Homemade Roaster Smoke Exhaust Box (with pictures)

Discuss roast levels and profiles for espresso, equipment for roasting coffee.
trundle
Posts: 25
Joined: 14 years ago

#1: Post by trundle »

I got a Behmor 1600 coffee bean roaster for Christmas. On light roasts (1/4 lb on P1, about 8:30) the smell it creates isn't too strong. When I moved towards the darker roasts, it got quite strong. My roaster is in my basement kitchen and the smell hangs around for days. No range hood or window nearby to help me out.

I designed this 2 stage unit using a bathroom exhaust fan to extract the hot air created by the roaster. The exhaust fan on the roaster is at the back so I was hoping to move it to the second stage before it got into the room. The air from stage 2 is moved through a HEPA filter and then re-enters the room.

The power enters the unit and goes to the plug box. Power to the exhaust fan comes from the plug box A dimmer switch is used to control the fan speed. It was on FULL for my first test and it wasn't too loud.

I was unable to find examples of this on any coffee websites but I'm sure there must be something out there. Anyways, this is my v1.0.

There are mistakes in it but I was making it up as I went along.

The plug ended up being in the wrong place but as you can see, I didn't have many options.
The jig saw blade was too coarse and splintered my plywood (wood filler will come into play here).

My access panel is temporary and will work on a new one. I need to have Stage 2 accessible to replace the HEPA filter.

The actual construction only took about 4 hours and materials cost about $100.

I would appreciate hearing from you with suggestions for improvements.

Update I bought a roll of activated charcoal filter cloth and a grill the same size as I have on the front. This covers the air intake into Stage 2. Thank you for the tip.

Finished Project


Top View


Stage 2



Interior



HEPA Filter

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cygnusx1
Posts: 182
Joined: 11 years ago

#2: Post by cygnusx1 »

Post a few pics if you can...

ira
Team HB
Posts: 5497
Joined: 16 years ago

#3: Post by ira »

Looks good, If I was doing it I probably would have looked for a surplus 8" muffin fan or gutted an old computer for it's cooling fans. No reason to pay for the housing of the bathroom fan and they don't tend to move much air. Also if you ever replace the filter, there are filters for soldering and welding that combine HEPA and carbon that are better and killing the smell.

http://www.amazon.com/Carbon-Filter-Com ... d_sim_hi_1

And lastly, a pre-filter of any sort will help the expensive HEPA filter last much longer. It's quite surprising how much these cheesy filters pick up in the filter I use while soldering:

http://www.amazon.com/Pre-Filter-Hakko- ... m_sbs_hi_3

Ira

trundle (original poster)
Posts: 25
Joined: 14 years ago

#4: Post by trundle (original poster) »

This is all very new to me.

Obviously it depends on how much I roast, but how long could I expect the HEPA filter to be used before I need to replace it? Would discoloration be the indicator ?

The bathroom exhaust fan I used moves 100 cfm. I picked it up at Home Depot as "open box" item. A computer power supply may have cost me almost as much but sure, that would be an option if it was just laying about.

ira
Team HB
Posts: 5497
Joined: 16 years ago

#5: Post by ira »

The open box makes it a much better choice! If the HEPA is expensive use a prefilter, anything from home depot you can cut in 1/4s that fits in front is perfect. Silly to waste the HEPA filtering big dust.

Ira

Bozo
Posts: 3
Joined: 10 years ago

#6: Post by Bozo »

Wow looks good but I use my downstairs fireplace and close the glass doors. Have a 12" fan that sits on top of my Behmor and I use a 4' fan to cool the beans, cost less than $20, Bozo

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JK
Posts: 626
Joined: 12 years ago

#7: Post by JK »

Very Nice Job..
All you need is some Plastic Wood to seal the edges, then sand and paint it..
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