Little Cricket roaster

[weheritage]

A 1 lb. Coffee roaster that I call The Little Cricket Roaster. I used a cricket box for my first roaster. To begin with I took two one gallon paint can lids and drilled a hole for an axle that I got from Lowe's. Next I purchased some SS screen 8" wide and 20" long. It perfectly fits in the rim indentations. A shaft lock is put on both ends. Then I cut a door on one end and have a piece of spring steel around the shaft to secure the door. The roaster is made from a two burner gas camp grill that I bought from Sam's. ($100 hadn't used it in 3 or 4 years) I had an old rotisserie motor that I mounted with new brackets. I also added the thermometer to the middle of the lid. The temperature is easily regulated with the two burner system. I bring it up to 500/520 for about 25 min. through the second crack. I like a dark roast. Open to questions
.

 

[peterjschmidt]

Very clever! I know the satisfaction of turning an idea into something useful - great fun, isn't it?

The accepted maximum time for roasting is 20min., and most would say 15min. is still a long roast. At 25min. you might be doing more baking than roasting.

 

[weheritage]

Thanks for your thoughts. I'm getting a pretty even roast and lots of oil on the surface of the beans. It cups pretty good too. I think it might do better also if it had some vanes inside the drum. It is fun putting one together. In pics below you can see a larger (5 lb) roaster "Big Boy" I built that I've been working on for some time. The problem that I have encountered with this one is finding a burner that doesn't smoke up the inside. I don't have much room to work with. I have a round burner but I'm not sure how to mix the air.

 

[peterjschmidt]

I'm getting a pretty even roast and lots of oil on the surface of the beans. It cups pretty good too.

Oil on the beans!!??!! You must like a dark, dark, roast. To each his own, but BLECH!

 

[expat]

From someone who has done a lot of metal fab work in the past -- nice job! Fit and finish for the materials you're working with look very nice. Kudos!

As to the super dark roast you're doing that's great but I'd recommend aiming for variety. That's where a lot of the fun in roasting comes, seeing how many different flavours you can get from the same bean. Makes you appreciate the coffee a lot more.

Again, nice work!

 

[weheritage]

Expat - Thanks............. Will pass the compliment on. I'm the idea man and scavenger. All of the material came from the bone pile at work except a few McMaster Carr parts and was put together on spare time, breaks or lunch breaks. Our company has developed a Hydrocarbon Solid to Liquid fuel reactor. There are five of us but only three do the fabrication. All of them are under 30 and they make engineering changes in 20 min. / Cheers

 

[sae]

You might want to modify the bbq to have some air flow in it. I'd add a pipe to and blower to suck air through the bbq and out the top.

 

[weheritage]

What is the advantage of having air flow? Won't that reduce the available heat?

 

[sae]

There are 3 ways to roast: convection (air flow), conduction (surface contact) and radiation (infrared rays from heated surfaces). If you have sufficient hot air (450-500F) pulling the hot air through the roast will give you convection heating. This can both speed up your roasts and develop nice acidity / crispness in the coffee, without air flow roasts tend to be very caramel and chocolate tasting with less acidity

 

[weheritage]

Thank you for the insite