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I'm trying to design and build a coffee roaster that really poor people in third world countries could build out of local scrap and fuel with wood, coal or scrap materials like paper. Can any of you help ? It must be portable with room to carry fuel. It must be simple to build and repair. Small farmers must be able to send it out with children and locals to make a few dollars. It could also be used for nuts. I've come to you knowing already that you have a history of helping people out and that you also have great minds. We need to help where we can. These people provide us with labor and growing of the crops we cannot grow. They turned us on to coffee and now it is payback time.

I'm just trying to do the right thing and not for profit.

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There is nothing wrong with a small pot and a wooden spoon to agitate the beans
And for an upgrade a whisk works better as a bean agitator - one can be made with scrap wire if need be

I have used this method for decades taught to me by my grandmother
In the photo is a manual hand agitated pot roast
KK

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kosmo, is that yellow plastic??

g

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Yes but thats what I used as a cooling colander

KK

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see I expected flames any minute and the coffee beans would be goo!

=g

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I agree with the iron approach. I would use a "Rocket Stove" for the heat. ....very efficient. -Scott

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I guess the biggest question would be how many beans are you looking to roast?
I was thinking the same way as KK. Traditional coffee land roasting technique, the pot and stick.

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Tourist love to see the locals working and sweating over smokey flames. This means more money. Local roasters should be able to quickly be able to move to a better spot or to follow the tourist. This would be hard with a pan and a fire pit. I do agree simple is usually better but I'm trying to give them a happy medium. Think portable fire contained in portable roaster. All that can be carried by a kid. Maybe on a bike or very small cart. Thanks for your help so far.

I've found most of these people to be very willing to work hard for little money. They are also very resourceful in putting things together with previously un thought of materials.

Pardon my english. I speak Appalachian.

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Well in that case its best to use a hand crank drum style roaster

I was going to draw something up for you but found this on the net so decided to post it from - http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6708603.html



The concept is the same as my idea and needs a little tweaking for heat and manual agitation but overall its a good design

KK

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Thanks this is a real start. Maybe too difficult to build out local scrap materials but a great start. Thanks

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Steve:

May I ask where you are from, where you live and how you found us?

thanks in advance,

ginny

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Easy to simplify

For safety its best to -
Use an open top steel box or large pot or cauldron, with slits down the side for the drum for a heat chamber
Add some holes along the bottom for heat /air circulation

Note - the drum itself can also be any shape that is easy to make e.g. square
Everything is contained in a small unit for easy transport

Idea 2 for a drum - ( for small batches)
Use a steel or alloy cocktail shaker
And if a box heat chamber is still to hard
Place it on a wire frame over a wood fire

KK

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Ginny,
I found you by searching on the internet using Google Search. I have learned allot in my life by being a member of forums.

I now reside in Cincinnati. Originally from Eastern Kentucky and looking for a new place to retire to.

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Steve:

Welcome again and we are delighted you found us.

Thanks for responding to my query. With such great questions out the gate I wondered where you were from...

The West Coast is a great place to retire to...

as long as you can stay off the 405 at any time of the day.

ginny

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How much coffee do you need to roast at at a time?

It sounds like you will be using an open flame of sorts, so the design will center around that. The illustration Koffee Kosmo provided above could certainly work out. For a drum, you can always use one or two of those large tin cans for Green Beans or Peaches - the very large, industrial sized cans. Two of them would be ideal, you can put them together to make one larger, long drum.

The drum will need at least two (or up to 4?) vanes to stir the beans as the drum rotates, and a shaft through the center.

You can hand-crank the shaft.

Are there any Bar-B-Que grills around? A charcoal grill? This would be a good container for heat, with a lid, and easy enough to mount the drum.

Loading and unloading the beans may be the most difficult to engineer. The drum can have a hole cut in the side, near an end. this hole can be covered by part of a 3rd tin can, or the lid of one of the two you're already using.

CHAD

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How does wood smoke flavor the coffee? What kind of wood is best ? Does charcoal change the flavor ?

Thanks for your help. The drawing is simple and self evident. How would the builder attach the fins in the cylinders and how would they reattach the ends on the cans ?

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Steve, I would say that you should keep the drum close to the heat/fire and not higher, where there would be more smoke. Smoke isn't a flavor I'd like to add :)

Hopefully you have at least a drill at your disposal. If you can drill holes, attach the parts together with wire. Copper wire, or steel, but don't use galvanized if you can help it.

No need to re-attach ends on cans. See, you open the top to eat the food, the bottom is left intact. Make some sort of vanes out of scrap metal, punch holes and wire them to the drum. Put the open tops of each can together, punch holes and wire them together securely. A piece of steel pipe can be used as the shaft. If you can drill holes through the steel and perhaps use a couple of long bolts, then you can wire the drum to the long bolts to hold it securely.

Please understand, I'm coming up with these ideas out of imagination. I have no idea how it might hold up with regular use. It will probably be a project that, once you've made one and repaired one, you'll know very well how to make the second one

CHAD

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Sounds like an idea for a homeroasters contest...

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I second that motion. Sounds like fun!

Russ

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what potential heat resources do you anticipate. Any electricity?
Seems a stoked fire, might be needed no matter the roaster, alla CHAD's picture.
Im still thinking a big pan would be the easiest to find and simplest to transport.
No fabrication, same resources, easy to operate.
How many beans where we roasting again?

sean