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air roaster
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
 
seedlings
Top  #306 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 2:47 PM

Quote

dja wrote:
I just hope the bank doesn't find out how much money I have sunk in this THING


Invested

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
JETROASTER
Top  #307 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 3:20 PM

Quote

danw2002 wrote:
yep all the treads on em....whew....and guess what, got to build me one too....it is alllllll of your faultsShock...shesh.



Resistance is futile.....you too will be assimilated. -Scott
 
dja
Top  #308 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 9:45 PM
for those interested if you will click the link I have pasted in this post you will find a photo album that has a bunch of photos of the roaster along with some others. The most recent photos of the roaster are towards the end and they start with one that shows the top of the motor buired under some wires, to ones that show the top and bottom of the Roast Chamber/Hopper.

http://s1222.phot...erdave257/
Edited by seedlings on 06/17/2011 9:19 AM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #309 Print Post
Posted on 06/16/2011 9:48 PM
awe I forgot to mention,

please keep laughter to a minimum, and popcorn is $2.00, extra butter is 0.59 cents.

Thank you enjoy the slideshow.

David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
danw2002
Top  #310 Print Post
Posted on 06/17/2011 2:10 PM
Yep David , i hear ya and understand about the air path, i was just thinkin about having just one fan and getting the mass out of the way fast, so it would not effect the speed of the beans cooling. We know that you could just turn off the heat and keep the fan going full and the beans would cool, but the faster we can get cold air to them the better, and one way is to get any heat soaked mass out of the path. and it also keeps the item count down, for me that is what i am looking at, so i may head off in this direction as i work on my design.....yep i am doing one too....just working on the engineering parts first...then ways to best do what i want it to do, then build...test...rinse repeat....BTW keep it up, you are a pathfinder for us all..:Clap:

Quote

dja wrote:
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.
 
dja
Top  #311 Print Post
Posted on 06/17/2011 6:07 PM
I don't think that I will change the design of this thing if I do it will be things like shortening the pyrex tube it really doesn't need to be 16" tall. The bottom is going to be if I can find a hunk of 5" DOM Tubing made into one piece instead of two, and it will be made shorter.

This roaster was build as I aquired the materials and parts, kinda like Johnny Cash's Cadilac one piece at a time. I like it the way it is. I actually liked it better with it looked like a nuclier reactor was heating up when you looked into the coil section, but alas that didn't pan out.

The bottom is going to be changed to resemble the legs on a pot bellied stove if I can find someone that can carve the foam for me. and if the casting comes out I may have it anodized gold, just cause I can.

your saying to take and rebuild the whole roaste so that the heat section can be removed, all you have to do is pick the top up and dump the beans out, have to remember to unlatch the door first thou, I put it on there today wasn't on yesterday with the picture of the hopper top was taken.

From watching Scotts Video I don't think that I really have to worry about making the heavy metal parts lighter I just need to turn the fan on, and belive me I got lot of fan after them beans are dried out. I take the top off the hopper I can unload it with the air. thats the reason for the hopper catches this thing likes to try and launch the top half(reminds me I gotta finish them new latch parts).

Oh yea and before I forget look at all them commerecial home roasters everyone of them runs a cool down cycle without dumping the beans into something else.
If I only cool the beans to say 300 degrees before I dump them they are safe from continued roasting in the bowl.

Now if I could just get that close to 20 pounds of beans thats been throwed in the back yard to sprout and produce coffee,I would be able to recoup some of my cash that I have sunk into this thing. But man does it roast coffee.

DAvid.

Dan I hope you have as much fun and pains as I have building your roaster, be sure and start a thread and post some pictures of it so that we can see what your gonna build. Myself I think the one OJH is building is gonna be the cats whiskers.

David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #312 Print Post
Posted on 06/18/2011 8:23 PM
SCOTT you asked for this, os here it is a full roast with the beans cooled down in the roaster after roasting to 450 degrees.
D$%n copter would not leave so you have to put up with the noise like I did,

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxmOaop7h5s[/video]
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #313 Print Post
Posted on 06/29/2011 12:07 AM
RoflmaoWell I sat here typing my little fingers off for the last thirty minutes to have it all disappear in the blink of an eye, or was that a flash of computer torture.

Awe to He$$ with it I'm going to bed.
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #314 Print Post
Posted on 06/29/2011 7:23 AM
Back for a second try,
I had typed up the details of my roast yesterday using my almost finished roaster. When due to technical difficulties last night I lost everything that I had written.

