My pipe just slid right in and nothing had to be loosened. I could feel if the pipe was touching either the elements or the drum and as it just sits in a resting state it touches nothing.

My roaster is newer than Toms but is still the thick drum model, even though I changed to a thinner drum. The tryer placement and the temp gauge are in the old positions.

samuellaw178 wrote:Just thinking out loud..for those who have the inlet tube mod, should we expect the delta MET/ET to be lower(or BT reading for an empty roaster during warm up)? Any way to test if heated air is indeed flowing through the drum properly?

I am not sure. BTUs result in delta ET. Arpi's heat gun added BTU and therefore did have a big impact (if a bit cumbersome). Painting the drum black adds BTU (by taking an unused portion of energy and transferring it to the beans - radiation -> conductive -> convective). I actually like the blackened drum. My drop weight is 225.

I hardly think this mod (which I did quite a few months ago) makes a big difference in BTU - if anything I believe it shuffles hot/cold spots around (especially given the drilled drum mod). Perhaps if the pipe was wound around (or partially encapsulated) the heaters as a heat exchanger it might...

In regards to air flow, air is pulled from the front chute (when the chute cover is closed). It gets pulled from the gaps between the drum and the front/back supports. Many of us drilled holes, or shortened the drum in the back so air flows from the back forward. That is very close to the rear entry port and is the reason for the tube (so that a smaller percentage of cold air gets in the drum). Still the same BTU though...

FotonDrv wrote:As Tom has said, painting the drum is not necessary with the rear perforated drum unless you want to roast larger batches.

I have been roasting 200-225g roasts with a blackened drum pretty easily but when I lower the batch to 150g-175g I have to be careful to not scorch the beans.

I HAD the thick original drum but the new drum is thinner. Whether it is the thinner drum or the perforations or both the roaster seems to be able to change roasting temps more easily.

I did the copper tube Mod and it changed things even more but at this point I have not done enough roasts to make a coherent statement, other than I don't see a downside to it.

Thanks! Mine is a 06/2014 model. Thicker drum. I might shoot an email to see how much the perforated drums are. While I have the DIY spirit, my end results usually end up in loss of blood and/or mini disasters.

When you send Molly an email send a photo of the front of your roaster. When I asked about the drum she asked for me to send a photo to make sure they sent the correct drum (rotation differences I believe).

Roger that! Email sent with pic and now paid for. Look forward to gettng it. Good stuff as I will be getting my Phidgets 1048 this week to move to Artisan.

I tried the TMD 56 and I must be really stupid because I cannot get that darn thing to operate and the manual was written by a software code writer; it is NOT intuitive!! So I gave up on Artisan and just read the temps on a different meter that just reads and does nothing tricky.

I really hope that won't be the case with Phidgets. Translating code-speak in the manual is not something I want to do.

But to recap: to do about 227g batches with the new perforated drum that I have coming, I shouldn't have to blacken it? I don't plan on going over 227-230g.

Mine IS black just because I did the old drum black. If you do not blacken it the possible scorching of the beans might be less, in other words less care taken to get a decent roast. I have to pay attention and I roast at a slightly lower current (amp) setting.

Got a new drum on the way... I will probably not paint it for now and see how the roasts go. Right now all stock (thin drum) I feel that 200g is about my max to where I have some control over the roast without going too high on the MET. I also plan on doing the copper pipe mod as it seems easy enough to do. Just so I get this right...I'm sweating on a threaded fitting to the end (to stop pipe from falling in). Theres no other holes drilled in pipe? I feel like I saw someones where they had holes drilled throughout it. I could be mistaken. Then it appears the pipe will just lay flat on the bottom case of the roaster.

I may see where I am at too with the new drum but I will be around 227g. I have to do some reading about the copper pipe mod. I've seen pictures and such but haven't found the idea(S) behind it. Yet!