Rocquette Roaster Build

galumay

I posted this over in Homeroasters.org but as some interested aussies may not visit over there I have started a thread here as well,

Well after many years faithful service and hundreds of Kilos roasted, its time to upgrade from the KKTO. I simply cant keep up with the increasing demand for my coffee.

I looked around at commercial machines in the 3-5KG range but its a massive outlay and after discussions with Paul from KKTO I decided to make a 2.3kg fluid bed roaster along the lines of RoasterRob's NZ designs that have featured in threads on Homeroasters.org.

Mine will be mild steel rather than stainless, it features a Duran Glass roasting chamber - 500mm by 150mm and will be fired by a Seivet Pro 86 Torch Kit which has the correct burner for this size roaster.

I am adding a chaff collector as I dont want it just spewing out the vent, I pulled an old aircleaner box out of a Toyota Landcruiser which should do the job perfectly.

I have sourced a 4" 100cfm fan, meant to be nice and quiet, a German Blauberg Turbo fan, about 36db so it should enable me to still hear the cracks.

It will pull air through the bean cooler and then blow up past the burner to fluidise the beans. I will make it with a slide gate to dump the beans.

I am also constructing a feed hopper to go on the side of the steel section above the roasting chamber with a slide gate to load the beans.

Will provide pictures as the build progresses.

Total cost of the build should come in under $1000.

The name I made up this morning given the vertical aspect of these roasters, for anyone that has no idea what I am talking about here is one of RoasterRobs ones in stainless steel,

Brett H

Wow!  Pictures please mate!  What a brilliant idea and brilliant skills you have to modify to suit your needs!  Landy air-filter.... Gold!

FreshCoffee2

Yes, it will be interesting to see the progression from go to woe...for those of us that are interested in all things technical $1000.00 for something that can roast 2.3 kg is a very low price, but of course it doesn't consider your time to design and build and test and modify and rebuild and retest and add on and change, the satisfactions, the failures, etc etc etc. In essence I suppose, its the "hobbyist" cost of materials price rather than the real world "cost" to build a fully functioning and completed unit in toto...Know exactly how that goes   Which is why when you buy a 2.5 kilo commercial roaster it costs a minimum of 10 thou ex factory before its even set up and running. Again...interested to see how this progresses.

galumay

No real news, I have all the components now, just waiting for my tame boilemaker to return from leave and then the actual construction will start!

Brett H

Cool... Take lots of pictures!!

galumay

Well here is a picture of my new 450mm sieve for the bean cooler, I realised I needed a bigger capacity for the Rocquette and some 'back of the envelope' calculations of cylindrical volume suggested the 400mm diameter ones wouldnt be big enough, took a bit to find a 450mm one but this looks very nicely made and should suit the task perfectly. [attachimg=1 width=700]

Brett H

Nice...

bcspark

on 1471428195:

Well here is a picture of my new 450mm sieve for the bean cooler, I realised I needed a bigger capacity for the Rocquette and some 'back of the envelope' calculations of cylindrical volume suggested the 400mm diameter ones wouldnt be big enough, took a bit to find a 450mm one but this looks very nicely made and should suit the task perfectly. [attachimg=1 width=700]I use a stack of two metal sieves 5mm&2.5mm .These were found onsite in mining supplies and are used for fossiking. The reason for two is the 5mm lets the residual chaff through but no normal beans.The 2.5mm catches 90%of chaff and the small and broken beans

Koffee_Kosmo

Galumay and I were discussing the merits of larger roasters well before this project got under way and in the end I suggested and was decided to build a fluid bed roaster from some drawings I had from way back in 2009 / 10 but Im not sure if the drawings have since been refined in any way ? Are you using the blueprint plans I drew up or have you made changes ? My ideas also came from Roaster Rob originaly - so I need to acknowledge that fact KK

galumay

on 1471498299:

Galumay and I were discussing the merits of larger roasters well before this project got under way and in the end I suggested and was decided to build a fluid bed roaster from some drawings I had from way back in 2009 / 10 but Im not sure if the drawings have since been refined in any way ? Are you using the blueprint plans I drew up or have you made changes ? My ideas also came from Roaster Rob originaly - so I need to acknowledge that fact KK

I have modified some aspects of Roaster Rob's original plans, mainly to allow a dump valve set up for roasted beans to bean cooler and a feed valve to allow loading from a hopper. I managed to stalk Rob online and ended up being in contact via Skype so he is helping me with any queries as I go. The critical elements of his original design are the perforated plate specs and the overall dimensions of the different parts of the roaster for the targeted capacity.

