Items tagged with 8LB COMBO

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 madeall 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.

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!

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

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.

 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