Ron,
Wow, thanks for the amazing drum. It's so strange to
me to go from an inconsistent 1/2 pound of dog-bowl
roasted beans to 2 lbs of a consistent roast!
Since I manage a BBQ store, I was thinking I'd serve
free coffee samples on the weekends. I'm just gonna
brew a pot or 2 and put out some 4/6oz cups. I would
really like to show people that I roasted on a BBQ, so
how do you feel about supplying me with either
business cards or flyers if you have them? Or if you
just sent me a p.o.p. 4x6 or 8x11 I'll just put it in
a plexi stand!
Let me know if you need parts/supplies
traegergrills.com makes a great thermometer for people
to mount in the center of grill hood!
Brian
1st 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!
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
It's been a week since I received and put together my new 6Lb DIY combo and in short, I'm thrilled! I had a few small challenges with the installation but engineering the solutions was part of the fun.
With this 10 year old Weber grill, the square tubes were about 3/4 inch too low for the base plate-motor mount combo at the highest position so I cut a pair of 1x2 shims to sit between the base plate and the tubes and got some 3-inch bolts for the muffler clamps--just right! The rotisserie cutouts in this grill were tiny and wanting to avoid using the Charbroil mounting brackets, I used my Dremel to cut those slots in the grill deep enough to accomodate some extra bearing-bushings that I bought at a grill parts supplier. Now the rotisserie spit is strongly supported on each side of the grill and I think it makes the motor's job easier since the spit and drum aren't hanging on the coupler. By the way, the motor , motor mount and baseplate is very well made and I especially appreciate the holes being pre-threaded for the electrical boxes. I chose to mount an unswitched duplex outlet on the back position to give me a place to conveniently plug in a fan to blow on the motor when I start doing big long roast sessions. To make the grill more efficient on gas, I blocked off about 70% of the rear vent with a piece of carpet threshold that fit perfectly and already had a slight bend which makes it press against the grill base nicely when the hood is closed.
Enough tech-stuff--forgive me, 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 thing 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! The picture attached is Guatemala--Villa Herminia at a very even roast...delicious.
Thanks for your great products, and even more for your superb customer service! Keep up the good work!
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.