Brett H

Brillant!!  It's an amazing design... Can't wait to see it in action! These home roasters are excellent vehicles for er.... home roasters....

galumay

The basic fabrication is now basically complete, should get the Rocquette home in the next couple of weeks for final assembly and then testing! Photos will obviously follow when it arrives!

Koffee_Kosmo

Yes I am waiting to see how it comes together for you Thanks for keeping us in the loop KK

galumay

Ok, after several months of teasing, here is the first photo of the beast! Its far from complete, but the basics have been fabbed and we will do the rest at home.

Koffee_Kosmo

on 1479765366:

Ok, after several months of teasing, here is the first photo of the beast! Its far from complete, but the basics have been fabbed and we will do the rest at home.

I am keen to see what this baby can do It also looks like a totem pole art sculpture  ??? KK

Brett H

Very cool!! 

galumay

Well its been 9 months in the making, but we are nearly there!! click here for video

Koffee_Kosmo

:thumb: I am very happy that you have made forward progress Keep the updates coming KK

galumay

Yes, got there in the end KK! Gawd knows I need it, picked up another customer this week and the poor old KKTO runs flat out for 8 hours one day per week just to keep up with the basic orders! Hopefully will fire up the gas tomorrow and all being well we may get the first roast out of it!

Koffee_Kosmo

on 1491471865:

Yes, got there in the end KK! Gawd knows I need it, picked up another customer this week and the poor old KKTO runs flat out for 8 hours one day per week just to keep up with the basic orders! Hopefully will fire up the gas tomorrow and all being well we may get the first roast out of it!

That KKTO has kept up with your demand without complaint - worth every cent you paid for it (if I do say so myself) Let's hope I haven't let you down by recommending this new roaster design KK

galumay

That is very true KK, but at the end of the day if the Rocquette can do 2.5kg in 15 mins or so it will be 4 times faster than the KKTO - and that is a direct impact on my hourly rate. I think you steered me on exactly the right course, the alternative was spending $15-20k on a commercial roaster - not to mention the enjoyment the project has brought to everyone involved!

Brett H

Brilliant stuff!  I'm pretty sure Dominion in Townsville uses or at least used a similar roaster with terrific results!

askthecoffeeguy

looks like a great design I'd like to see some detailed photos - my brother is a boiler maker I want to chat to him about building something similar!

galumay

I will take some detailed pics, there are some things that we can improve on, but it is functional as is, I roasted 10kg on it yesterday. I expected to sacrifice some batches but the very first roast on it looks fine. I will do some blind tasting when it de-gasses a bit. I also have RoasterRobs drawings which were largely the basis we used for construction.

galumay

Here is the first roast from it, a Nicuraguan bean. I know its hard to tell anything from a photo, but at least the roast is nice and even, also the colour is consistent thru the beans when I bite one in half, and it tastes like coffee when I ate a couple of beans! (there were a couple of scorched beans, they were the 'indicator beans' in the cold testing, I didnt get them all out so they got roasted twice!)

Brett H

That looks bonza! Now to install the taste app......

galumay

Another pretty crappy video, I find its pretty busy 'driving' the roaster at this stage and I havent got a lot of good footage, but this gives a bit of an idea. I am roasting about 30kg per week with it, but there are still a number of refinements and improvements to be made before I would consider it 'finished'!

Koffee_Kosmo

That video has a slow-mo dancing theme happening  :thumb: KK

Brett H

Spot on KK.  That is one sexy video!!

askthecoffeeguy

wow great video thats one good looking beast! P

UNM

I'm curious if you are using any monitoring hardware/software? I assume you have some thermocouples, possibly airflow/gasflow metering. Always been fascinated by fluid bed roasters, probably because (like many) I started with the most basic one.