SC/TO Profiles / Q&A / Tips & Tricks

[SusanJoM]

Since I don't know where else to put this comment, I'm just going to add it here.

In preparation for being included in BoldJava's cupping on Friday, I had thought I would practice with the smelling, tasting, trying to label stuff.  Which is why I roasted those three beans a few days ago.  
HA !!!!!  Nothing like cupping to show you that what you have roasted is truly truly horrible.  

I'm in a world of coffee hurting right now.  I may just have to run into town and buy some Flying Goat freshly roasted beans to get me through until I figure this all out.  And more beans for the "testing and recalibrating the grinder" pile.

I am truly looking forward to Bold Java's samples just to taste what someone's good home roasted coffee even tastes like.  

Sigh....
Susan

[SusanJoM]

As usual, you guys are over thinking it.

Okay, so tell me where we veered off the path....

Susan

[Tex]

As usual, you guys are over thinking it.

NEVER tell an Aggie that he's over injunearing something!

There are many ways to do something and then there are elegantly right ways of doing things. I want everything I build to look like it came off an assembly line, not hacked together by someone with a hammer, two screw drivers & a crescent wrench.

[SusanJoM]

NEVER tell an Aggie that he's over injunearing something!

Shut up, Tex.
I'm not an AGGIE (whatever that is), and I want to hear what he has to say.

Susan

[Tex]

Well on

[SusanJoM]

Oh, I guess I forgot to say please, huh.....
 

[peter]

Oh, I guess I forgot to say please, huh.....
 

...if that was aimed at me, no 'please' necessary; in fact, I am pleased to offer what I can.


If you have a slot in your spacer to drop the probe into, and some weight on it so it can't always do what it wants, and there's enough play in the slot so the probe can angle into the beans and follow the rotation of the bean mass...  it'll rest happily in the beans and do exactly what you ask of it, without complaining.

Believe me, I've tried fixing a wire probe in place, and have the holes in my bottom unit to prove it.  Now those holes have to be plugged to prevent beans from falling through.  I know what Tex is saying about wanting something looking like it came off an assembly line, but at some point simplicity wins, and function comes before form.

I know you've seen this before, but take another look.  I'm not saying it's the prettiest or the best, but it works... like buttah.  peter's roasting bunker; Comments Welcome


And in case B|Java's reading this...  don't get your hopes up on his roasts... he pooches more roasts than anyone I know.   

[SusanJoM]

...if that was aimed at me, no 'please' necessary; in fact, I am pleased to offer what I can.

Nope, that was me trying to be cool about Tex pissin' on me....  

Okay, Peter, so your saying I should put a slot into the beautiful spacer that BW sent me?  Ouch, that will hurt. 
That brings it up a lot higher than the hole I drilled in the side of the UFO before, but you say that with some weight on the inside end of the probe it will bounce around within the bean mass even when that mass is only 6 or so oz of greens?

Okay....I'll haul out the dremel and have at it....
Why not...?  Nothin' I've tried so far has worked....
(By the way, BoldJava says nicer things about you than you say about him )

Susan

Susan

[peter]

That brings it up a lot higher than the hole I drilled in the side of the UFO before, but you say that with some weight on the inside end of the probe it will bounce around within the bean mass even when that mass is only 6 or so oz of greens?

Sure thing.  You can run it without any beans at all, and it'll stay where you want it.  The braided wire can be a pita, tho'.  The longer you make the slot, the more shallow the probe's angle of attack will be and will submerse more of the tip in the beans. 

That's the advantage of a slot and letting it slope down, versus a hole and sticking the probe horizontally; it'll be deeper in the beans and will ride over the arms w/o interfering with them.

(By the way, BoldJava says nicer things about you than you say about him )

I will behave myself, and say only nice things about Dave and his ability to pooch a roast better than anyone I know.

[SusanJoM]

Okay, Peter, it's me again ....sigh....
One more less than astute question:  how do you get the hex nuts to stick there on the downward sloping end of your probe?  I just came back from the hardware store and I'm bumfuzzled.  Either nuts won't fit over the probe at all (3/16" I think) OR they just slide back off...

So...what's the secret?

Susan

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

Okay, Peter, it's me again ....sigh....
One more less than astute question:  how do you get the hex nuts to stick there on the downward sloping end of your probe?  I just came back from the hardware store and I'm bumfuzzled.  Either nuts won't fit over the probe at all (3/16" I think) OR they just slide back off...

So...what's the secret?

Susan

I used a piece or piano wire (piano store.. wire cutters... high note... right side of key board... run!!)...  seriously thin spring steel wire... copper didn't work, brass might work, galvanized is bad for you...

if hardware store is not helpful go to Music Store, Guitar string.. not the small one.. probably second or third from small..  you could ask for an old one they just replaced... 

slide the nut on and wrap some wire around the probe between the nut and the tip about 2 or 3 inches back from tip... couple 4 times around and twist the two ends together... snip off the extra... test to see it is high enough to clear the stir rod... you are in business...

I know it is not factory pretty like Tex would want (and I do agree that is important for somethings) but my roasters are as fun to tinker with as the coffee roast profiles so I consider them works in progress.. 

[SusanJoM]

if hardware store is not helpful go to Music Store, Guitar string.. not the small one.. probably second or third from small..  you could ask for an old one they just replaced... 

Oh my..... I just changed my guitar strings this week, but I don't know if I'm willing to go out to the street and dig through the trash (the bins are out there now waiting to be picked up in the morning.....)....hmmmm.....Well I guess I'm just slightly too tight not to even try to find them....

Back in a flash with the trash....

Yetch....what a disgusting thing to do.....especially since it didn't yield results worth the dig.
Oh well.  At least now I know what I need.....
Thanks (I think.....)

Susan

[peter]

Wild Bill is right on the money; welding wire worked for me - a small ring that has to be forced onto the probe - after you slide the nuts on, of course.

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

if hardware store is not helpful go to Music Store, Guitar string.. not the small one.. probably second or third from small..  you could ask for an old one they just replaced... 

Oh my..... I just changed my guitar strings this week, but I don't know if I'm willing to go out to the street and dig through the trash (the bins are out there now waiting to be picked up in the morning.....)....hmmmm.....Well I guess I'm just slightly too tight not to even try to find them....

Back in a flash with the trash....

Yetch....what a disgusting thing to do.....especially since it didn't yield results worth the dig.
Oh well.  At least now I know what I need.....
Thanks (I think.....)

Susan

ROTFLMAO...   you are alright sister... my kinda people...  

[SusanJoM]

I have to think most of you are outside having wonderful barbecues with your families, but maybe someone is checking up on their friendly 5-thumbed idjit even today.....

If so, H E L P....

My attempt to install the part which Tex so generously sent me failed miserably.  The hole I drilled in the chassis has just the slightest upwards tilt, which results in the end of the probe tilting upwards and out of the bean mass;  also the lock nut on the inside of the chassis impedes the turning of the arms......

So.....back to the other way of doing it  -- floating the probe  -- as Peter and others have been trying to tell me I should have done from the beginning. 

Damn, guess I'm going to have to fire up the Smokey Joe and barbecue some crow.

Anyway, today's question is:  what should I use to plug up the ugly 3/8" hole that I drilled through the chassis?   I figured I could put more of the foil tape on the outside, but that still leaves a hole on the inside that will certainly fill up with hot and not-so-hot beans.   Will RTV sealant do it?  Can I put the foil tape on the inside too?   

Stop laughing.   I'm officially out of roasted coffee after tomorrow morning, so this is a crisis !!!!!

Susan