Rotisserie questions

[Dante]

I've always admired DIYers like you and Alfonso, Bob. I am all thumbs and seriously technically challenged that all I can do is plug and play!    Thanks for posting pictures of your projects. Your wife, the good and patient doctora takes really good photos!  :icon_thumleft:

[BobTimo]

Actually, Don Dante, it wasn't DIY all the way. I had someone do the drum for me. I just downloaded possible designs from the web, and talked to the technician how we can revise it to suit my needs, and what's possible for him to do.  And if I should tweak the insides of the oven toaster, I'll have an appliance repairman do it for me, too. 

And nah, it wasn't my wife who took the pictures; she's enjoying Angkor Wat at this moment. It so happened that some fotog friends dropped by for coffee after shooting some events. So while they were busy experimenting with their cameras, I was busy with my roaster.

Photographers and coffee, y'know, they ALWAYS go together. Like photographers and Macs. 

[BobTimo]

I have an idea ... to shorten roasting time from the 23 minutes I'm getting now ... I think the culprit is the oven toaster controlling the temperature, and so it cycles the heater on and off. What if I just place the oven toaster atop my gas range, then fire up the stove, too? 

That way, the oven toaster won't have a way of controlling temp. I'll just put the oven thermometer inside so I can monitor temperature.

Bob

[Dante]

I have an idea ... to shorten roasting time from the 23 minutes I'm getting now ... I think the culprit is the oven toaster controlling the temperature, and so it cycles the heater on and off. What if I just place the oven toaster atop my gas range, then fire up the stove, too? 

That way, the oven toaster won't have a way of controlling temp. I'll just put the oven thermometer inside so I can monitor temperature.

Bob

Outstanding idea Bob! And while you're at it, may I suggest an acethylene torch applied liberally to the sides of the roaster, to give your roast that three alarm fire flavor and make you your neighbors' envy?
 :violent5: :violent5: :violent5:

[Hananonn]

Hey Bob.
If you got IKEA close by.
check out my site:  www.coffeemonsters.net
look at the pics you can make my drum in 4 hrs. All SS.  some plumbing tubs. I weld the shaft supports but very simply you can use other methods or don?t support at all.
Hanan.

[BobTimo]

Waaahahaha!!!! Or is it, huhuhuuuu!!!

So I went ahead and placed the oven toaster on my gas range, fired up the stove, and waited for temperature to go 250F, then I placed the drum w/ the beans, and let the rotisserie do its work.

It was doing ok, temp kept rising, until, when at a little past 300F, the oven toaster stopped working! The power light disappeared, rotisserie stopped revolving.    Tried to let the oven rest for maybe 10mins, powered it up again, still won't work.

Hehe ... I doubt if vendor would honor warranty on this one. I'll just bring this to the appliance repair shop tomorrow to see what happened, and tweak what needs tweaking.

Yes, Hanan, saw your drum before. Cool! But Ikea, what is that?  Not in this part of the country, I really have very limited things available for purchase.

To be continued ... meantime, back to whirley pop for me.

Bob

[Dante]

Man, you were serious about that stove top supplement huh? 

[alfonso]

Waaahahaha!!!! Or is it, huhuhuuuu!!!

So I went ahead and placed the oven toaster on my gas range, fired up the stove, and waited for temperature to go 250F, then I placed the drum w/ the beans, and let the rotisserie do its work.

It was doing ok, temp kept rising, until, when at a little past 300F, the oven toaster stopped working! The power light disappeared, rotisserie stopped revolving.    Tried to let the oven rest for maybe 10mins, powered it up again, still won't work.

Whoa!  Radical!  I thought you were just kidding.  You actually cooked the oven atop a gas burner?
 
Ovens are usually double walled. For it to hit 300F inside, probably 500 to 600 F outside, maybe more.  Your circuits and controls could be fried.

Alfonso 

[BobTimo]

Hahaha! Radical! I like that! 

Today being Sunday, and I couldn't have the repairman do the work on the fried oven toaster, yet another radical idea came to mind.    If an electric oven / rotisserie won't give me what I want ... maybe something manual would do, as I've been roasting on manual machines these past 19 months.

I bought this really cheapo primitive Y1K compatible oven that my elder sister used to bake cake loooonnnggg ago. Bought it for $17. Still using the same drum, this should be ready for roasting. But I had to cut the side coz the steel rod holding the drum is too long.

I was about to roast tonight, but visitors from faraway land came, for the coffee. So I'd roast with this tomorrow morning, and we'll see. I just have a problem how to rotate it manually. Maybe I'd go to the machine shop so they could make me a hande/crank. Meantime, I'll use a vise grip for that. 

I'm just worried coz it ain't stainless steel nor aluminum. I think it's GI sheet, and painted inside and out. Hope I won't have cancer with some roasted paint sticking to my beans. 

Bob

[Dante]

I admire your tenacity Bob. You've probably spent more time, effort and money on this project than what you would have spent buying my spare iRoast2!  Let me know when you finally change your mind and succumb to plug and play as I have! Coffee without toxic residues...

[BobTimo]

Try harder, Don Dante. 

Of course I tried the Y1K compatible oven this morning. I got a lot of smoke, not from the coffee, but from the paint.     I'm pretty sure I'll get toxic coffee there. After 23 minutes of cranking, can't even get to 1st crack. I stopped it there, so my coffee appeared more like roasted peanuts (Cheding's, remember?).

But my Imarflex has been fixed by the repairman. Will try roasting again tonight. Glad I still have some reject arabaica beans I can play with. 

[BobTimo]

I think I've finally completed my attempts at drum roasting on an oven toaster w/ a rotisserie. 

It took the repairman maybe less than an hour to repair my oven toaster for a $10 fee. He disabled the on-off heater cycle, and just maxxed out the temp all the time. If I need to adjust temp, I'd just off the heating element myself (while keeping the rotisserie on), and turn it on again. (But I don't see the need.)

For half a pound of beans, it took about 13:25mins to hit 1c. I was surprised why my thermometer read 470F, though. Maybe coz it's near the heating element, much nearer than the drum. And I can't find a way to place it elsewhere. I ended it at 15min, just shortly after 1C. So I think it's a city or city+ roast for the Sultan Kudarat beans.

A happy ending, after all. I'm hoping the oven toaster will last me a long time.

[alfonso]

Congratulations!!  Those beans look very evenly roasted. 

But what a wild ride you had getting there! 

Alfonso

[BobTimo]

Yeah, wild ride! It's just me. A lot of things I did in life, going through torturous roads before getting to the destination. The story of my life.    As always, I love the learning along the way ... Hahaha!

[BobTimo]

Update: Looks like this roaster is having difficulty doing 1#. Tried it, took 23 mins to go past 1C. And I think the beans aren't evenly roasted. (see pix.) Maybe if I can do another tweak -- i.e., increasing rotation of the rotisserie by changing the motor -- then I'd try 1# again.

Another problem I observed, the screen holes are too big, such that if bean size is smaller, some are trapped in the holes. So maybe I'd go 1/8in, instead of the "5 holes."

Bob