Thanks for the info danetrainer! My roaster serial is #20255.

We use the exact same roaster daily in our shop. Replace the stock probe with a 5 inch long Omega and bend it in an S-shape so it sits in the bean mass. Otherwise it's kind of a hybrid BT/ET where it's at now. Get it made with two leads. One lead goes to the PID, the other to some interface so you can use a roast logging software like Artisan. We added and ET probe at the 2 o'clock position on the face plate. The stock analog thermometer in the exhaust doesn't tell you much.

There is a lot of airflow with the bigger Baldor. Great for cooling, but too much to use fully closed when roasting. Opening the damper all the way pulls most of the air through the cooling tray (you'll hear it much louder). Turning it 90 degrees from that position closes off the cooling tray and pulls most of the air from the drum. 45 degrees from fully open is plenty of air toward the end of the roast.

You won't be able to fix the stock tryer. Only way is to have the face plate drilled out to accept a bigger tryer. 4.4 lbs is too big a load in this roaster. We roast 3.3 lbs and through experimentation, that turned out to be the sweet spot.

Great info Clint! Thank you. Do you know what the part # is for that Omega probe is? There are so many options.

I have some 1/2 lb samples that I would like to roast. I know that I won't be able to dial in a profile, but is there a way to roast a batch this small and get a general idea of the beans flavor? If so what would be a good charge temp/gas setting for washed beans?

BoldJava have replied to this thread earlier. I know he agrees in that you should start with learning your roaster with "sweet spot" or full charges first. You can do that with cheap/stale beans. Once you've learnt the roaster (and basic roasting principles) as such, there should really be no problem in roasting 1/2 lb samples. I've roasted a number of 1/4 lb samples on my Huky500, where the BT values are way off (but I still log the roasts in Artisan, more for the record and having Artisan as a notepad for cupping notes etc.). Using "Sensory milestones" (smell etc.) and trying to create a standard profile for those samples can be very helpful for the planning of future roasts.

Lower the charge temp to around 350° and gas around 1 KPA
If you don't have artisan or a bean probe it maybe hard to get in the ball park as I have a North TJ-067 1KG

Edtbjon- Thanks for the info. I plan on doing full batches, but for now all I have is some sample beans. I will be ordering beans this week!

Jk- Thanks!

The probe was a custom order over the phone from Omega. It was a TJ36, 5 inch long dual lead thermocouple. I don't know if you'll have much luck roasting a half pound in the roaster. We had tried some 1 lb roasts and found that the heat output even on the lowest setting was too much for only 1 lb of beans

Edit: Found the receipt. Hope this helps.

Thanks! That is helpful. Do you feel like it made a pretty substantial difference in your readings?