Just thought you would like to know we roasted our first 2 roasts at about 11pm PDT last night! I found a 14 gauge piece of stainless scrap at a metal shop late yesterday afternoon and made the modifications for a diffusion plate. (attached pic) We seasoned the roaster at about 10 pm, and went straight into 2- 1lb roasts after that! You have an amazing roaster set up, it works so well! Thank you again for all of your attention and help during this process, you have been invaluable to us! We are enclosing a couple pictures, thought you might like to see the initial set up. We will be doing quite a bit of cosmetic fabrication from this point as we are going to take the roaster with us when we get started, and I will send you pictures of those when we get finished with that portion. The grill has turned out to work very well after the modifications to lid (attached pic), it holds temps like a champ, once it gets to temperature we back all the burners to minimum and at times even turn one of the three burners off or open the lid a little to maintain temp. The thermometer you sent with the package sits about 3/4" from the drum, and because the diffusion plate is so big we think it is giving us very accurate readings. (Our times are within seconds of your suggested profiles.)
We panicked a little on the first roast, thinking we had heard second crack, and ended up with a city roast that tastes great! Did a second roast of Colombian and can now clearly identify second crack, it's a full city we will try later today. We still have to get a more efficient temporary cooling set up, but a fan and strainer is working OK for now. Going to experiment with an espresso blend at an Italian roast later today! Once again many thanks, you have far exceeded our expectations!

Hank and Debbie Thomas
Las Vegas Coffee & Roasting Co.

The coffee roasting is going good and really I've been selling quite a bit. A little tribute to how good a job that roaster can do is that when I had a friend from Ethiopia taste my Ethiopian coffee {he owns about a half acre of Mich Harrar in Ethiopia and currently runs an African cafe here in London, Ontario, were he roasts   a variety of East African coffee every morning with an electric TOPER to serve fresh to  customers} he told me that my coffee was done perfect. He asked me what type of a roaster I was using and when I told him about my drum setup he became pretty excited about the concept. -Jason

My search for "larger quantity, more control" has ended. The smallish popper batches were getting bothersome. I tried HG/DB, but the gun I had did not move enough air and my roasts were flat. But, the quantity was nice.

Given the investment in a better gun, this would be a great method. But I
went for the RK drum.  It arrived today. I quickly cleaned, prepped and rushed to the gas grill 
to "burn" some UGH! My old Charbroil 3 RPM motor is pretty clunky, but I couldn't wait. I did order Ron's motor, but it is not ready to ship. I roasted 4 test batches of 150 gr. each; Ethiopian Harrar FC+, Java Estate Prince FC+, Guatemala Huehuetanango FC+ and SM Donkey V. I wanted the
Harrar at FC, but just wasn't quick enough getting the drum off and  emptied!
Practice! Practice!
 
 I am very happy with the roast control. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hear the cracks. Not a problem!! Now to let the coffee rest & taste!! My stash has been diminished by the simple capacity of the drum!! The drum is a work of industrial art! It is truly a pleasure to use!
 
 Cheers,
 Geary

 Hello, Ron:
 
 Just to let you know that I finally got my cooling stand put together, burned in the drum and did my first roast this evening on the patio. I was concerned about being able to hear the cracks (coming from using an iRoast2 that was an issue for me). I had my wife standing by to make sure I didn't miss the sounds. I needn't have worried. The sounds of First Crack were loud enough to be heard on the other side of the back yard. I backed the temp off a bit and let her coast. The first time trying to control the temperature is kind of like trying to back up an 18-wheeler but we managed just fine. I was going to pull at the first sign of 2nd crack and I overshot a few seconds but oh, well. The cooling stand worked great and for the maiden voyage of my RK Drum, I am very pleased. The rest will come with experience.
 Thank you, Ron. We're off and running. Now if I could only find someplace I could lay my hands on some more of that Brazil Fazenda Ipanema "Dulce" that Tom and Maria had!! A number of my friends just rave about that one and I have only a small amount left. I'll know better next time to lay in a good supply when I find a great bean like that one. Of course, SM has many great beans.
 
 George Steinert
 Sacramento, CA

 January 14, 2004
 Ron,                            
 
 I received the drum and I am impressed the way you have made it.  People tease me that I over build when I make anything, but there is no substitute for strength and quality.  I can see how the drum will last forever, great work.
 
 I haven't roasted coffee in it yet, but I did the initial burn.  I have a small BBQ, but the heat
 quickly climbed to 500 degrees and then slowly up to the 600-degree range, way more then I had expected or need.  I am looking forward to roasting. Feel free to use my comment on your web site.
 
 Sincerely,
 Bob Wuest #44