A Behmor is going to give you a pound Max per roast period, lets be honest... 12 oz on a good day pre roast weight. Then you take 20 minutes to roast, 20 minutes to cool on it. per batch.
I am not trying to pry into your personal life but, when you say, 'and then when I get dragged away for this or that, now I have to find time to roast this or that' It almost sounds like you are obligating yourself to HAVE to roast this coffee. You are already making excuses for not meeting your quota, and you don't even have the roaster yet. If this is going to be a problem, get the bigger roaster, roast once or twice a week, so that when these issues DO come up, which they do!, the coffee is already roasted and a late day at work, wife nagging etc is not going to throw you behind the 8 ball. Don't have to 'find time' to have to roast your coffee. It will quickly turn into a chore and you will NOT have fun anymore doing it! That will just suck in the long run. Instead of, "well shit, NOW I have to stay up an extra hour to roast coffee for so and so, make it a, ahh, I got some free time, let's do a roast, (because the last roast was 4 lbs and it stretched a week) type thing and if you are busy 2 or 3 days in a row, no biggie!
The Artisan should work for you.
Fluid bed .vs. Drum. You are going to hear a ton from both sides of that. Having used both, I am not going to get into that fight. You can get awesome roasts out of BOTH types of roasting. Hint: Learn how to use your machine no matter what kind it is, THAT is the key to good coffee.
I have roasted 20 plus dollar a pound beans in my Behmor and in my I roast and have let a few people sample them and not one of them could tell me which was roasted with which but both agreed OMFG that coffee is awesome, can I get some greens from you? I have also roasted 2 dollar a pound beans in both and turned out great. My point is, learn how to use your machine and you have learned how to overcome any 'issues' ie Waah this method is too bright, boo hoo, that people may try to say about one .vs. the other. Both types of roasters work equally well.
Aaron