One Pound Roaster For under 100

[peter]

good point
no just wanna be sure

Sounds like you're on the right track, and zeroing in on your target.

[rustic_roaster]

Thanks for the feedback.
Making that stirring arm, like forming a flat aluminum strip into a nice round spacer ring, was deceptively difficult... I think I spent about an hour to get the wire in the basic shape, and then another 20 minutes or so to fine tune it on the SC.  Can't wait to try it again with a full batch of about 350gm of beans.  But in it's debut, I like the way it pushes the beans in from the edge.

I didn't even think about the temp differential from first pop of 1c to when I should pull the beans... thanks for that tip, it will be a big help with my future roasts.   Not sure what you mean by "wrinkles"... will go check out the SM beans photo page now to see if I can figure that out.

As machines go, I love this SC/TO roasting.

Any tricks you can share about forming the  stirring arms?   

[Alan]

We are huge on healthy cooking, I have read allot on Teflon and in my opinion it is very toxic over  time when it starts flaking off and burnt,  using chemicals to remove it???, seems to me the chemicals can get into the porosity of the metal and cause health hazards. I have never heard of any coffee roaster manufacture using Teflon coated devices to roast coffee. None of my hobby roasters have any Teflon on it. I do know even Aluminum at temps over 700 deg can be unhealthy. It is fun building these things on the cheap but we need to be aware of health issues.

Rich

I've had my SC for 11 yrs and no flaking of the Teflon

I've gone through a couple of Supentown SCs and recently bought a SC from Aldi for $35. Instead of the solid heating element it has a spiral element. Works just fine and it puts out a fair amount of light making it easy to see bean color. I thought it would have a short life but has been working very well. I have a Supentown in reserve if needed.

To me this is still one of the most cost effective roasters which gives the user a lot of control and I do on average 14 oz green batches

[mrjay]

Any tricks you can share about forming the  stirring arms?

Start from the center, where the arm must form around the bolt in the SC shaft, and work your way out from there, using the stock arm as a guide to help get the correct vertical drop/angle as it comes off the shaft.  From there, it is pretty straight forward to bend the wire into a decent circle.

Also, decide on the basic shape you want, before you get too far into it.  I liked Peter's idea and plagiarized the basic shape from his photos, but wanted it a bit asymmetrical so the "left side" would push through the beans slightly different from the "right side".

[peter]

If you're planning on doing the same batch size all the time, like 8oz. or 12oz., then the stock arms work pretty good and it's not worth the headaches of making a custom arm.  I need something that would roast very small samples, like 125g, so I made the one w/ the hoops because the stock arms just push small batches around in an 'angel wings' formation.  My suggestion to rustic-roaster is to play with it as it is and see if it works for you.

[4thJohn]

I don't know whats going on with my PC but when I hit the back space I loose all my text...

This is wild, my PC is the same exact thing. When I hit the backspace key... the letters I just typed, go way. I hope this isn't a GCBC virus or something.

[espressomaker]

i roasted with thermometer it makes a huge difference i was finally able to slow the roast down to where i wanted it to be though i believe i ended it too early shouldve let it go till fc. btw does anybody have a way to deal with the increase in chaff?

[peter]

btw does anybody have a way to deal with the increase in chaff?

Increase?  There's roasting methods that make less?   

[mrjay]

... btw does anybody have a way to deal with the increase in chaff?

Does your spacer ring have some manner of chaff chute and if so is it pointing in the correct direction for the CW/CCW direction that your TO fan circulates the air?

In my setup, once the beans are cooled, I use my bean cooler to blow all the chaff off the SC, the table, the patio, and me.   

[rustic_roaster]

Any tricks you can share about forming the  stirring arms?

Start from the center, where the arm must form around the bolt in the SC shaft, and work your way out from there, using the stock arm as a guide to help get the correct vertical drop/angle as it comes off the shaft.  From there, it is pretty straight forward to bend the wire into a decent circle.

Also, decide on the basic shape you want, before you get too far into it.  I liked Peter's idea and plagiarized the basic shape from his photos, but wanted it a bit asymmetrical so the "left side" would push through the beans slightly different from the "right side".

