to where the beans are not moving. I don't know whats going on there. I could see it if I changed the plate to one with more holes that I would have to turn the fan down some. Anyway back to your question.

If I was to start to build a new roaster I would use the 5" X 12" long tube. my reasoning for that is Cost a lot less then a 16 inch tube, and from the expeeriance with my roaster 12 inch tall tube should give plenty of room for bean expantion and circulation (can't forget that) need a couple of inches for the beans to circulate which lets the chaff out of the bean mass.

The 5" tube with a 3 millimeter wall thickness is plenty strong for the application that a person would put it under (stronger glass = Safer Glass) I really like the ability of being able to see what is going on in the tube.

I did notice something yesterday while roasting that I haven't seen before. the second roast the one in the video. I pulled that roast and dumped the beans into a collender as usual, and I didn't bother to put them on the cooling fan as I normally do, been getting lazy the last couple of times I have roasted and not bothered with it, just dump swish them between two collenders and take em in the house.

Well this roast took me to the bank, that was $10.00 worth of beans, they sat in the collender and the center of the mass of beans totally burned, I mean Charbucks special, now them beans was hot coming out of the tube, but they set outside in the cool air for 5 minutes before I brought them inside. You got any ideas.

The first batch yesterday was a dud, I had put in a plate with a lot more holes smaller but more, could not get to temp, and like Dan I pulled the roaster changed the plates, and then finished the roast, haven't tried them yet, but they sure look good and handled them the same way, dumped them into collender although I did swish them around between the two collenders , and then as noted in the video took them into the house. They look great.

Well I am just about finished with the hold downs for the thing, quick as I can I will do another roast I have a couple changes that I am planing to do. one is the electric cords are going to be cleaned up and fixed so I don't have a giant air leak around them. I did find and fix while roasting an air leak at the top of the heat section. there are a couple other items that need to be addressed, I have the materials to make a new coil holder, which would be shorter ( make it easier to change the coils if needed and maybe put in provisitions for a third coil, I don't know where I would get the juice too heat it with, this thing is at about 35 amps now, funny it started off with a home strung coil on 110 with pleanty of heat.

Oh well, it works, I had fun building it, and I've got more fresh coffee than anyone else on the block.

David.

Sorry for such a long post.

I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
JETROASTER
Top  #294 Print Post
Posted on 06/13/2011 4:42 PM
"""If you take all design differances and add them together they really don't add up to one being much differant then the others."""

In terms of aerodynamics, I think the differance between eliptical and cylindrical is significant.
An eliptical design provides an opportunity for the airstream to slip up one wall without being diffused as much by the bean mass. It creates a sort of high velocity stream up the vertical wall with the most exposure to the airstream.
That's not a bad thing, it is just a consideration when designing the rest of the RC.
With a cylindrical design, the airstream will get diffused evenly. Once again, not a bad thing, just a consideration.

It looks great!!! Enjoy the beans, you certainly earned it!
-Scott
 
allenb
Top  #295 Print Post
Posted on 06/13/2011 7:32 PM
I think you've won the prize for most perfect spouted bed plume shape! That's PSBP for short. Great progress with this roaster.ThumbsUp

Question,

Do you think a person could get away with cooling the roast in the RC of a roaster like this if built out of thin sheet metal? This would assume you could construct the heater section out of low mass materials as well.

Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
dja
Top  #296 Print Post
Posted on 06/13/2011 8:30 PM
I think that you are correct, it could be done roast and cool in the same chamber without dumping the beans.

I say this knowing how this roaster is put together, like you said if it was made out of low mass materials that did not hold heat well or that would give it up quickly it would work.

The main thermal heat sink that I have is the transition on the bottom of the roast chamber, mine is home cast from aluminum and on either one of the two 5" or 6" I did nothing to see how thin I could cast the part. Two reasons for this, one I am new to casting and pattern making, if this part was made thinner by about a quarter of an inch it would loose its heat quickly.
Reason two is that when I machined the part I did nothiing to try and thin the part down to cut some fat you might say, this would do the same as the pattern.

I think that I have done about all that can be done in the heat section in that if you go back and look at the pictures you will see that both coils are mounted in stainless steel tubes, with Ceramic Insulation wrapped around the whole thing (no picture of the insulation, crypto top secret), I have been thinking that a person could install a third tube with a damper in it that you could open from the outside, if it sealed good enough this would allow you to dump a lot of cold air at cool down time. but it would be a lot of work to make it work right.

money wise if a person had a pretty good chunk of money that they wanted to throw at a roaster, the transition could be made from machineable ceramic. Pros to this material low thermal mass, light weight, Cons really da#n expensive.

