Assembly Guide Section K.
Adjusted to include General Drum Info, Gear Motor Tips
and Roast Profiles. Recommended Read for new RK
Owners
New
Assembly Guide
containing nearly 200
annotated images with detailed how-to's Finally!
FREE SHIPPING ON ALL
ORDERS! (Continental 48 States Only)
International Orders, please contact me.
Thank you for your support
Ron Kyle
RK DRUMS
Expect 2 weeks for Delivery.
Reviews
Walt Lewis
Chiammaya Custom Crafted Chocolate
Hard to believe
I've been using my RK drum since 2004 and it
is still as great as day one. In looking for
information for a friend and having been
away from the site for several years I was
amazed to see the progress made. I saw the
new drum latch and had to have it. It
arrived last week but only got around to
installing it today. I had to roast some
almonds
for some Custom Crafted chocolate I make.
Thirty seconds is all it took
and away I went. It takes about 30
minutes on low to roast 4 pounds of almonds.
I did my first batch and began checking at
15 minutes. In 5 minute increments I went
along. The last time I checked and it still
needed a bit longer I
went to seal back up the drum and was
SHOCKED!! Had I broken the latch ALREADY? No
I discovered it pivots and was just fine.
Sure will make it
easier to open and close with my welding
gloves on!
As usual, thanks for an FANTASTIC product!
Scott Angelo-Oceana Coffee
It’s been a
while since I bought my roaster. Great work,
have been having good times & roasting
plenty of coffee. I have even had it
reviewed by the crew at Royal NY, who loved
what I sent them
Jay
Michels
Got the new clip, and pop riveted it on. Must
have taken me all of 2 minutes!
Just completed roasting 20 pounds of various
beans, and I LOVE the new clip!!!!
No more fiddling around with the pin, just pop
it out, flip the clip, dump the beans, and on to
the next batch.
As you mentioned in your review, a bit less
noise, and much faster turnaround times between
roasts.
Still regret not going with the 6 pound drum.
Best Wishes,
Jay Michels
Glenn Secola- Palomar Mtn, CA
I echo everyone else's
comments on the extremely professional quality of
this drum. Ok, we all agree on that of course,
one look and even a fairly non tech/mechanical
person such as myself can see that level of quality
you ensure.
I usually experience
some form of "buyer's remorse" on large purchases, I
don't know why, but that's me.
Not so on the RK Drum
though! I am so glad I finally bought this! I
thought my SC/TO would be the one and
only, (as I roasted my
12oz smugly, thinking of those "other" 3 or 4 oz
roasters)
Roasting coffee with
the RK Drum is like "printing money"! The RK Drum
paid for itself fast.
Your customer service,
attitude and willingness to answer questions, make
suggestions about everything from
roasting to buying beans
to bags etc. You return civility and customer
service to a professional level seldom
seen anymore. You even
took time out on your Alaska trip to "talk me down"
during a difficult roast. I was using
a different motor than
the one you offer and you made several suggestions
that helped me overcome a problem.
I am sure I will one
day get your motor after I tire of customizing ice
packs etc to keep my motor cool for 5 or 6 roasts.
I have now been using
the RK Drum for 6 months or so and still getting an
even roast with my average of 5 -6 # is now routine
for me. Roasting the sometimes fussy Dry Process
greens is now a pleasure, the RK Drum tosses the
beans
perfectly, enabling me
to get very even roasts.
I read with longing
your description of your new cooler. The fact that
you now offer the new latch system is wonderful!
I must say, the RK Drum
is just about perfect! The previous latch was
doable, but I wont miss it. I found a different
latch pin at H. D. that actually seems to be a bit
easier to work than the cotter pin., but I am
ordering the new latch!
Tom Haigler-NC
I have been roasting
for 3 years as a hobby and many of my family members and
friends have suggested that I should start to sell my
coffee. Within the second year of sales, my first
roaster could not keep up with the overwhelming demand
of Tom’s Best Coffee. I have since upgraded to the
premium RK Drum Roaster, which allows me to produce my
product more efficiently. My customers can tell a big
difference in the quality of my roast. I not only
recommend this roaster but I give a A+ to Shane for his
customer service.
Tom Haigler
Lexington, NC (Jan
2009)
Want to bridge the
gap
between the 1/2 lb
roasters available today, and the pro small
batch roaster, costing thousands of dollars?
The RK Roasting Drum is a great solution.
