Weight on motor shaft?

[Shane Lewis]

I’m waiting for my 4 lb drum to arrive and working on mounting my motor and rotisserie on a newly dedicated grill. If I read your assembly instructions and photos correctly, your setup has the weight of the rotisserie and drum riding on a bearing on the handle end, but resting directly on the motor shaft at the other end. Is this correct? Does your motor have a shaft load rating?

It just surprised me a little, since my current setup on my old Weber has the rotisserie supported on a bearing at both ends.
-Ken Marken

[Shane Lewis]

Hi Ken!

Yes, typically our motors have a published shaft weight of 10LB. So, that’s basically, half your total weight drum plus coffee. Your 4LB drum should put about 6.5LB of load on the shaft. It’s a good question, but one that shouldn’t worry you. We have 10+ years on the motors with nary a complaint.

We do utilize the second bearing on the 12LB kits, due to the weight. It can work without it, but it’s just better for the motor and coupler to take some of the weight off, since those 12LB can exert 17LB on the shaft and coupling.

You’re welcome to add a second bearing if you like, by my preference is not to do so, as the weight we put on it with the smaller kits is under that of the shaft limit, and the second bearing, when loading and unloading the drum, can be a bit fiddly since you’ll have to align both bearings on two brackets. It’s just more cumbersome, and not necessary. So, thus we prefer just the one bearing on the handle side.

Also, I had a feeling you might be trying to use the Weber rotisserie motor. In case you are, be sure to check the speed of that motor. Older motors would spin at 6RPM and would do decently at 6RPM, but newer grill rotisserie motors spin at 1.2RPM. We get all but universal reports from the 1.2RPM motors of inconsistent, uneven coffee.

For this reason, we utilize motors between 26RPM and 52RPM, which gives a very even nice roast.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
Thanks
Shane

[Shane Lewis]

Thanks, Shane, that is useful information. I am leaving the old Weber setup intact as a backup/secondary roaster, it is the 3 RPM version. It is sort of right on the edge, but I have roasted about 500 lbs in it over the last few years and gotten hooked on bbq roasting. The biggest problem with the Weber is not everyone appreciates the beef flavored coffee 🙂 I have now decided to go the dedicated roaster route.

I picked up a new ac gearmotor for a good price, 50 RPM, 1.6 amp but not sure about shaft load. Now that I look closely it has a pretty substantial sleeve bearing for the shaft, so I will give it a try. I’m looking forward to trying the 4 lb drum. And yes my rotisserie is the 5/16″ square.
-Ken Marken

[Shane Lewis]

Just had a look at your order, and that you didn’t order one of our motors….. at least on the latest order. So, some of my previous response may not apply in your case… Your total weight the motor needs to hold should be around 6.5LB of weight. Also, make sure your rotisserie is 5/16″ and square or we’ll need to rethink things…

Standing by for questions,
Shane

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