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

[peter]

...Only one more question:  how high or low should I drill a hole for the TC?

Susan - this looks great! If your TC is the rigid type, its gotta be low enough to be at/in the bean mass, BUT can't be so low that the stir arms clip it.

David

Why can't the stir arms clip the probe?  If the direction of rotation is correct it shouldn't matter.


Oven cleaner on the glass, with a razor blade works too, if you have to see the beans during the roast.

[SusanJoM]

...Only one more question:  how high or low should I drill a hole for the TC?

Susan - this looks great! If your TC is the rigid type, its gotta be low enough to be at/in the bean mass, BUT can't be so low that the stir arms clip it.

David

Well, actually I don't HAVE one yet, and I was just about to email you and ask you how happy you are with the one I saw in one of your videos.....I see they are readily available on eBay.  Duz it work okay?

Susan

[ButtWhiskers]

What do you guys use to clean the dark brown gunk that builds up on the glass of the TO? I've tried all my household cleaners and they don't really do much. When the roaster is hot the cleaners do better but I have yet to find anything to completely (and easily) remove the gunk.

[Mad Scientist]
If you really want to get it clean, make a base bath.  THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS - FLAMMABLE - CAUSTIC - IF YOU ARE A KLUTZ, YOU MIGHT HURT YOURSELF - I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING RESULTING FROM YOUR ATTEMPTS TO USE THIS METHOD OF CLEANING  Wear heavy rubber gloves and goggles or a face shield.  First, make a concentrated solution of Red Devil Lye (Sodium Hydroxide), about 25% by weight (use a 14 oz can to make half a gallon).  Add the lye to the water slowly, it might even boil the reaction is so exothermic.  I do this in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid so that I can reuse over and over.  After this cools to room temperature, dump in half a gallon of isopropyl alcohol.  This needs to be at least 70% alcohol, preferably 99%.  If you can't get it this strong, only use a quart of water to make the lye solution, and use an additional quart of alcohol.  Carefully mix this together.  You should see a phase separation, the lower layer will be the aqueous layer and the upper layer will be alcohol.  If you don't see this, your alcohol was probably too dilute.  It will still work, just not as good.  The lower layer is a powerful sodium isopropoxide solution, and it will chew up baked-on organic gunkus very well.

The best way to clean the glass is to remove the oven from the glass lid so that you can soak the lid, 4-6 hours will do it.  If you have to paint the liquid on, make sure you are using the isopropoxide, and not the alcohol, and keep it wet - it will dry up rather quickly.  This solution will corrode metal over time - some metals will get eaten up fairly quickly.  When you rinse the solution off after 4-6 hours (this will keep your drain clean, as well), the glass will look like new... 
[/Mad Scientist]

[Tex]

[Mad Scientist]
If you really want to get it clean, make a base bath.  THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS - FLAMMABLE - CAUSTIC - IF YOU ARE A KLUTZ, YOU MIGHT HURT YOURSELF - I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING RESULTING FROM YOUR ATTEMPTS TO USE THIS METHOD OF CLEANING

Ever try fishing with hand grenades BW? It's almost as effective as your cleaning solution.  :violent4:

[mike]

As far as cleaning the glass, ever so often I'll use X-Fine steel wool.  Knocks the gunk right off.  A good wipe down and a once over with the shop vac and brand new again, at least for a few more roasts.
Generally I don't worry too much about the glass and being able to see the beans.  I pay more attention to sound, temp, and smoke.

[ButtWhiskers]

Generally I don't worry too much about the glass and being able to see the beans.  I pay more attention to sound, temp, and smoke.

Ditto.

Ever try fishing with hand grenades BW? It's almost as effective as your cleaning solution.  :violent4:

We used M80's back when I was a teenager.  If we could have got our hands on grenades, we probably wouldn't have survived to adulthood.

[headchange4u]

What do you guys use to clean the dark brown gunk that builds up on the glass of the TO? I've tried all my household cleaners and they don't really do much. When the roaster is hot the cleaners do better but I have yet to find anything to completely (and easily) remove the gunk.

[Mad Scientist]
If you really want to get it clean, make a base bath.  THIS CAN BE DANGEROUS - FLAMMABLE - CAUSTIC - IF YOU ARE A KLUTZ, YOU MIGHT HURT YOURSELF - I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING RESULTING FROM YOUR ATTEMPTS TO USE THIS METHOD OF CLEANING  Wear heavy rubber gloves and goggles or a face shield.  First, make a concentrated solution of Red Devil Lye (Sodium Hydroxide), about 25% by weight (use a 14 oz can to make half a gallon).  Add the lye to the water slowly, it might even boil the reaction is so exothermic.  I do this in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid so that I can reuse over and over.  After this cools to room temperature, dump in half a gallon of isopropyl alcohol.  This needs to be at least 70% alcohol, preferably 99%.  If you can't get it this strong, only use a quart of water to make the lye solution, and use an additional quart of alcohol.  Carefully mix this together.  You should see a phase separation, the lower layer will be the aqueous layer and the upper layer will be alcohol.  If you don't see this, your alcohol was probably too dilute.  It will still work, just not as good.  The lower layer is a powerful sodium isopropoxide solution, and it will chew up baked-on organic gunkus very well.