It's a well built drum, at an affordable
price.
Start your new business without
spending thousands on a new roaster.
It is easy to convert your gas grill into
a coffee
roaster.
If you can pop popcorn, you can roast
coffee. This drum will also roast Peanuts, and a
variety of other nuts.
Update 5/26/10
RK
Cooler Price Adjustments - Well folks,
the numbers are in and it just ain't pretty. I want to be as transparent
with you as possible with all this, so here is the straight deal. These
coolers are really great units, beautiful, functional, and having used one, I
never want to go back to any other cooling method. But the straight and
honest truth is these things are incredibly labor intensive and require a very
large amount of material to do it right. In fact, 40.5LB of stainless
steel, motors and fans are in this unit. Frankly, it is everything we
dreamed it could be. The last 4 coolers took 42 labor hours to build.
If you look at one up close, you will see all the brackets, welds and bends that
go into these coolers. It really and truly is a custom work of art.
Larry tells me, however, they just simply can't be built for what we are
charging for them. Literally, it means coming out of pocket to build them
at the prices we initially had them set at.
Adding in the materials and labor, all the
stainless steel, motors, wiring, etc...we literally pay cash out of pocket to
get them out the door. If you look at the amount of labor and material in
each drum, then compare the amount of labor and material in the cooler, you will
see that even the new prices are proportionally acceptable. So, the
question is.... Is it worth it to us to have these nice coolers, at the
cost required to build them, when we can rig up a box fan for $50 to do the job?
I think the true question comes down to what you want to do with your coffee
business. If you are in public view, I think these coolers are a mandatory
addition to bring as professional an image as possible to the table. They
work extraordinarily well, and are a pleasure and a joy to use, and having been
spoiled by one, I will never go back to the old way. I feel a stroke of
pride if someone happens to see me roasting, and they say "That's really a cool
machine!"
So with all
that, I'm going to have to price these in at $649 and $715 respectively for the
basic and deluxe units. The honest truth is, at those prices, RK makes $0
in profit and is straight cost of build to you. That's a poor decision
from a business standpoint, but I feel it is a great unit that we have put
hundreds of hours of work into and I don't want to scrap it just based on price
alone. I realize that this is going to price some of you out of the game.
Some will just say "I'll keep doing it the old way". I respect that.
However, if things get rolling for you, I would absolutely and seriously
consider getting one if you can, you definitely won't look back. I just
don't want to see these units scrapped, and will just offer the unit at pure
cost so that RK has a good cooler option to go along with the drums, and because
I love them so!
Finally, the only way to do
these, is to build a batch of 5 at a time. The cost of setting all the
machines to the right bend and roll radiuses to make these coolers is actually
quite expensive. It may take 45 minutes to setup the machines just to roll
the outer shell of the cooler in 5 seconds. So to only fabricate one
cooler at a time, is not practical. That process is repeated for each bend
and roll of the cooler, so you can see how you would take 90% of your time, just
setting machines. Better to set the machines once and roll out 5 in
assembly line fashion. So on this issue, we are going to take pre-orders
for 5 coolers. When we get 5 orders in, we'll go ahead and stamp out 5
coolers all at once. I'll keep a list of those interested, with a very
small deposit, just to keep people serious, and once we get 5, we'll roll and
ship all of them at once. I do realize this is also an unattractive
decision. The reality is that we can't do it any other way, at even this
new price. If you want special consideration, give me a ring and I'm sure
we can find a way to make it worth the shops time to roll out one if you are in
a hurry.
I truly
regret having to do this as this was not quite the vision that any of us had,
but the bottom line is that there is too much work and material in these coolers
to do it any other way. Someone once told me,
"If you're going to work for
free, why bother working at all...? Might as well go do something fun."
I think everyone gets that.
Please don't hesitate to call me up and chat about it if you wish, I always
welcome your conversations. The only other alternative is to not make them
or price them $200 higher yet. I will constantly keep my eye open for ways
to improve on this, but for now that's where things stand. To those of you
who got in under the wire and already have your cooler, Congrats! You got
one heck of a deal! - Shane
Update
4/20/10
RK Cooler
Deluxe Released - It's hard to
believe this thing is finally here. I picked up the final version in its
finished state and just ran 12 pounds through it, and the actual live
tests seem to be even better that the early prototype tests. In one test,
I cooled 4.75lb from 625 to ambient in under 1 minute with full or nearly full
chaff removal. Very nice...
