Anyways, here's my Quest M3 at it's current state. Further mods are coming, namely external bean cooling which will accomplish the task much faster and allow me to separate the two processes if I choose.
The stock tryer handle on the Quest is wimpy and inadequate. It's awkward to hold and it sits close enough to the face of the roaster that it's easy to accidentally touch the hot metal inadvertently. A custom longer tryer not only functions 20x better, it looks way cool. The rest of the knobs are the same Bacote to match. The longer knobs make things easier to grab as well.
Which would you rather have to grab and hold on to?
I've mentioned in the past that I find using Orphan Espresso's flexible neck flashlight indispensable when roasting, since I can direct a very strong white light directly into the viewing window to properly monitor the roast in between tryer sampling for sniffing or closer inspection. The only downside to using the light was the slight jeweling/radial grain to the front of the roaster face really creates quite a bit of irritating glare and reflection of that light, so I also painted the front face in the same matte black. Altogether, this little baby is a dream to use. It works just so darn well.
Ignore the messy stovetop I got some gritty sooty stuff on the surfaces while taking it apart, I just quickly set the roaster there to snap this picture after finishing reassembling it after painting it. But it shows how the OE light sits perfectly perched on my ovens door handle and aims right into the viewing glass.
The shot below shows a simple wrap of tape around the light that keeps it from rotating during use.
