A chance thrift store visit landed me with a 3$ popper and the rest was history.

Looking to improve (lengthen) my roasts. I tried a lot of things suggested here--stirring, shaking, cheap extension cords, 50 ft extension cords, etc.

Anyways the other day I went to about 10 thrift stores and scored myself 4 more poppers. I have 2 Pumpers, a Poppery II, and a kitchen gourmet.

These all can roast more beans than my previous popper so it was a win, but of course I wanted more.

I decided to hot rod my popper and enable a sort of quick change feature.

Materials:

Radio Shack
Model: 273-1512 Transformer (12.99)

Home Depot
2 gang metal electrical box (4.85)
Dimmer Switch (4.95)

Harbor Freight
Router Speed Control (15.99) (had 20% off coupon)
Gloves (free) (not needed but they were free)

Already Had at home
Old computer power cord
various electrical connectors
shrink wrap
wire

Using guides already published I opened up these machines to separate the heater from the fan.



Both heating wires(red and white) are on the white(-) side of the power cord, and I left the other side of the power cord as is.

The fan wires are extended with wires scavenged from my old motorcycle lights. They are disconnecting fittings which leaves me able to swap out poppers.

I feed the new wires through the existing hole and modify the strain relief seen below:


Using an exacto knife I cut off a little piece of plastic which allows enough room for the new wires to be held in place. This may be hard to see but if you take yours off it may become more clear.


A little electrical tape to make it nice:


Fan controller and router for heat:



The Fan wires connect to the transformer and dimmer switch, and the original power cord is plugged into the router control. Both boxes are plugged into the wall and now you have separate fan and heat controls!


Picture of the unit together:


Hot swappable popcorn makers:



I will try to take a video later and can do a wiring diagram if anyone needs it.

I built about the same thing around an iRoast with the electronics gutted, except I put a PID on the heat. Easy to do once you understand the basic principles.