Read the Review
Here
Update
1/31/10
New Drum
Latch Available Now - All New
Drums are now shipping with the new latch system, and the traditional pin/chain
setup. We additionally will post the new latch in the products section for
those who want to add this latch to their existing drum. The chain is
attached to the drum with a screw and we recommend you keep this in a safe place
to serve as a backup. Personally I have enjoyed very much roasting with
this latch and I know you will too.
(read the latch review here)
Update
12/22/09
Shipping
Update - For years we have always
offered free shipping on our roasters, and shall continue to do so, but it seems
that recently it is getting more and more complicated. From the shop Leah
has been having to drive across town which has been taking an hour out of Leah's
day, fuel costs, etc. to get this done. Larry has informed me that we
cannot continue to take advantage of Leah's time in that way. So I'll need
to adjust pricing to cover handling of the shipment. Please accept my
apologies on this, but I just can't get around this at this time. I will
keep looking to see if there is a better way.
Update
11/12/09
The Importance
of the Rear Sheet Metal Mod.
This last week as I was building a grill for Miss Mari
Nobile in Washington State, I was going about the rear sheet metal mod and was
really quite astounded at the difference it really makes.Just to give you an idea, I did a heat test before and
after.Running all burners at 100%, it required 7.5 minutes to heat the grill
to 650F and then 100% to maintain that temperature.After the sheet metal mod, where you can see, I have
capped off 90% of the rear vent, I could achieve the same temperature at between
1/3 gas and minimum gas.I would say 15% to 30% gas.Think about this for a second.This means that you can now get 3 times the number of
roasts out of every tank of propane.That is pretty remarkable in terms of your cost per
pound of coffee.If you haven’t done this yet, you should think about it.Dale in Wichita, suggested using fireplace insulation to
line the inside of the grill and reported very remarkable savings as well.Bottom line?Keep the heat that you already have in the grill longer
and
you can save money.
( Also a safety tip. The vents in the grill are
designed to keep the grill at a safe operating temperature, thus, if you do
choose to restrict the vent, then operating the grill for extended periods of
time at highest heat, could overtemp the entire rig. Please do not forget
that you have left your burners on high and go and do something else. We
don't want any fires)
Update 9/9/09
RK
Cooler: We are pleased to announce that the RK Cooler Basic is now
available for purchase. We have made a few final refinements including a
guarded power switch so that the switch cannot be damaged accidentally, and a
grill guard for the under side so that fingers can't go where they don't belong.
So these are a couple of welcomed features. The total combined cost of all
the parts and stainless steel was a tad higher than what I was shooting for, but
very much worth it in that the cooler is of exceptional design and quality
having significant durability and function for the long-term, and a valuable
asset to the 1Lb+ coffee roaster. As you would expect from RK, buy it
once, enjoy it for a lifetime.
Check it out here
Update 8/31/09
RK
Cooler Update: The day is finally here, where I can show you in
close detail what we have been working on with the cooler. We have the
first RK Cooler Basic ready to show and to sell! I am awaiting final price
decisions for the end of the week.
I had been waiting on the fufillment of the blade
motors for the deluxe unit, which was resolved today. I would like to see
the Deluxe unit available next week.
(Click the image
for a more detailed image)
Update
6/13/09
Update
6/6/09
15 or
20 pound Drum Question:
I really need
some help on this one guys. I think I
could get us a 15 or 20 pound drum within a
couple weeks, but I am not sure it is practical
due to its size and weight. Do me a favor
and throw in your 2 cents! (Even
if you're not in the market for one) Thanks!
Something of a
catalog of all the RK users, or as many as
we can collect. I know there is a lot
of you commercial roasters out there.
If you are roasting with the RK, send me
your website and I will post it. This
will, not only improve all of our rankings
in Google, but it may increase the traffic
to your website as well.
If you have
pictures of your RK Rig, and want to brag a
little on your setup, send me some of those
pics and I'll post'em in the RK in Action
Pages.
Update
4/9/09
For the life of
me, I can't figure out why this was never
done before, but...finally here are some
pictures of the 8Lb drum. I think Ron
was finalizing the design on the 8Lb at one
point and that's why he didn't post the
pictures. But without further ado....
I'll get some 6 Pound pictures ASAP.
Update
3/28/09
Today Larry and
I spent the day at the machine shop
finalizing the design of the coffee cooler.