First I have to say I didn't do the video thing, not so that people couldn't see, but because I was being lazy, it was hot and I just wanted to get it done.

The bean that I choose to roast today was the Burundi Yandaro Burbon, From RoastMasters, labeling on the bag says this bean has and Aroma of vanilla, butterscotch, and the flavor is suppose to be juicy, dark Chocolate notes. and that it is a dense bean that can handle roast between city+ at the minimum indto Veinnese on the longer end.

You just gotta love digital camera's
i1222.photobucket.com/albums/dd484/Superdave257/furnace%20and%20roaster/Superdave257%2061811/Burundi-62811jpg.jpg
The beans are not as dark as they appear in the photos they are in a Poly bag which has a white cast to it and with the flash it just makes the beans look almost black,

First let me say I did something differant I preheated the roaster to 300 degrees, did it help, I don't know, The roast time seemed about what I had been getting when not preheating. Time will tell.

By not videoing the roast I was able to pay more attention to the roaster, and with the clamps I didn't have to constanly hold things together. Big help!

I manually controlled the set point in the PID and raised it about 50 degrees every couple of minutes, I wasn't being exact I want that I will hookup the laptop and let it do it.

The roast did progress in what was to me an orderly climb to 435 degrees where I did try to let the beans soak for a couple minutes before raising the temperature on up to 480 and them to 500 which was the final temp just before pulling the plug on the coils and turning the fan on full open to cool the beans in place to around 300 degrees in less then two minutes.

All told this is one of the best roast that I have had after only 12 hours of rest from this roaster.
Edited by dja on 06/29/2011 7:44 AM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
JETROASTER
Top  #315 Print Post
Posted on 06/29/2011 7:46 AM
Take a victory lap!! I had missed that last video. It looks great! I'm a little concerned about the helicopter. How long have they been watching you? They might be concerned about your 'device' -Scott
Grin
 
dja
Top  #316 Print Post
Posted on 06/29/2011 7:56 AM
Scott
well it does tend to look a little nukeish, what ya think maybe turn it into a lava lamp, heck that would be a good choice for the 6 inch tube. Strong glass, would take the heat , and the Alchoal and kerosene wouldn't bother it.

I had a pretty much blow by blow write up of the roast yesterday when the evil grimlins in my majic box acted up and I lost it. so you will have to read between the line in my earlier post.

David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
oldgearhead
Top  #317 Print Post
Posted on 06/29/2011 7:04 PM

Quote

dja wrote:
Back for a second try,
>snip<.
I manually controlled the set point in the PID and raised it about 50 degrees every couple of minutes,
>snip<



David, great job!
I do have a question though: When someone says 'manual control', of a PID, I think you are watching the varible (BMT) and changing the % output. But, from your write-up it sounds like your PID does have control of the process and you are just 'bumping' the set point and the PID is raising the temperature, so that, the BMT reaches the set point. Correct?

I guess I incorrectly assumed that it would be difficult for a small, inexpensive PID to directly control BMT by adjusting the heater output,
because of the long lag time. Can you simply put the set-pont at 230F for the drying phase of the roast, then after a couple of minutes change it to 400F to drive it near first crack? I'm thinking maybe I don't need the internal manifold temperature for the PID?????

Again, great job!
OGH
Edited by oldgearhead on 06/29/2011 7:06 PM
No oil on my beans...
 
dja
Top  #318 Print Post
Posted on 06/29/2011 11:38 PM
Jim, your correct in what you were saying in that yes I have been manually controlling the PID set point, instead of letting it run on a programed ramp soak.

If I was after the same results everytime with the same beans I would just hook up the laptop program the pid flip the switch and control the air flow, which in my roaster changes quite significantly during the roast.

The PID's that I have are Fuji's PXR's one has RS485 capabilities the other has to be programed manually if you want to run the ramp soak,

The ramp soak means that after you program it when your ready you hit the start button and it controls the output to what you have it programed for. say you put in 335 for 2.5 minutes as the first ramp it will take heat to 335 once it gets to that temp it will hold it there for 2.5 miuntes.

one thing that a lot of people over look is the auto tune feature this should be ran during an actual roast so the pid can learn, otherwise it will be over shooting or letting the temp drop to low before turning the coils back on.

But with all the tech stuff, its just as easy, (heck your standing there) to just increase the set point to suit your roaster and beans, and besides whats the fun in letting some little box do it, I like things a little differant every now and then, or I'm trying to find something in a bean and I run out of it before I get what I want, and have to start all over with a new green bean.

