Roaster Rebuilds - Two in one day

With three roasters I really expected one to be in full working order at all times. Well, the Fresh Roast 8 was, but it only roasts a few cups of coffee at a time and this would be little help in providing my few customers with the pounds they need.

The Gene Cafe was heading south and the Junk Yard Tow Truck .5K (full story here with pictures) got busticated.

The drum for the Gene Cafe was slipping out of it's cradle as it rotated around. It slipped loose of the thumb catch that was to hold it locked while in the upside down position of rotation. I poked and prodded until I realized the wheel at the heater end was quite sloppy - it seemed the bearings were coming unglued. I called Tim Skaling at Fresh Beans in Utah and he immediately sent me a replacement part which I quickly installed. Roaster repaired! And am I glad for that - I really enjoy air roasted coffee.

The Tow Truck; the roaster I love to hate. I like it very much, but it's noisy, has no chaff collection, makes a lot of smoke yet it will roast a half kilo at a time. That's snob talk for it roasts a full pound of green coffee. I wasn't very carefull a couple weeks ago while opening the door and snagged the heater array on one of the drum vanes and broke the ceramic on the array.

Repairing it meant a trip to Ace Hardware and buying a new 500 W outdoor light fixture to take apart. I spend $12.00 to keep the 40 cent bulb bracket. In any event, I go the array repaired and decided to replace the motor with a faster one. The first motor was 12 RPM and the new one is 20 RPM. I'm reading 60 RPM is desired, but that seems like the beans will stick to the drum. I'll buy one and try it, though. The new 20 RPM motor seems quite fast to me but roasted coffee comes out of the drum. I also made some other adjustments and immediately ran 6 pounds through it with great success.

It was a good repair day!