Tagged with: Quick Latch Setup

Shane, got the roaster up and running this past weekend, did a burn in and
two batches on Sunday (1 pound and 2 pound) and then had to hurry off to
other things.  Last night i put the the roaster to work and roasted 15
pounds in about 2.5 hours!  however i had to take about  20 minutes to make
some adjustments to the rotisserie rod, it must have been off center because
it was clicking pretty loudly.  the largest batch i did was 3 pounds, wow i
am loving this thing already, and once i bump it up to 4 pounds things will
move much quicker.  give me a few weeks of using this and i will write a
complete review you can share with others, i went to bed last night feeling
great that i had roasted a weeks worth of orders in a little over 2 hours,
and the coffee was packaged, labeled and ready to go to the store, and i
don't have to think about it until next week.  Thanks for a great product
and excellent support.

 Hello All,

I just wanted to take a moment and explain to you my experiences with the RK Drum.  I am currently using a Fiesta 36,000BTU setup.  I also have Ron's Gear motor setup as well.  I must tell you that the combined setup does extremely well.  I have now probably roasted two 70 Kilo sacks of coffee through the RK Drum and I always get consistent reliable results.  The coffee always cups very nicely and my customers are pleased.  I am actually starting out as a roaster and found the entry level costs on roasters to be quite prohibitive.  I would recommend this solution to anyone.  Due to our increasing volume, I am thinking about building another setup.  The only drawbacks I can think of is that it is slightly cumbersome removing the pin from the drum door when it's hot and you're trying to cool the roast in a hurry.  However; it only takes a couple of roasts to get the hang of it and you can usually pull the roast, get the pin out and get it into the cooling tray within about 10 seconds.  As to construction, the drum is really a very fine piece of work.  Not a single complaint on its reliability or sturdiness or design.  It really should last a lifetime.  Highly recommended!

Shane Lewis

Old Spanish Main Coffee Company

Flowery Branch, GA

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.

 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

  Just did my first two roasts using your profiles. The results are beautiful!
 Thanks for a great product!!