I haven't tried to cool beans down in the roaster as of yet, have just always dumped em. It may be worth investigating, you know anyone that has some really old beans for testing, I'll buy some from em, give it a shot.

My largest downfall at testing this roaster is I'm the only one here that drinks coffee, heck I am the only one here period. So test roast sometimes fall not so close together if I have to leave town due to my occupation.

Was just rereading your post Allen, the heater section or the mount for the coils is made from 1/16 inch thick stainless steel tubing and 14 gauge plate for the alignment plates that hold it all together.
I do know for a fact that the coils are capable of over 700 degrees if you turn the air down low enough for them to heat up completely. One nice thing is that with this setup I have not burned our anymore coils.

Thanks for the compliment, its been a long time coming but I think that I have just about done everything that I can to this without totally building a new roaster, and I think I'll take a break from the roaster building and just enjoy the results of the Freak that I created.

Now to find someone that can cut me a pattern so i can make a brass plaque that says The Freak on it to hang on this darn thing.

David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
greencardigan
Top  #297 Print Post
Posted on 06/13/2011 8:31 PM

Quote

allenb wrote:
I think you've won the prize for most perfect spouted bed plume shape! That's PSBP for short. Great progress with this roaster.ThumbsUp

Question,

Do you think a person could get away with cooling the roast in the RC of a roaster like this if built out of thin sheet metal? This would assume you could construct the heater section out of low mass materials as well.

Allen


I agree. :Clap: I have plume envy.

Allen, I cool my beans in the RC. It takes a bit longer than I'd like but it works for me.

EDIT: My last roast took 3 minutes to cool a 1.65 pound batch down to 200F in the RC.
Edited by greencardigan on 06/13/2011 8:42 PM
 
allenb
Top  #298 Print Post
Posted on 06/15/2011 10:36 PM
Sometime in the near future I want to build a 1 lb fluidbed but don't want to have to dump from roaster to cooling tray.

It sounds like cooling in the RC is doable. I'll have to do some research into how light I can go with heating chamber and RC without it becoming an aluminum can.

Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
greencardigan
Top  #299 Print Post
Posted on 06/15/2011 10:40 PM
What would be a maximum time to cool the beans?
 
dja
Top  #300 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 7:45 AM
Allen, like I tell the engineers at work anythings doable. it just depends on how much money you want to throw at the problem.

The thermal mass problem in my transition part is curable, couple of ways,

1. make it thinner, this means I can work on redoing the pattern and cast the thing twice to two thirds thinner then it is, this will allow it to come up to temp faster and cool down faster.

2. Metal Spinning, if you know someone that has a big lathe. this is gonna take one bigger than what I have. Is to make a form out of wood and get someone to spin the transition out of say 20 gauge stainless steel, maybe 18 if the lathe will take the pressure.
Spinning it to shape will give the thinnest part possible, stainless is not really a good conductor, and with it being really thin it will loose heat quickly. this would allow you to cool in the shortest possible time.

really I don't see why it can't be done with the parts that I have, if I could just roast enough beans to learn what the roaster is doing,
Heck for all I know the last roast I did I may of took it 5 minutes to long. it was the first roast that has done what it did. The roast that I did before that I had to change the pref plate on, which after the change i finished roasting and had it almost as hot, did not do the burn thing.

One element that would help with cooling is if I had some way of introducing more air directly into the roast chamber via the transition and an added blower. But this thought just leads to more complications in how its built.

I guess the next logical step for me is too see about making a new pattern and see if I can cast a really thin part say .125 in wall thickness,

GreenCardigan Maximum cooling time I guess that depends on who's doing the cooling, some would say that two minutes is max. I don't really have any porblems with the beans cooling naturally as long as they are not sitting there smoking and snapping. If I can get em down under 300 degrees as fast as I can which is easy with the pan on the fan approch that I have, or like someothers a fan in a bucket and a collender in the top of it for stability.

I purchased some columbian green local here in OKC from United Roasters, (manufacture of coffee equipment), Cheapest beans I could find and at 6.50 they ain't what I call cheap. MY OFFER still stands if anyone has some really old stale green that they would like to part ways with if the price is right I might be enticed into removing them from your stash.