I'm pleased to report that we have hopefully
negotiated all of the remaining engineering
hurdles, and the unit should start to begin
trial runs in the next couple of weeks.
I'm really
quite excited about this project, as it
seems that from every angle it will work
better than I had hoped. We made some
drastic engineering changes to our initial
design, which should make the cooler even
more feature packed than what I had
originally anticipated. I think, it
will also turn out to be affordable as well.
So, up this
point, things are looking great, we hope to
begin producing the first units for all of
you in the summer. I will forward
along information and pictures as they
become appropriate to present here.
This will
sincerely give a very professional accent to
your entire coffee roasting operation.
Very soon the days of the Wal-Mart box fan,
and the babysitting of the cooling process
will be an all too welcome distant memory.
I'm eager to share more with you as I get
it.
New
DIY Motor/Drum Combos and Everything Motor/Drum
Combos Available
Here
Assembly
Guide Section K. Adjusted to include General Drum Info,
Gear Motor Tips and Roast Profiles. Recommended
Read for new RK Owners
New
Assembly Guide
containing nearly 200
annotated images with detailed how-to's
Finally! See below for quick
index.
Update 2/02/09
In an effort to continually improve things
here, I have just posted the new
RK Forum.
Share your ideas, ask questions, interact
with other RK home roasters. I think
all the kinks are worked out of it, give it
a go.
Update 12/12/08
Dear Friends,
Well, it pleases me tremendously to inform
everyone that we are swinging things back
into full operation here. While, I
still have my day job, things are mostly
coming together.
Ron wasn't feeling well in for much of 2008
and thus had begun to scale back some of the
RK Drums products due to energy levels and
time. Much of what he was working on,
he was fabricating himself and so you can
imagine that can take a bit out of someone.
In any case he always wanted to offer a full
range of products, but had scaled back on
the 6Lb and 8Lb drums.
I had a meeting with the machine shop
yesterday, and we are going to transfer some
of the things that Ron used to do (motor
mounts and mounting brackets) over to them.
I finished drafting up the plans for the
mounts, since those had been lost.
So, I have a few news items that I wish to
share with everyone so that you will know
what the future of RK Drums is. (But please
be patient!) We will be
releasing once again ALL of the RK
Products plus possibly one NEW product.
FOR
IMMEDIATE SHIPMENT:
-4 Pound Drums (Home)
-6 Pound Drums (Commercial)
-8 Pound Drums (Commercial)
-Motor Mounting Brackets
-Mounting Base Plates
-Motors
-Commercial and Home Combos
EXCITING
NEWS!!!!
So here it is.... Are you tired of the
box fan setup, getting heat and chaff blown
in your face while stirring to cool the
beans quickly? We are working on a new
prototype for a coffee cooler to ease the
speed and ease of the cooling process.
Ron was in the design process when he fell
ill, and so we are finishing this latest
project.
I can tell you that so far we plan it to be
automated allowing you to walk away and
attend to your next roast. It will, of
course, be built with the same quality
that you have known with the RK Drum.
You know Ron wouldn't have had it any other
way. The cooler will be no different.
BUILT TO LAST!
We are finalizing the design, and will begin
functional testing soon. No idea on a
release date yet, however....
We still have to calculate the total cost of
labor and materials and make sure that it
can be produced and shipped affordably, and
that it will function as well as we think it
will. Personally, as an avid user of
the 4Lb and 6Lb drum, I can tell you I would
love to get my hands on one of these.
Some would say I shouldn't announce
something that isn't ready to hit the
market, but given the events of this
difficult year, we want you to know that we
are well, and progressing towards a bright
future.
It will make a wonderful addition to every
RK setup. Feel free to email me if you
like.
Please read the
FAQ
page so it will be clear what you will need in addition
to the drum/motor.
Benefits when you Home Roast Coffee
It is a great hobby, that is fun, and produces coffee that is
better then the local gourmet coffee shops offer, at about 1/2
the cost. Your choices of coffee from around the world, are
endless
..
This drum will roast 1/2 to 4 lbs. of green coffee, using a gas
grill, and a standard grill rotisserie. (requires a rotisserie
motor)
The Drum produces great results in the gas grill. It produces a
nice even roast. Test results can be seen on the Review page..
