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Finally Completed Roaster Project
km99
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Posted on 05/19/2022 10:41 PM
I started roasting about 10 years ago with an Air Crazy Popper. Then built a Fluid bed that was quite crude to see if it could be done. After about 230 pounds of coffee thru that, its time for the final version. I have had this design in the back of my head for about 8 years. Finally got it built! Spent about 2 months off and on. Oak base with box joints. It is powered with a 30 amp 220v circuit to power up a 4750 watt dryer element. A Variac controls a Lamb Ametek vacuum motor in the base. 2 Thermocouples, one in chamber and one just above element in the 2" section of Tri-Clamp. It is using an Arduino Uno with aArtisanQ_PID and Artisan on my laptop with a 10k pot for analog control if needed.

When the roast is done, the spring clamp is removed and the chamber hinges to the right to dump beans. Chaff and exhaust go out the window or currently into my large woodstove with the flue open for venting. That's about it. You guys have been so informative and supportive here. Thanks for the inspiration and answering my silly questions!
km99 attached the following images:
20220503_205407_custom.jpg 20220519_161803_custom.jpg 20220519_140442_custom.jpg 20220503_190822_custom.jpg 20220519_140418_custom.jpg 20220519_161027_custom.jpg 20220519_162239_custom.jpg
Edited by km99 on 05/20/2022 8:06 AM
 
Yasu
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Posted on 05/20/2022 12:36 PM
Hello Km99!
I was shown a picture of your roasting machine.
I thought it was a very nice machine.
It is a completely different concept, but I could see similarities with my roasting machine in the roasting chamber with the Coleman and the intricate wiring in the control panel.
My roasting machine looks like a prototype, but your machine looks like a one-off production model, fantastic!
Yasu attached the following images:
p_20210919_112053_vhdr_auto.jpg p_20211114_164234_vhdr_auto.jpg p_20211114_164104_vhdr_auto.jpg p_20211113_185740_vhdr_auto.jpg p_20211113_185801_vhdr_auto.jpg
Edited by Yasu on 05/20/2022 1:10 PM
 
km99
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Posted on 05/20/2022 2:04 PM
Yasu, that is amazing! Thank you so much for posting those. I have learned so much from this forum and great "inventors" and people who find a way to take what is in their brains and get it out into the real world. I love it! you really put some thought and time into your design. Very meticulous and beautiful smile
 
greencardigan
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Posted on 05/24/2022 12:47 AM
I love it! Can you roast 1kg green with this?

Quote

km99 wrote:
When the roast is done, the spring clamp is removed and the chamber hinges to the right to dump beans.

Do you have any video or pics showing how this works?
 
renatoa
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Posted on 05/24/2022 2:19 AM
My guess... he is removing the red clamp, the only item keeping the two plates together
Then the roast chamber rotates around the hinge (green circle), following the blue arrow path.
The mesh plate in the funnel bottom keep beans to spill around.

But this is just a static explanation, a clip would be exciting to see it in action, instead imagination. Grin
~~~
renatoa attached the following image:
20220519_161027_custom_cr.jpg
Edited by renatoa on 05/25/2022 12:38 AM
 
greencardigan
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Posted on 05/24/2022 2:30 AM
Ah, that makes sense. For some reason I was thinking the beans would be dumped out the bottom of the roast chamber somehow.
 
km99
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Posted on 05/24/2022 11:25 PM
Hey! Great questions. I just did a test cold run with 750 grams and it lofts the beans easily at just over 50% fan power, but I think I will run out of actual physical room in the roast chamber once the beans expand :( I probably would have enough heat for at least 750 I think, so yeah, probably 550-600 grams would be the max capacity for now. I have a thought in mind to increase that, but need a break from building for a bit!

Here is a pic of the dumped beans. I am working on getting a video...
km99 attached the following image:
20220503_205604_custom.jpg
 
km99
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Posted on 05/24/2022 11:28 PM
And renatoa, if I need to annotate pictures, I am calling you! Great illustrating.
 
greencardigan
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Posted on 05/24/2022 11:42 PM
Thanks for the confirmation re the bean dump mechanism.

I agree, your chamber is probably too short at the moment to do 1kg. I usually roast 1.2kg green using my 5400W element setup. But I've done up to 1.8kg green. My roast chamber is about 10 times longer than yours though. Shock
 
km99
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Posted on 05/25/2022 9:43 AM
Yep, It would be close I think. I am too cheap to 'chance' it, so I will slowly work my way up to what I think the max is so I at least know what the machine can do. For our coffee needs, 250-300 grams is nice to fill a mason jar, and doing that a couple times a week gives us a nice variety, so I really don't 'need' the bigger roasts for us personally, but obviously you would like to know what your machine is capable of. This is what 750 grams sitting in the chamber looks like.
km99 attached the following image:
750grams.jpg
 
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