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1st Roaster, basic design idea. Lemme know!
unclevarda
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Posted on 12/28/2015 2:43 AM
Hello all,

This is my first post, and I'm totally new to this whole hobby.

I've spent around 8 hrs on here and have narrowed it down to a fluidbed roaster.

I have a bunch of stuff lying around that I could use from my homebrewing hobby

for a fan:

http://www.homede.../204221344

It's a 175 CFM duct fan

I have a SSR controller with a pot to change the fan speed

I have an airgun, but may need another one

And I have a pyrex bake around.

So I'm thinking tomorrow heading out to home depot and getting some ducting to put it all together

Here is a horrific drawing

admin waiting for image to post

I would like to keep the heatguns whole.

Not sure how I would attach the pyrex aside from RTV siliconing the whole mess together.

There is a great community here and I've learned a lot already! Thanks for any input
Edited by ginny on 12/28/2015 10:38 AM
 
unclevarda
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Posted on 12/28/2015 2:55 AM
oh I suppose on the bottom of the pyrex I'll need some sort of mesh to keep the beans. How vital is the diffuser plate? will a mesh not give the right movement of the beans?
 
allenb
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Posted on 12/28/2015 10:01 AM
Welcome to HRO! For a fluidbed using a perf plate to allow a standard spouting bed to occur you're going to need more static pressure than the fan you've got can provide. It appears to be limited to a little less than 2" WG. I can't remember what the lowest pressure is that will achieve a decent lift with a plate designed for spouting bed but I'm guessing around 5" minimum.

http://vortexpowe...om/vtx-400

If you use a flat bottomed, full coverage perf plate which produces a random fluid action as with the Freshroast and Sono Fresco, it may be enough pressure.

Hopefully others here at HRO can chime in on what the minimum pressure actually is.

BTW, make sure you use the "makes URL clickable" button (fifth button from the left below) with your URL's so folks can get to your stuff without doing gymnastics.

Happy building!

Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
 
oldgearhead
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Posted on 12/28/2015 2:22 PM
I have an air-gun also. It's a Crosman 1377. Sorry, just kidding, a think 'air-gun' was a typing glitch.

As for fluid-bed coffee roaster builds you may want to read the 'stickys' in the 'building a fluid-bed roaster' section:
forum.homeroaster...rum_id=134
Edited by oldgearhead on 12/28/2015 2:30 PM
No oil on my beans...
 
BenKeith
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Posted on 12/28/2015 9:41 PM
Another word of caution, don't go to Autozone to buy your high temp silicon's. Since you hope to be drinking the coffee from the beans that might get exposed to the silicones being used, you need to make sure you go on line and find the food grade, not automotive grade.

Another thing to keep in mind, one heat gun will do small roast, two heat guns will trip most 120V house hold breakers unless you run them off two different circuits on different breakers. Or run them in series and then you can run two 120VAC heat guns off one 240VAC circuit and it won't bother them. I've been running 12, 100cfm 120VAC, vacuum motors for my flow bench in a series, parallel configuration off a 40 AMP 240VAC circuit for bunches of years.
Edited by BenKeith on 12/28/2015 9:53 PM
 
LongLeafSoaps
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Posted on 01/02/2016 5:07 AM

Quote

unclevarda wrote:

I would like to keep the heatguns whole.

Not sure how I would attach the pyrex aside from RTV siliconing the whole mess together.

There is a great community here and I've learned a lot already! Thanks for any input


What about a stainless steel canning funnel for the transition between your bake around, and your heat gun outlet. It could add the nice slop to keep your beans "funneling" (you see what I did there, right?!?) back toward the center of the stack...Assuming I am understanding the question correctly...
Carpe Diem With Coffee
 
unclevarda
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Posted on 01/05/2016 10:17 PM
I just fininshed my build and putting it in a new thread as it's pretty different from what I started with here. This forum is awesome, I'd love to hear your feedback on the finished unit!
 
oldgearhead
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Posted on 01/06/2016 6:55 AM
UNCLEVARDA,
I'm replying to this thread because the thread (with video) doesn't seem to have a 'reply space' this morning. Very odd.

I like your 30-mesh screen chaff collector. I have a similar one on my, 'brewer-to-roaster' and I've found it works very well day in and day out. In fact, I experimented with one just like it to use for 'dry processed' beans. I didn't incorporate it because I wasn't able to capture enough hot air to recycle. Instead, I'm using a smaller 30-mesh screen in the air-stream and going with 100 gram lighter loads with 'dry' processed beans.

Has you've said "This is a fun hobby!".
No oil on my beans...
 
ginny
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Posted on 01/06/2016 7:56 AM
ADDED FROM SEPARATE THREAD

Wow this is a fun hobby isn't it. Managed to hobble this together over the break. It's pretty simple really. I got inspiration from Seedlings build.

I was looking to buy a roaster, but they all put out a piddly amount of coffee so I figured I'd just make one. I had a lot of parts lying around to build it (yaa horders!) so total cost was about $60. The bottom is an old vacuum from work that I opened up and inverted the motor to blow instead of suck. Inside I jammed two 1500w heatguns set to max. Above that a ss pipe from a homebrewing project that has a strainer secured underneath it to hold the beans in place. And above that is a makeshift (isn't it all?) chaff collector from a bit of pipe and wire mesh. The temperature is controlled indirectly by opening and closing the air bypass (a piece of broken chair hinged over what was once the 2nd vacuum port). I was going to control the blower with a rigged up variac of sorts, but after exploding a nichrome heating element in my hand I figured I was done wiring with high voltage for this project. As you can see from the beans all over the floor, the blower will shoot beans way into the air if the bypass isn't controlled. Whole process is 12 minutes long, and I can roast at least 1 pound of coffee at a time. It is a power hog though, with 4000w worth of stuff going on I use 3 different circuits to not pop any breakers. Temperature is slowly ramped up, and then when target roast is hit I kill the heatguns and crank the blower to cool the beans. The whole roast chamber is just sitting over the hole of the blower and can be lifted up and poured out via the broken charcoal BBQ handle held on with hose clamps. So far the results are pretty good. But what do I know, I'm not really a coffee guy.

I made a short video.
https://vid.me/czbb

I started with a pyrex bake a round put I dropped it before I could use it and it smashed into a million pieces. Might Find another one.

Also, I should add some sort of temperature probe in the future.

I love this forum, thanks for keeping up such an awesome resource! I went from zero knowledge to a functioning 1 pound fluid bed in a week or two!



EDIT TO MAKE LINK LIVE... gp
 
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