Seem like a good idea about the asymmetrical sides, could you tell if it worked to mix the beans?

Guessing vise grip and/or  a pair of pliers should work to do  most of the forming, did you use anything to help form the circle or other shapes?

If you're planning on doing the same batch size all the time, like 8oz. or 12oz., then the stock arms work pretty good and it's not worth the headaches of making a custom arm.  I need something that would roast very small samples, like 125g, so I made the one w/ the hoops because the stock arms just push small batches around in an 'angel wings' formation.  My suggestion to rustic-roaster is to play with it as it is and see if it works for you.

I will most likely do similar size roast of 1/2 to 1/3 of a pound but would like the option to do smaller amounts.  I have done a few 1/2 pound roasts with the stock stir arms and did not notice standing angel wing patterns but I did notice the beans were bunching ahead of the stirring arms in a wave with occasional trailing bare spot.  No real mixing of the outside and inside beans, so I think I need to change from the stock arms.   

Your spring action spacer ring chaff damper worked well, figured I would give your stir arms a shoot too.   

[peter]

Seem like a good idea about the asymmetrical sides, could you tell if it worked to mix the beans?

Guessing vise grip and/or  a pair of pliers should work to do  most of the forming, did you use anything to help form the circle or other shapes?


I will most likely do similar size roast of 1/2 to 1/3 of a pound but would like the option to do smaller amounts.  I have done a few 1/2 pound roasts with the stock stir arms and did not notice standing angel wing patterns but I did notice the beans were bunching ahead of the stirring arms in a wave with occasional trailing bare spot.  No real mixing of the outside and inside beans, so I think I need to change from the stock arms.   

Your spring action spacer ring chaff damper worked well, figured I would give your stir arms a shoot too.

My arms are nothing more than a coat hanger.  Mostly pliers, regular and needle-nose, and hands for the curves.

Finding a design that moves beans to the outside and then the inside would be great; one larger roasts I notice the outside beans get darker because that is where the outflow from the TO hits first.  The TO pull air up in the middle and blows down around the perimeter.

[sea330]

First 1.3 Lbs of Ethiopion,  charged with 1.6 lbs of greens, the faster 50 rpm motor made a huge difference for a nice even roast. Didn't use any bottom heat just a 1200 watt Turbo oven. Set the heat to 500 deg and let it rip, a nice slow ramp took 18 min to finish, not to bad.  No oil no burnt beans nice even roast, going to try the 1500 watt turbo oven next, maybe shave a little time off. Didn't modify the stir arm used stock Stir Crazy arm the higher rpms made a huge difference. The motor is rated at 14 watt, motor run with full load 13 watts, .22 amps.

[sea330]

Update on project
2nd run with 50 rpm motor, no bottom heat 17 oz of Honduran yellow bourbon.  15 min  to get in to 2nd crack. This turned out perfect with 50 rpm motor modification. had to purchase  11/16 OD  aluminum round stock cut to 3” length, seems to work great the way  I mounted the motor.  drilled 7mm hole threw the center of the coupling  taped one end with ¼ 20 threads and  drilled and taped a 6-32 threads for set screw  to secure the coupling to the motor. Installed two stock stir arms to the shaft, it really kicked the beans around very nicely.Invested $8.00 for 2 feet of aluminum round stock ,$24.00 for  a 220 volt ac motor,  $11.00 for the 110 to 220 volt  voltage converter, $ 6.00 for a stir crazy from thrift store, $25.00 for the Galloping Gourmet turbo oven that I purchased a couple of years ago from a yard sale, Add a temp meter and a K type TC you will stay under $100.00 bucks. Spent  allot of time figuring things out but now I could throw one together in a couple of hours easy. Bet you could roast 1 ½ lbs with the motor and stir arm mod.

12 :24 pre heat to 300°
12:27  added  beans
Dryed for 3 min
12:30 set temp to 450°
12:34 400° bean temp
12:35 418° 1st crack
12:39 start  2nd crack
12:39:20 sec  finish 445°

[sea330]

 Picture resizer software not working of the motor mounting will post later. Had to reload software all good.