Word Senior Member Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Saskatchewan Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Gaggia Baby Grinder: Solis 166 Vac Pot: Silex Drip: Manual Pourover Roaster: Poppery II
Posted Sun May 18, 2008, 10:21pm Subject: An experiment in modified roasting equipment- The Peanut Popper!
First time post, I'll try to make it good!
My buddy Eric is in town for the long weekend, and we're doing the usual. Bum around pawn shops, hang out in greasy spoons, and then retire to my place for some home-roasted Nicaraguan beanage he brought me from his last trip south.
For some time we've been tossing around some home built roaster ideas, as a step up from the plain-jane air popper. I know I could buy something, but... I'm cheap, and Eric's a modder. So we're in Value Village (it's a really big thrift store, think junk shop the size of a small wal-mart) and what should I see but a peanut roaster. Hmmm, two heating elements, BBQ rotisserie roaster style cage, this has potential...
Thinking back to my days lurking in alt.coffee I recall reading that peanuts roast at a lower temp for much longer, so you can't really use a peanut roaster for coffee. But hey, we like taking things apart 'round here.
Our sloppy unscientific tests (deep fryer thermometer) sorta confirm my suspicions. Near as we can tell, it isn't getting any hotter than about 300-350F
Currently this corner of my living room is a twisted mess of small metal bits waiting to shred my roommate's feet first thing in the morning, but that's a small price to pay. We have a plan, and Eric's been hacking away for several hours trying to make it work. My airpopper has been sacrificed for the project, (such is my faith in Eric's abilities, and/or our stupid, single minded dedication to this project) The Poppery's heating element and fan are being attached to a hole in the bottom of the roaster, we'll be attaching seperate switches for the fan, motor, and both sets of heating elements, just in case we need MORE POWER. But I kind of doubt it.
Previously, we were looking at this project: Click Here (www.engadget.com) And we may yet incorporate some of those elements into the peanut popper.
It's getting late, and we need some extra parts to finish the wiring. So progress is more or less halted for the night. But I'm putting this out there since I will quickly admit I don't know that much about coffee roasting, beyond playing with my air popper. Suggestions? Concerns? Ideas?
Right now I'm worried about chaff. There was a little sliding crumb tray type thing we had to remove to fit the popper components. With the introduction of the fan, I'm thinking the chaff may just blow out the little chimney in the top, once we open it up a bit more that is. Experimentation will follow.
I don't know if this will work at all, but the fun is in the journey, not the destination.
Word Senior Member Joined: 18 May 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Saskatchewan Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Gaggia Baby Grinder: Solis 166 Vac Pot: Silex Drip: Manual Pourover Roaster: Poppery II
Posted Mon May 19, 2008, 9:36pm Subject: Re: An experiment in modified roasting equipment- The Peanut Popper!
Well, after a grease soaked breakfast this mid morning, it's back to business.
Wiring didn't quite go as planned, a few things got crossed, a few things came loose, but eventually we got it working. The Peanut roaster originally had a little timer/switch to control the elements and motor, not anymore. If it's plugged in, the elements are on and the motor is running. The Poppery components are now connected to a dimmer switch to provide some convection, even heating and extra power.
The housing for the motor and original elements was difficult to penetrate, so we simply connected them at the same time, just to get things ready for a test roast. Eventually I'd like to have switches for the motor and fan, and dimmers for each element.
Measuring temperature is proving difficult for lack of proper equipment. I'd like to drill a hole in the side for a probe thermometer. However, since I don't own a probe thermometer, we stuck a glass deep fryer thermometer in the 'chimney' (after hacking apart the grill on top). This was a poor idea, I will quickly admit.
We tested a half cup of Nicaraguan green beans with the popper element at approx. half power. Checking after 15 minutes revealed very little color change. Uh oh. Further problems, checking beans involved opening the whole unit and pulling out the cage to get a good look. There's got to be an easier way. Also of concern, those holes you see in photo #005 are just the right size for coffee beans, so there was a nice little pile of beans near the back of the unit.
Propping up the back of the machine by about 1/2 inch solved both troubles; beans pile up just enough near the front that you can see them through the door, and they stop falling out the back.
With as short a delay as possible it was back on, this time Full Power. Another THIRTY minutes pass, and only slight browning. We pull the plug, it's back to the drawing board. There are many leaks in the unit. Around the door, the chaff tray hole (normally blocked by the chaff tray), and worst of all; the hole where we connected the popper components. Hot air was spewing out the bottom at a ridiculous pace. It's coming up the end of a long weekend and any place one might find heat resistant silicone caulk is closed.
I'm thinking once the bottom is sealed up, things will run quite smoothly. I don't see why not. Having a working thermometer would help matters immensely.
I don't have a choice but to be optimistic at the moment, after all, I've destroyed my air popper to make this project happen. Let this be a lesson to you kids, blind faith in one's abilities is not always so wise. Especially when coffee is at stake.
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
![Word: 010.JPG](javascript:ImagePopup("/images/38994/010.JPG", 490, 367, "Word: 010.JPG");)
= No New Posts since last visit 