And belive it or not I'm still trying to figure this roaster out, But one thing I will say is that it dang sure roast coffee, even if its parents were a couple popcorn poppers.

Heck with this thing I should never have to build another except if i want a larger one.

I really need to check the juice load on mine when its on full and see if ai can get it on 110 volts, and off of the 220 incase I want to take it some place,
this Burundi is just wonderful, I just finished off what was in the Cup from this morning and its absalutely wonderful.
David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #319 Print Post
Posted on 06/29/2011 11:45 PM
No you won't need the manifold temp. Actually you would probably be better to use the exiting air temp as your control.

I don't know why but my beam mass temp is always up at the end of the roast around 500 to 550 degrees but the exhaust temp is closer to what the actual bean temp should be,

I need to get a bendable solid sheath probe or a straight one long enough to put thru the top and into the bean mass or adjust it to say 1 inch above the starting green bean bed height, see what happens. Of course with the probe that I have and some 1/4 inch tube and a ferrel fitting with an o-ring would do the same thing.

David.
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #320 Print Post
Posted on 08/26/2011 10:25 AM
sorry about not having any pictures or having done anuthing to modify the roaster, like some one said if it works don't take it apart to see why.

I dragged the roaster out yesterday and poured in 2 pounds of a Ethiopian that I had hiding under the counter. roast when just great was done in less then 18 minutes and had the heat turned off and the air going almost wide open on a cool down, I can drop the temp over 200 degrees in less then 2.5 minutes so I don't drag all the extra cooling gadgets out anymore.

The clamps are working like a champ, I don't have to worry about the thing blowing apart anymore since putting them on worth every penny of the 34 dollars they cost.

the re-wire job on the elements is working great and I have a start on a control panel but haven't gotten anything done on it for a while. I'm still in the process of trying to detemine where I want the heat sink for the SSR's. And I need to come up with a four prong twist lock plug or a canon plug with pins that will handle 30 amps each.

Well I gotta go finish the mowing
David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
dja
Top  #321 Print Post
Posted on 11/28/2011 9:05 AM

gonna have to drag the roaster out here is a day or two sure hope it warms up some, been kinda cool here in OKC with it being only 28 degrees this morning. Makes a guy wish he'd built himself a toy shed you know what I mean.

Well its getting pretty close to time to roast some beans for the swap, I sure hope my roaster don't let me down in this cold weather.

David
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
seedlings
Top  #322 Print Post
Posted on 11/28/2011 4:58 PM
When it's super cold I start the roast in the (one car basement) garage with the door closed until I get close to 300F bean temp... then open the door. If the temp is too much of a problem I'll shoot a heatgun at the inlet.

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
dja
Top  #323 Print Post
Posted on 11/28/2011 7:08 PM
dang Chad it must be nice to have a nice warm garage to park in, I guess I could put in an overhead door on the slab then I could pretend like I got a garage, open the door and pull up onto the slab, but then I would have to go buy a heat gun.

Why you have to add the gun heat, I got the same coils as you and I can get hot enough to roast in cold weather.
Edited by dja on 11/28/2011 7:09 PM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
seedlings
Top  #324 Print Post
Posted on 11/29/2011 10:14 AM

Quote

dja wrote:
Why you have to add the gun heat, I got the same coils as you and I can get hot enough to roast in cold weather.


Yeah, it will roast, but when it's cold it won't let me go as fast as I want during some segments of the roast so I throw in some extra heat (this is also the advantage of Kirby's all metal construction with heatslinger for keeping the motor cool). Hey... I thought you were complaining about roasting in cold weather? So it must be YOU that's cold and not the roaster!
Grin Having a little fun David!

CHAD
Roaster: CoffeeAir II 2# DIY air roaster
Grinder: Vintage Grindmaster 500
Brewers: Vintage Cory DCU DCL, Aeropress, Press, Osaka Titanium pourover
 
dja
Top  #325 Print Post
Posted on 11/29/2011 10:41 AM
Naw, I got cloths keep me warm. I just wanted to know why you had to add the extra heat.

not the cold that I mind roasting in, its standing out there in the darnn SNOW.Shock


ThumbsUp
Edited by dja on 11/29/2011 10:42 AM
I pour Iron and roast Coffee BeansThumbsUp
If life seems normal your not going fast enough Mario Andrette
 
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