With the Columbian Beans I plan to do a roast in the next few days, When I do I will see how long it takes to get the temp down far enough that the beans could be dumped safely with the roasting process halted. What would you say would be a good temp to dump at Allen 300.

Ihave been running 1.5 pound roast so that I have one stable element in the process, I also have a couple air leaks to fix. its really funny how small a change needs to be to effect a really large out come to the roasted beans.

Allen in a couple days I can give a more direct answer to your question

GreenCardigan, same question for you what would be a maximum time for cooling beans that you have roasted?

David.
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
oldgearhead
Top  #301 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 7:54 AM
The glass? Don't forget about the glass. I never start a roast with my 'hacked' Z&D's without first heating the glass to 300F. Once that is done, I can roast back-to-back batches and keep the glass to a low of 180F. You will find that the glass will retain a good deal of heat....
..also heat from the blower motor is always being added to the RC.
In my air test yesterday, I saw a temperature rise of 30F on the glass
with only the blower turned on..
Edited by oldgearhead on 06/16/2011 8:29 AM
No oil on my beans...
 
seedlings
Top  #302 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 10:10 AM
My roaster can cool the beans down to 100F in 2 or 3 minutes while the enormous steel RC is still fire hot for an hour or longer. I still dump and cool in the bucket/blower cooler.

CHAD
Edited by seedlings on 06/16/2011 10:11 AM
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
dja
Top  #303 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 11:34 AM
Chad I totally agree with you, in this type of roaster a person should be able to cool the beans to a temperature that would allow dumping into a pan/bowl/collender, so that you could if you wanted to roast another batch.

I really haven't paid to much attention to what goes on after roasting with my roaster I just try to get them dumped into a cooling vessel of some sort to stop the roasting.

Reason being that I normally turn the air way down after I remove the upper section of the roaster, this allows for the fastest cooling of the coils, and the top 6 inches of the lower section which tends to get on the warmish side.

I also so this because of the wiring in my roaster it sits directly under the coils, the heat that is generated by the blower motor isn't enough to do any damage to the wiring as it should take about 600 degrees that normal insulation on SO Cable.

Guess I'm just gonna have to put the thing back together (its in a lot of pieces at the moment) and see how fast I can cool a batch.

David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
danw2002
Top  #304 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 12:46 PM
you guys are killing me, here i was all good with a popcorn popper, then i said, hey i can do the BM/HG set up, got a real nice gun that i have used for years, and no problem with the wiring and BM, cool.....so now what, i have spent the last 3 days reading all this info on the air roasters, yep all the treads on em....whew....and guess what, got to build me one too....it is alllllll of your faultsShock...shesh.

all that aside, on the cooling front, the biggest thing you have to address is the heat soak from the roast it self, all the items in the air path are very hot, and that all has to be addressed before the beans cool down, which are in the last of this path.....if you could pull out the 'heat' section and put the bean section right back on top of the 'air' section, that may do it...should not be hard to do, as your roaster is kind of modular as it is, maybe set up some alignment pins on each section weld handles on each one, and then with clamps on each section, like your top one, you could just release the clamps and pull the heater out re stack and hit the fan...

or you could just have a twin vac/fan set up and set the RC on it right after the roast, then keep them both going to cool the heat elements with one, and the beans with another, that may be the way to do, so you don't have to redo the bottom two chambers.....what say you??
Edited by danw2002 on 06/16/2011 12:50 PM
 
dja
Top  #305 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 1:35 PM
Dan;
what you can't see in the pictures and videos of the roaster is that the top has a hole/door in it that equals about 5 square inches of open space. so by the time that you could unstack and restack as you were saying I can just dump the beans in a cooler that I have plenty of time to set up while the roast is going on.

Actually the bean mass is the first thing to cool down as that is where the air is at. So as soon as it cools them coils the air temp starts to drop when this happens the next thing to cool is the prefplate in the bottom of the top section, then the beans cause their sitting directly on top of the air stream that is wide open with them beans all lightened up willl actually unload them from the first tube that I started with.

As long as the air is flowing and the coils are off the air stream will suck the heat out of the beans, granted the rest of the roaster is still hot enough to fry bacon on the beans will cool down,

now back to fixin air leaks, were did I lay the torch down at, ANYONE SEEN MY TORCH. Who stole my torch,

Anyway the beans will cool down a lot faster then the rest of the roaster.

I just hope the bank doesn't find out how much money I have sunk in this THINGRoflmao
David.
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
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