The best way to clean the glass is to remove the oven from the glass lid so that you can soak the lid, 4-6 hours will do it.  If you have to paint the liquid on, make sure you are using the isopropoxide, and not the alcohol, and keep it wet - it will dry up rather quickly.  This solution will corrode metal over time - some metals will get eaten up fairly quickly.  When you rinse the solution off after 4-6 hours (this will keep your drain clean, as well), the glass will look like new... 
[/Mad Scientist]

That's kinda scary BW. That would definitely be hard to explain at the hospital, " We I was cleaning the glass on my SC/TO coffee roaster with caustic lye and alcohol when all of the sudden..."

Maybe I will just stick to roasting by temp and sound.

[dmankin]

Well, actually I don't HAVE one yet, and I was just about to email you and ask you how happy you are with the one I saw in one of your videos.....I see they are readily available on eBay.  Duz it work okay?

Susan

Susan - that thermometer works well enough for this purpose, I believe.  I really don't worry about the numbers at all.  I use eyes, ears & nose mainly.  The thermometer is there to mostly allow me to follow trends - is the temp rising?  holding steady?  falling?  The whole trick about picking out a roasting thermomter is simply... it's gotta read up to 300 C (way over 500F - you won't roast this high, but you'll need readings in the upper 400s).  The vast majority of digital kitchen thermometers don't! 

I've had that thermometer for about a year, I think - and it still works just fine for my needs... and it's very inexpensive.

David

[Tex]

We used M80's back when I was a teenager.  If we could have got our hands on grenades, we probably wouldn't have survived to adulthood.

I must be part cat; I know I've gone through a couple of lives just getting here. Growing up, a friend of the family was a munitions/ordinance/demolition man. He used to let us play with his toys after he'd had a few cans of Pearl. One kid learned the hard way to listen carefully to what Ol' Tiny was saying (Let's just say the kid had a wicked knuckle ball after he healed.)

My fav was the plastic we'd roast weanies over, then we'd take it down range and blow a new fishing hole into the ground.

Yep, those were the good ol' days, when stupidity didn't cost anything you couldn't afford to pay.

[dmankin]

Yep, those were the good ol' days, when stupidity didn't cost anything you couldn't afford to pay.

[ButtWhiskers]

The whole trick about picking out a roasting thermomter is simply... it's gotta read up to 300 C (way over 500F - you won't roast this high, but you'll need readings in the upper 400s).  The vast majority of digital kitchen thermometers don't! 

This is a very good point - some of them will permanently lock at the high temp if they go above their upper limit.  I have one that came from Target that will say '430?F' until the end of time.  I tried removing the batteries, hitting combinations of buttons, but nothing restores it.  Pretty sure that the probe is fried...

Harbor Freight tools has a digital multimeter that has a thermocouple, that works really great, and goes on sale now and then for $20.  The regular price is something like $35.

Yep, those were the good ol' days, when stupidity didn't cost anything you couldn't afford to pay.

That there is one well-put statement...

[garybt3]

I have had really good results using Cafiza and hotwater for cleaning baked on oils on the sight glass of my little Hottop.

I disassemble everything, boil some water in my kettle, add in a Tablespoon of Cafiza, and let all the parts soak for 30 minutes or so. It's amazing how much of that junk comes off in sheets. I use a toothbrush to remove any stubborn stuff in the nooks and crannies.

A quick rinse in the sink with clean water, dry the parts off and reassemble.

And no worries about toxic chemicals.

I'm trying to remember how hard it would be to remove and replace the glass section from a Turbo Oven.

I imagine that you could fill up a small pan about 1" deep with the cleaning solution, and prop up the TO to keep it from being fully immersed. Just do small sections at a time, and rotate it until it's clean...or just do the part that you need to see through.

[SusanJoM]

Back to my search for a probe to go into my thermometer/reader.

Looking at the female plug at the end of the reader, it is flat.  Having connected with the eBay seller that Milo linked me too, he said that means that they are "miniature".  Aha....that propelled my search for information quite a bit.  My most recent landing place was at Omega, and they have a "probe configurer"......

http://www.omega.com/config/probeconfig.html

Very cool.   

So.  I'm thinking K-type, Quick Disconnect, Stainless Steel, 12 inches, 1/8" diameter (those are all guesses so far), but then I'm totally unclear as to whether I want grounded or ungrounded.   

Whaddya think?

This is Day 2 on the search for a thermometer.....I'm nuthin if not S L O W .....

Susan

[peter]

I know it makes sense to use what you have, but the easier route would be to just buy one of these;

digital cooking thermometer

Under $14, free shipping, goes to 482 degrees.


I have a similar one, with the countdown timer and temp alarm.  The timer is set for 3 minutes.  When the temp gets to 300F, I stop the heat and start the timer for the drying phase.  When those 3 min. are up, I jack up the heat and turn the alarm on, which is set for 344F.  When the alarm goes off, I kill the heat and it coasts to 350, and I set the 3min. timer again to let it sit in that range for caramelization and sweetness development.  The temp alert and timer makes it a no-brainer.

[SusanJoM]

I know it makes sense to use what you have, but the easier route would be to just buy one of these;

digital cooking thermometer

Under $14, free shipping, goes to 482 degrees.

NOW you tell me.....
Geez, Peter, I thought you were on my side....
        

Okay, you are exactly right, and that is exactly what I need.
I'll order one today.  I'm glad you reassured me that the temp goes high enough.

And THEN I'll have to stop procrastinating and actually roast some coffee....

            

Susan