If you have a gas grill, you can easily convert it to a coffee
roaster, simply by sliding your standard 5/16" rotisserie spit
through your new drum and lock it in place with the supplied
collars. Its as simple as warming up the grill, load the drum,
switch on the rotisserie motor, and in about 14 to 20 min.,
depending on the amount of green coffee beans you are roasting,
you will have the best coffee you ever tasted. Instructions and
profiles provided with drum.
Happy Roasting!
Ron Kyle
NOTE:
Does not ship with a
spit rod or rotisserie brackets. This set up
just
replaces the standard low RPM motor that
comes with most rotisserie kits.
If You would
like to see this presentation in high resolution.
I've only been roasting
coffee since June of this year (09). I needed to get
a larger roaster, seems like every week I roast more
and more. I did alot research and just did not want
to pull the trigger on a $3500.00 plus roaster.
I contacted Shane and talked to him about a drum. I
ended up ordering the 4# roaster, bought a new grill
and did the sheet metal mods. Shipping was fast and
correct. The drum is built to last a lifetime, the
only thing that I should have done different was to
get the 6# drum for $90.00 more. (Shane should have
talked me into getting the 6# roaster.) LOL
It was simple to set up and get it going. I've more
than maxed it out a couple of times, beans came out
great. You can see the mods i've made to the grill
and the simple bean cooler I built on Shane's web
site.
Bottom line is that the drum is top notch, works
great and is well worth the money! Shane is also a
great guy to talk to and will treat you right.
Dale
Mark
Onks
I'm an engineer--the drum is a
work of art and the motor and mounts are terrific
and the whole kit is well thought-out and it makes
GREAT COFFEE! I've done several roasts using your
suggested profile for 1lb batches and I'm getting
the hang of it! I will graduate to larger batches
when I decide what kind of beans I want to order in
quantity. The only bad thin.g about this setup is
that I want to roast all the time and you need lots
of beans in your inventory to have all that fun!
Thanks for your great products, and
even more for your superb customer service! Keep up
the good work!
Tom
Haigler-Lexington, NC (July 2009)
1 st crack hit at 15:50 minutes..
50 seconds of a pause & beans went
into a slow start of a rolling second crack
/......Time 19:30 (complete)
dumped 4 lbs (3&1/3 lbs Roasted) into a good 12+
seconds of a 2nd crack
(Rolling) and slammed the brakes on 2nd crack when
the beans hit my cooling
fan.... let see if someone could do that with a
roaster under $750.00.....Excellent+ Roaster you got
there Shane!
Tom
Haigler-Lexington, NC (June 2009)
It is so nice to be able to roast
4 pounds of greens in around 20 minutes. My wife
sells most of my coffee at her work place and they
(office) could tell a big difference in the quality
of coffee than the previous roaster I had. It really
does an excellent job for the money that you invest.
Mike Brisson
Atlanta, GA
I've only done a couple of roasts,
and none more than about 3 pounds, But so far I've
been getting good reviews from folks and I certainly
like the coffee myself. The squeak has been
minimized, the wobble in the spit largely goes away
when it's loaded up and hot, and the clasp/door has
not really caused me any problems. In short, I'm
loving my new roaster. It has made my life a lot
easier. And so far, without any modifications I'm
roasting (albeit with smaller loads) at near "low"
on the the three burners.
Rob
Whelen,
Wilmington, NC
Epula, LLC
Hey Shane-- just did my 50th roast
last night. I am really excited about the outcome.
The 1 and 2 lb roasts go a little fast, since my
grill puts out a lot of heat. But the 5 pounds are
going about 15-17 minutes and the flavor is
fantastic. Great product.
Rob
Whelen,
Wilmington, NC
Epula, LLC
Shane-- drum is working
great, developing a very nice patina, if you will.
7 roastings so far, fantastic flavor which to me is
fuller than the fluid air bed roasts. I am getting
to 2nd crack at about 12 minutes. I'd like to slow
it down slightly but that's a good time in my book.
Craig
Jensen-Hammond, LA (Feb 2009)
The drums looked well
built and unlikely to fall apart in a year. Also, since
it used a propane grill, no worries about voltage
issues.
All in all, it is very
direct. You don't have to fiddle with some electronic
program to get it to do what you want it to do. Just
set the temp as you like it. It seems much more direct
and pleasant. I did a range of roasts, from city-ish to
full city to vienna, and am satisfied with all of them.
It is very easy to hear the beans cracking, even though
I had previously only read FAQs about what to expect.
