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!