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03/25/2024 12:38 PM
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Pics of Aluminum Flashing added to Grill Roaster
Coffeenut
Hello everyone,

First post to the Forums here, so a brief intro. For those that know me over on the Sweet Marias List I'm the same Coffeenut (Rick Waits) over there. I've been home roasting for over 7yrs with about half of that on my Grill Roaster using a modified Alpenrost drum.

Just recently, I decided to deal with the wind issue that so many grill roasters face and added some aluminum flashing to my grill using pop rivets. The flashing was some leftovers from another project that came from Lowes and is fairly thin. Because the flashing was only 10" wide, I riveted two sections together for the lid piece. I added a piece of copper tubing to the center of the hood to prevent the thin flashing from drooping.

My intent with the 5" tall flashing mounted to the rear of the grill base was to block the wind which easily enters the rear with the lid down. The flashing added to the lid was simply to reduce the headroom between my Alp drum and the top of the lid and hopefully reflect some heat back to the drum. The results have been quite striking. The wind problem has been solved for the most part and I'm able to use much lower settings on my gas control valves to maintain the same amount of heat inside.

I've attached a pic of the finished result:

Rick
Coffeenut attached the following image:
Flash-1[181].jpg
 
Coffeenut
Tried to post this addtional pic as a reply, so here's another try.

Rick
Coffeenut attached the following image:
Flash-2[182].jpg
 
Coffeenut
Thought you might like to see my baby (before I added the flashing). Its made from an old Alpenrost drum that I modified for grill use. It will roast up to 2lbs, but comfortably is better at 1 to 1.5lbs. I typically do a 1.5lb roast in it which is an improvement over the original 1/2lb capacity of the Alpenrost.

Rick
Coffeenut attached the following image:
Alpen-grill[183].jpg
 
ginny
Rick:

FABULOUS roaster. I like the heat shield. Heck I like it all. Thanks so much for posting your pictures. This type of posting really helps new and old roasters tinker and mod thier own.

Way cool...

warmest regards,

ginny

always B)Grins:8s:8
 
Coffeenut
You're welcome Ginny. The whole mod took maybe an hour of time to complete, so it's easy to do and easy to remove too if things don't work as planned. I've done one 30 min burn-in and 2 (1.5 pound) roasts in it since adding the flashing and it works much better so far.

Oh, I forgot to mention I also have a piece of flashing across the bottom of the grill (below the burners) which was wide open to wind gusts too. The flashing on the bottom is simply press fitted inside the lip edges of the frame where it meets the bottom of the grill. I left the ends of the flashing open so oxygen wasn't restricted. This old gasser has so many ways for oxygen to get in, that it would take much more flashing than I've done to affect the burners.

Hope this helps someone out there who may be facing the same thing.

Rick
 
ginny
Hey:

Take some additional pictures, write how you did it and the cost. We are going to have a contest!

g
 
EddieDove
Rick,

Excellent and so timely! I really need to get my RK Drum setup completed and I was thinking about doing this. I am a visual person, so those pictures were perfect for me. I already have flashing and rivets and now I just need the time.

Thank you, immensely! s:1s:2s:1s:2s:1s:2s:1
Respectfully,

Eddie Dove

The South Coast Coffee Roaster
vita non est vivere sed valere vita est
Home Coffee Roasting Blog and Reference
http://southcoast...gspot.com/
 
Mike
Rick,

Outrageous! I have an old Alp that still works but hasn't been used in a couple of years. I think I'll steal your idea.

Mike
B)
 
Coffeenut
Eddie & Mike,

Glad to help. My Alpenrost had seen a ton of back-to-back roasts over several years and croaked. During that time Ron of RK Drums had created the BBQ grill drum and I was always interested in that form of roasting. Doing all those roasts in my Alp just to get 3lbs of coffee every 7-10 days was tedious. So, when the Alp died I saw that as a perfect opportunity to still make use of what is a very well made drum. It won't do the 4lb capacity of Ron's design, but that was OK with me. I still admire Ron's product and will always be thankful that he broke ground there for many grill roasters.

Rick

PS: Ginny, I saw your post about sharing more info. I just need to take some time to do it and spring has sprung along with all the outdoor associated work. In the mean time, if anyone has a specific question, I'll be glad to try and answer it.
 
David
A fellow roaster over at the green coffee coop was asking about this same issue, so I referred him to your post, Rick. Thanks for posting it for us.
 
Coffeenut
David,

You are welcome. As an update, I have done many roasts with this added flashing and can say that it works well. It really does block the wind effect so that I'm not having 100F swings while roasting. I've also replaced all that ceramic rock in my roaster with a metal tent burner deflector (made by Charbroil). We had some discussion over on the Sweet Marias List about leaving/allowing a gap on each end of the burners (outside of whatever heat deflector you used) for better heat circulation. I decided that I had way too much heat absorbtion with all those ceramic rocks. So, I bought the metal deflector at Home Depot and it fitted perfectly right over my burners.

The deflector has sort of a "W" shape to it that includes two slots that run the length of the metal deflector between the peaks of the W shape. Those slots would allow some flame to still reach toward the drum. So, I took a few of those diamond ceramic stones and placed them into the valleys of those slots to block the flame (only under the area where the drum sets). The diamond shapes fit perfectly into those V shaped valleys and block any flame. So, now what I have is a mostly metal deflector with a few ceramic stones to block any flame. I've attached a pic for those who have interest.

To make a long story short, this new deflector allows a lot more heat to reach the drum and it is still managable for roasting. Using the flashing really allowed me to use less heat than before, and this new heat deflector has allowed me to reduce heat settings on the grill even more. I can do my roasts at just about the lowest settings of my grill as a result of both of these mods. In case anyone is interested, my grill is an old dual burner Sunbeam 44k BTU. I'd like to have gas controls that have less "play" in them, but thats possibly a future project.

Rick
Coffeenut attached the following image:
Deflector[190].jpg
 
ginny
Rick:

Wonderful, looks like contest material to me!!

ginnys:8
 
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