nice find

My experience going from electric to gas was pretty easy...
I think gas is much easier to use than electric..

Congrats on the find. Looks like it will be a fun restoration project.

Good to see you brought it back home.

SAS wrote: Just arrived yesterday afternoon; a ten year old San Franciscan Sample Roaster. Found on Craig's List in Florida...

I literally browse CL everyday for grinders and roasters, but have been slacking this week. Now I see this post I would have driven damn near to the Panhandle.

Nice find!!

Trials and Tribs

The roaster wouldn't ignite. After checking various components, I found that the rubber disk in the pilot light assembly had gotten off the swing arm that allows gas to flow to the burners. When lighting the burners, one pushes and holds a button that opens this valve. After heat builds up a solenoid holds it open during operation.

In the course of problem solving, I took off the drum assembly and cleaned the burners and igniter, adjusted the pressure regulator, and other cleanups.

What I found interesting was that the drum is completely out of contact with the two burners. There is a double metal roof over the burners. I guess with the perforated back of the drum, this roaster is mostly a convective roaster with some conductive heating. Very interesting and I'll have to adjust my roasting skills to this. How I don't know yet. I think this roaster requires one to adjust the gas to change the heat the beans are exposed to. How much, I'll have to get a feel for it.

I roasted some Honduran beans yesterday, the temp readout wasn't working 'cause I swapped the wires into the wrong terminals of the Omega after cleaning out it's case. The roast went on longer than I was used to on the Quest. Over 7 min to dry, 1Cs at 12:30 and I dropped it at 15:30. I didn't really think that this would be very good coffee, but the cupping was wonderful. Even though it was evening and I usually don't drink the cupping coffee, I drank most of the cup!

Today I tried roasting Brazil Decaf. Things didn't go as expected here either. I fixed the temp readout and took the beans to 445F. They looked like City minus! They smelled done. I'll cup this evening and see what gives. They are for my wife and I hope I didn't blow 300g of greens on a roast she'll hate. She likes the sweet, chocolaty roasts.

Starting out on a new machine is like trying hold a newly caught lively trout in your wet bare hands. I'm trying to maintain control but it has a mind of it's own and I have to react to it's efforts.

With new thermocouples and Phidgets 1048, Artisan is helping me to see what is going on better during roasts. My learning curve isn't so steep now.
Here's the latest effort.


My control of my roaster has improved a lot. During this roast, at each milestone I changed the gas pressure and the air flow. Notice the quick increase in ET and the steady RoR that follows ramp to 1Cs and Development.

With the SF-1, I am increasing gas about a minute before DE in trying to shorting the Ramp phase. I am trying to see how fast I can move a roast to 1Cs. I think that this roaster is just a bit slow, but I haven't explored all my options yet. Next I'll try increased gas but no air for a while. I can drink or give away my beans if I don't like the results.

SAS wrote: With the SF-1, I am increasing gas about a minute before DE in trying to shorting the Ramp phase. I am trying to see how fast I can move a roast to 1Cs. I think that this roaster is just a bit slow, but I haven't explored all my options yet. Next I'll try increased gas but no air for a while. I can drink or give away my beans if I don't like the results.

If you're looking for a faster ramp, you can increase gas another ~minute earlier without significantly impacting the drying phase. If dry gets too fast, decrease charge temp a bit.

Or do what you're doing with a smaller charge and you'll get a faster ramp. So many variables to test to find what you like. Fascinating and fun!