Playing around with new roaster

[Tex]

Someone who knows I have lots of time on my hands gave me one of these things along with a challenge: Make this into a decent coffee roaster! What can I say - I'm a sucker for a dare.

The Presto Pizzazz pizza cooker looks interesting. It looks like I'll need to fabricate a ring to cover the rotating bottom plate that'll seal the unit so the beans stay in the machine & helps to retain heat.

I'll also have to do something about chaff removal since there's no fan to help push it out of the roast chamber (I may not worry about this & let the cooling fan take care of the chaff).

I'm hoping that the heat being directly over only a portion of the bean mass as the bottom plate turns, will let me regulate the temps more closely? Using the upper & lower heating elements, the thing is rated ~1300 watts - a mite lower than I'd like.

The only tricky part to the conversion will be fabricating the cover that must remain stationary as the bottom plate rotates. If this works, it'll be a cheaper alternative to the UFO/CO & TurboCrazy home built units.

I'll let you know how it goes.

[peter]

Bravely going where no one has dared go before.  Or is that, where no man cared to go before.

You might find a cover to a skillet and cut a hole in it, with the hole directly below the top heater.

I also suspect you'll need a stationary arm jutting from the base to the center of the rotating bottom, just for some agitation.  Otherwise, you may as well be roasting in the oven on a cookie sheet; the constant contact of the bean with the bottom will scorch that part of the bean.

[milowebailey]

The only tricky part to the conversion will be fabricating the cover that must remain stationary as the bottom plate rotates. If this works, it'll be a cheaper alternative to the UFO/CO & TurboCrazy home built units.

Easy... how about a pizza box?  at least for a prototype...

[Tex]

Bravely going where no one has dared go before.  Or is that, where no man cared to go before.

You might find a cover to a skillet and cut a hole in it, with the hole directly below the top heater.

I also suspect you'll need a stationary arm jutting from the base to the center of the rotating bottom, just for some agitation.  Otherwise, you may as well be roasting in the oven on a cookie sheet; the constant contact of the bean with the bottom will scorch that part of the bean.

That's what makes it fun!

I was figuring on having stirring arms sticking down from the fabricated cover. I think I'll place a t/c probe just after the heater so I can measure the highest temp achieved.

Added: I'm also thinking of having a horizontal arm just before the heaters to level the beans a bit to get a more even roast?

I've got some 60 mm 120 VAC computer fans that I could rig up to blow the chaff out of the roast chamber.

[Tex]

The only tricky part to the conversion will be fabricating the cover that must remain stationary as the bottom plate rotates. If this works, it'll be a cheaper alternative to the UFO/CO & TurboCrazy home built units.

Easy... how about a pizza box?  at least for a prototype...

Not deep enough; but a 10" spring-form cake pan might do the trick for a prototype. It looks like the ring will need to be ~4" high. I might be spending a lot of time at my buddy's sheet metal fabricating shop.

[CoffeeCarl]

Check Coffeegeek, I think someone may have already tried one of these. I don't remember if they has any sucess or not.

Carl

[John F]

My first thought is of adding supplemental heat as the beans are out of the heat source about 80% of the time with that thing.

Build a box to trap the heat from the main unit, add some sort of stirring arm/tumbler, punch a heat gun into the side, run some tests....