Hi,
I whole heartily agree! I bought a motor off of Ron and what a difference it makes. the shipping was super fast and all questions were answered promptly. I am really enjoying BBQ roasting!
Just roasted a pound of that Colombian peaberry you sent with my order (thanks btw :) ) .....this roaster rocks!!! I am still waiting for my buddy to get my a 2x1 sheet of 20gage to use as a heat diffuser, but I had to try her out anyways. Man that was very easy!!! Very impressed with your product. I'll send you pics of the setup in the next couple of days.
Cheers,
Ryan
March 2004
This is an unsloicited E-Mail from Jim Easley on his RK Drum
Thanks Jim.
RK, I just did the first roast in the drum roaster. I used 2 pounds of
Guatemala Huehuetenanga. An outstandingly even roast first time out.a
But there is a couple of hitches in my gameplan. Seems I didn't account for
being at 6,000 feet which speeds up the crack process, SSSOOOOO what I
thought was the first crack was actually the second crack. I was all set to
see a beautiful full city roast and boy was I surprised. Fortunately this
particular Guat. holds up damn well when stressed to the max. It makes an
interesting Italian bordering on charcoal profile but I can still
taste some fruitiness in all that blackness.
Oh well, such is life. The drum worked beautifully and I will get the
times down. Thanks again for a great product.
I threw all the timings out the window and did the next round of roasts
using the old school method of roasting by sight-color of smoke;
sound-cracks and pops; and by smell-the changing aromas of the roast. Didn't
look at the stop watch at all but did use your tip about decreasing the
temp and letting the roast cruise through the cracking stages. Worked
beautifully.
Worked so well in fact half the neighborhood just signed on as clients.
They were the ones that live down wind of the roasting area.
Only problem I have encountered in the past 10 roasts (yes, I have been
busy) is trying to get the door open using a pair of pliers while wearing
gloves.
It looks like I will be buying the 18 inch model before long as well as a
couple of motors.
Thanks again for such a KISS device and technique.
Subject: The first roast I detailed with notes & times Name: Eric Evans Date Posted: Oct 7, 03 - 2:16 PM Email:
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Message: I just did my first roast in which I kept detailed notes and times. Just wanted to share with the rest of the group.
I'm using 1 pound of "Brazil Cup of Excellence Boa Vista" from SM.
My setup...The grill is an old Coleman Powerhouse 40 (40,000 BTU). I drilled a 15/16" hole in the dome and attached a very accurate thermometer from "New Braunfels Smoker Company." It has a large 3" dial and I can tell the temperature to the exact degree. Here's further details at their website: http://www.nbsmoker.com/accessories3.html I found it at Home Depot for $20 (not cheap but well worth it.) The probe points at an angle directly at the dead center of the drum. I replaced the lower briquette grill with a 10 X 13" stainless steel cookie sheet and placed ceramic grids on top of it. I'm using a standard Charbroil Universal Rotisserie kit (6 RPM) but
Today's weather was nice for roasting; 59 degrees and a light wind. My starting temperature was 480. After inserting the drum my temperature dropped to 400 and recovered to 480 after about 5:30 minutes.
First crack was at 11:28 at 490 degrees. I cut the gas
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!
Got the new clip, and pop riveted it on. Must have taken me all of 2 minutes!
Just completed roasting 20 pounds of various beans, and I LOVE the new clip!!!!
No more fiddling around with the pin, just pop it out, flip the clip, dump the beans, and on to the next batch.
As you mentioned in your review, a bit less noise, and much faster turnaround times between roasts.
Still regret not going with the 6 pound drum.
Best Wishes,
Jay Michels