The unit is constructed extremely well. In fact, it is
painfully obvious that the only shoddy construction is
that coming from the grill itself or the rotisserie
spit. The drum looks build like a tank. The motor
assembly is mounted to an extremely thick metal plate
and looks very solid. It all looks like commercial
quality contruction.
(FULL
REVIEW HERE)
Tom
Haigler-Lexington, NC (Jan 2009)
I have been roasting
for 3 years as a hobby and many of my family members and
friends have suggested that I should start to sell my
coffee. Within the second year of sales, my first
roaster could not keep up with the overwhelming demand
of Tom’s Best Coffee. I have since upgraded to the
premium RK Drum Roaster, which allows me to produce my
product more efficiently. My customers can tell a big
difference in the quality of my roast. I not only
recommend this roaster but I give a A+ to Shane for his
customer service.
(This a review by Thomas Owen from Sweet Marias. I sent Tom 3
sample roasts, roasted in a gas grill, with the RK Roasting
Drum. Below are Toms remarks.)
Hi Ron - thanks for sharing the coffee! In
short, I am incredibly impressed. The roasts really appear
to be professional drum roast quality without any sign of
scorching or tipping, and on the City + and Full City you
really nailed the degree of roast on the head. The cup
quality was excellent on these two. Again, I am impressed.
This is better than a lot of small-batch roasters produce.
What I imagine, (and I am not a bbq person) is that it takes
some mastery of the machine paired with some experience with
the coffee. The darker roast blend would be, I guess, a
faster roast and it cups as espresso with a lot of tang to
the roast taste but a little more smokey-carbony-pungent
than I would have expected. There is a big difference
between the lighter ground coffee and the surface color, so
that's why I think it was a little fast and might benefit
from some more roast time ... specifically to back off on
the heat a lot after
1st crack and really ease the coffee slowly into 2nd crack.
This tends to preserve more sweetness in the cup. Once
again, this is another indication that this drum paired with
a good bbq gives the roastmaster a lot of choices in the
outcome, whether that be faster
or slower roast techniques, and that level of control is
something no
other home roaster machine can offer!
If for any reason you want to use my comments as an
endorsement, please do! I think whatever you have learned to
produce these great City and Full City roasts in terms of
monitoring temperature, and judging smell, sight, sound of
the roast, you should try to share in
a tip sheet too. I am going to try the dark roast as brewed
coffee tomorrow am and see of there is more sweetness etc
this way...
Tom
Curtis Scheelke
This is a note to let you know I have been having
great success with my drum. Thanks for the
effort you put into its design and construction.
David Ross
Just did my first two roasts using
your profiles. The results are beautiful!
Thanks for a great product!!
Raid Asfour
We've just received our roaster.... THANX .... very
impressive service and
product!!!!!!!! will recommend you anytime!!
REGARDS
Katherine Murray.
Picked it up this evening and we just roasted our
first batch – WOW! We are very impressed with the
result. Can’t wait to do more :)
Brad &
Jeanette
Nice unit. This is built sturdy and
should last forever. Unfortunately
I dropped motor unit while installing and crushed
the plastic fan. I will epoxy it
together and see if it runs without shaking.
You did a wonderful job on the parts no sharp edges
and even the drilled holes have no burs.
You must have been a machinist or an engineer or
just one talented guy. I am not used to
seeing quality with everything made in china now a
days.
Thanks, Brad
Brian Bircher
I've been meaning to write but I've been too busy
roasting! The drum is
working great and you were right, once it gets
seasoned and "settled in"
it just keeps getting better. I've also become more
adept at controlling
the heat and of course the movements of getting the
drum in and out
quickly become more second nature as you go along.
I've been turning out
some excellent roasts and have been able to hit the
roasts just where I
want them whether it's for a dark roast or a
beautiful City+ or Full
City on an island coffee.
Taking the ceramic briquettes out made all the
difference in the world
as far as being able to reach roast temps faster,
bring my roast times
down to where they should be and to better control
temps during the
roast. It's funny since I had thought it would be
easier to do all that
/with/ the briquettes. I haven't gotten the steel
plate made yet and am
still using the cookie sheet. It's working fine so I
may just leave it.
Anyway, I'm thrilled to death with your drum and am
wondering why I
didn't do this sooner! Regards Brian
Bo out in Montana....
Well, 700+ lbs of coffee roasted in the last year
and a half since purchasing my Drum....and still
banging out some of the best coffee to be found
anywhere.
