HomeAbout RK Drums

About RK

Who is RK?

RK stands for Ron Kyle. Ron was a fantastic machinist from Anderson, SC who had an extraordinary love for coffee, coffee roasting, and espresso particularly. The man would have talked your ear off about any subject coffee related for hours on end. He decided to combine his talents of coffee and machining to bring to us the RK Drum, which he founded in 2002.

I knew Ron as a customer and a friend. Ron sold me my first 4Lb and 6Lb RK Drum as I started my own coffee roasting experiment in collaboration with our export company Old Spanish Main, Ltda. based in Bogota, Colombia.

I maintained this website for Ron for years, and we collaborated on various different coffee related ideas, developing a friendship along the way. Ron passed away on August 13th, 2008. Ron taught me everything I know about coffee roasting, and so much about coffee in general. He was a great friend and fellow coffee enthusiast.

Shortly before his passing, Ron asked me if I would be interested in working with RK, and I am proud to continue Ron's tradition of quality and excellence. We still use Ron's machine shop to produce the same exact RK Drum, thus his requirement of quality still remains.

I currently run an IT consultancy in Atlanta, GA, and a few other business projects, and spend the majority of my 9 to 5 consulting for Atlanta based companies, when not roasting coffee and playing with coffee any other way I can. I welcome any of your questions at any time, to ask about roasting, coffee, or just to chat.

I hope the changes at RK have been welcomed, and I foresee new and exciting projects coming down the line. Please don't hesitate to say hello if you are in Atlanta!

Regards,

Shane Lewis

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Posted in: RK Misc

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We'll can walk you through your first roasts over the phone!!! We'll guide you step by step on what to expect, what to look for and when it should happen! Give Us a Call when you are ready to roast!

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
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Shane Lewis - Flowery Branch, GA (2004)

Hello All,

I just wanted to take a moment and explain to you my experiences with the RK Drum. I am currently using a Fiesta 36,000BTU setup. I also have Ron's Gear motor setup as well. I must tell you that the combined setup does extremely well. I have now probably roasted two 70 Kilo sacks of coffee through the RK Drum and I always get consistent reliable results. The coffee always cups very nicely and my customers are pleased. I am actually starting out as a roaster and found the entry level costs on roasters to be quite prohibitive. I would recommend this solution to anyone. Due to our increasing volume, I am thinking about building another setup. The only drawbacks I can think of is that it is slightly cumbersome removing the pin from the drum door when it's hot and you're trying to cool the roast in a hurry. However; it only takes a couple of roasts to get the hang of it and you can usually pull the roast, get the pin out and get it into the cooling tray within about 10 seconds. As to construction, the drum is really a very fine piece of work. Not a single complaint on its reliability or sturdiness or design. It really should last a lifetime. Highly recommended!

Shane Lewis

Old Spanish Main Coffee Company

Flowery Branch, GA
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Dick Coffee

Hi Shane,

I love my RK drum - I think I've probably roasted 100 pounds in it by
now. As bad weather begins to creep into Northern Indiana I have a
little more time on my hands and I realized I neglected to let you know
that a friend of mine wrote an article about my roasting. If you go to
www.thebeacher.com - go to past issues for 2011, select October 6 and
you'll get a pdf version of The Beacher. If you scroll down to page 36
you'll find Charley's article. The RK drum gets honorable mentions
there. I hope you enjoy it.

Dick Coffee
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Paul Sommer - Sommers Coffee

Shane, got the roaster up and running this past weekend, did a burn in and
two batches on Sunday (1 pound and 2 pound) and then had to hurry off to
other things. Last night i put the the roaster to work and roasted 15
pounds in about 2.5 hours! however i had to take about 20 minutes to make
some adjustments to the rotisserie rod, it must have been off center because
it was clicking pretty loudly. the largest batch i did was 3 pounds, wow i
am loving this thing already, and once i bump it up to 4 pounds things will
move much quicker. give me a few weeks of using this and i will write a
complete review you can share with others, i went to bed last night feeling
great that i had roasted a weeks worth of orders in a little over 2 hours,
and the coffee was packaged, labeled and ready to go to the store, and i
don't have to think about it until next week. Thanks for a great product
and excellent support.
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Allen M

July 17,2004 Allen M

This is a copy of a email posted on Sweet Marias coffee list.

Ron and All,

I finished assembly of my RK drum roaster today and I burned it in and I'm ready for my first roast!
I used a 35k BTU Char-grill model from Home Depot and I'm using Ron's gear drive motor which is sweet. The drum spins fast and
smooth and should be quiet enough to hear first crack. I located my thermometer about an inch too high but other than that, I think this is going to be a great little rig. Tip:
If you choose a Char-grill Pro thermometer like I did, use a "step bit" to drill the ~7/8th hole for the threaded mount. Step bits are expensive (about $35) but I use them almost everyday
at work to drill holes of all sizes in sheet metal. It cuts through the Char-grill lid like butter.

When I fired it up, the first thing I noticed was the large amount of heat that it puts out which is a big contrast from my Rosto. I realize this isn't quite a fair comparison, but I can already
tell that I'm going to enjoy roasting outdoors in winter. I played around with the controls while performing the break-in and the controls are sensitive but very responsive. I'm surprised how
quickly the temperature can shift and then hold steady.

Putting one of these together is not difficult, but there are a few considerations that give it a little twist over buying a pure appliance. I ended up pulling out my dremel tool to cut off the
"foot pegs" of the flame diffuser to lower it about an inch. Now it is perfect and enabled me to put the drum down low closer to the flame. When ordering, I told Ron I wanted the motor on the left side, but
I changed my mind during assembly. I really like how Ron designed the hardware to be re-configurable. It was a simple matter to change the motor and switch over to opposite hand. All the holes were
pre-drilled for mounting either side.

I would like to thank Ron for his help along the way. It is evident that he really cares about his drums and drum customers. I will reserve further comment and praise until after such time that I get to sample the fruits of his and my labor. More pictures
to come.

Allen

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Shane Lewis

slewis@rkdrums.com

RK Drums

Flowery Branch, GA ♦ Anderson, SC

404-787-7125

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