Thanks... They are pretty easy to make if you have a sheet metal roller, a shear, a drill press... Once you buy the perforated metal (I used stainless for 1 and aluminum for 1). The only other thing is to buy the stove pipe end caps, angled metal, the rotisserie rod kit and a pop rivet gun. If you go with all stainless your material costs will skyrocket. I forget now but for the stainless perforated metal, the caps and the angled metal; it was about 3 times the cost of aluminum.
It helps to have a good way to cut and drill the angled steel (I think I used 1.5" stock) and also the end caps so that you have a good center and no wobble to the drum once it is in the roaster.
It is also necessary to have some way of cutting the sheet metal. If you were to use 16 gauge stainless that is an issue and you may have to find a shop that could cut the length and width for you. However if you were to use say 20 gauge one could probably use a good pair of metal snips since it is perforated metal.
I made one 7" basket and one 8" basket so I could have some variance in the height over the heat source. It does make a difference... I cut the length of these baskets so that I had the maximum surface area in the roaster/grill.
The motor I bought from McMaster Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/#electric-motors/=aqczr can be ordered to turn from 4 rpm up to I think it is 200 rpm, but anything over 75 rpm would not have the torque to turn a drum with beans in it. I got one that turns at 20 rpm which may be a bit slow but I seem to get consistent roasts.
I know that there are people that sell these on Ebay and as far as I know they can be made to your specifications if you want... I am not sure of the costs though. I found a drum on ebay about 2 - 3 years ago and I forget if it was one a guy had bought and did not use or if it was from one of the people that made and sold them... But I remember it was going for about half the asking price of others. It was made almost identically to the way I had made mine but with 20gauge aluminum and standard galvanized steel end caps... I guess there are only so many ways to make a drum of this design.
Since I have access to a shop I took the cheapest way out.

Gene in the Northeast - from the kitchen

My recently modified Hottop, "downgraded" to a "B" panel. I added two thermocouples, hooked to a Omega HH506RA Dual Input, High Accuracy Datalogger/Thermometer.



Click the link to my blog below for more information about the installation.

cfsheridan wrote:My recently modified Hottop, "downgraded" to a "B" panel. I added two thermocouples, hooked to a Omega HH506RA Dual Input, High Accuracy Datalogger/Thermometer.

Click the link to my blog below for more information about the installation.

Chad -

Nicely done.

Jim

My little set up in the kitchen. I started with the Fresh Roast +8 (in the back to the right) and quickly discovered that to get decent roast consistency and control I needed something more. Hence the Hottop. I use a cheap type K digital thermometer to measure the bean mass temp. I store my green beans in the containers to the left.

plexus wrote:My little set up in the kitchen. I started with the Fresh Roast +8 (in the back to the right) and quickly discovered that to get decent roast consistency and control I needed something more. Hence the Hottop. I use a cheap type K digital thermometer to measure the bean mass temp. I store my green beans in the containers to the left.

You've got an excellent table setup there.

Has anyone got a garage wall-mount canister vacuum in their roasting setup? I keep seeing them at Costco and getting the old green eyes....

cfsheridan wrote:Has anyone got a garage wall-mount canister vacuum in their roasting setup? I keep seeing them at Costco and getting the old green eyes....

I am not sure this is what you mean about a canister vacuum, but I have mounted an cooker hood from an old kitchen in my 'roasting grarage'. This works great to keep the smoke out of the room....... Or are you talking about a vacum cleaner to keep clean lines around the machine?

Anyway here is a picture of my little roasting corner

is that an old electrolux? it kind of looks like a Hottop

In fact, the cooker hood is actually a electrolux