(if I don;t say so myself) My friends, family, and
even a couple dozen "Customers"?....people who have
adopted me as their coffee supplier will attest-
good beans, fire steel (the RK ) and man it makes
some good coffee,
thanks much again,
Bo Maiuri
Glacier Coffee Roasters.
Paul Jolly:
Thanks to all who steered me right after my poor
experience with the Ronco 4000. A genuine RK drum
arrived in the mail today. It's a beefy rig---no
joke! I headed out to the local welder's supply
store for a pair of good gloves, then returned home
to test the drum out. I fired up the BBQ, burned off
the oils etc. from the drum for 15 minutes, and let
it cool. Once it was safe to touch, I got the grill
back up to heat, added a pound of the Zambia AA to
the drum, and was off. A bit farther off than I'd
hoped, as it turned out...took 22 minutes to get to
second crack, but the emptying & cooling went E-Z.
And man, those beans taste great! Thanks, Ron!
--Paul
Laura Micucci:
Hi,
I whole heartily agree! I bought a motor off of Ron
and what a difference it makes. the shipping was
super fast and all questions were answered promptly.
I am really enjoying BBQ roasting!
Jamie Shepherd
Your drum is awesome! I just roasted my first batch of beans on
my new
RK drum and they came out great. I feel like a kid at Christmas!
Oh
yeah, it is Christmas and this is my present to myself! I
roasted 1 1/4
pound on my first try and chose a bean that I do not really care
for so
that it did not matter what happened. My grill did a great job
of
getting to temp fast and I was able to maintain temps even in
the 45
degree weather with a little breeze blowing. I hit first crack
at 9:11,
cranked back the heat some and it lasted till about 11:00
minutes. I
normally stop my roasts at a C+ and rarely ever reach 2nd crack
but I
wanted to gauge things so I kept on going. At 13:40 I hit 2nd
crack and
at a 14:00 I shut it down and pulled the drum. I don't have a
cooling
system yet so I had a little difficulty but I will get that
squared
away in a day or two. I got a quick lesson in how much heat is
generated in even a pound of beans. It took me a few seconds on
a small
fan to get second crack to stop. I can't wait to try again.
As to my bowed rod issues, things seemed to level out some when
I
heated it all up for the first time and even more on this first
roast.
I think some of my "thump" may have come from the fact that I
can't
seem to get the coupler that mates to the motor to secure to the
end of
the rod squarely. It always wants to have a slight tilt, just
enough to
make things a little uneven. Nonetheless things went great, even
with
my 80 year-old mother watching and talking to me the whole time!
The
beans came out at a very nice FC+ or so and were probably the
most
evenly roasted beans I have seen in a long time. Thanks again. I
will
send some pics of my setup and success later. I've got to go
now; I am
supposed to be roasting a turkey for dinner tonight, not coffee
beans!
Marc Dupuis:
Ditto and more. Fantastic product, but more importantly, great
service before and even better after. RK for President!
md
Eddie Dove
I just wanted to let everyone know that dealing with Ron Kyle
was a pleasure. He patiently answered every one of my questions,
made some recommendations, told me when it would be shipped and
it arrived as he stated. Not only did I enjoy dealing with a man
of integrity, Ron's craftsmanship is a work of art.
Thanks, Ron!
Sincerely,
Eddie
Bob Boseman
Ron,
It's such a pleasure to roast on your equipment! I want to sell
my Hot Top but end up recommending your drum to perspective HT
buyers. :)
Bob
Adam Jahiel (drum #7 3.5
years ago, udated review))
Hi Ron,
I wish the forum had dates, so I could remember when I bought
your
drum (#7 IS a lucky number).
Anyway, I'm still roasting away in Wyoming, and am still
thrilled at
the roaster and results I get from it.
Bought a real espresso machine this summer, and maybe that is
where
the rubber hits the road, because I probably have the best
espresso
and regular coffee in this whole state.
I hope you are selling lots of these things, I'd hate to think
others
are missing out.
Thanks again for having such a great idea.
Ryan Glover:
Just roasted a pound of that Columbian peaberry you sent with my
order
(thanks btw :) ) .....this roaster rocks!!! I am still waiting
for my
buddy to get my a 2x1 sheet of 20gage to use as a heat diffuser,
but I
had to try her out anyways. Man that was very easy!!! Very
impressed
with your product. I'll send you pics of the setup in the next
couple
of days.