KKTO Home Build

Lacehim · December 2011

Nice vids Mr K. Give that old one a bash from me. I was going to do while you where here anyway. Re spring mod, happy to help and I think it will make a differance. Best mod I did to my KKTO was to get the twin blade from KK. Less noise and better adjatation. Give it ago. It's 95% done, and not a bad job for what it cost or the time it took to put it all together. Now it's all about the coffee and what's in the cup! :coffee2:

Kelsey · December 2011

on 1323751747:

Awesome!!! What weight of greens is in thesecond video?

600 grams

on 1323752205:

Nice vids Mr K. Give that old one a bash from me. I was going to do while you where here anyway. Re spring mod, happy to help and I think it will make a differance. Best mod I did to my KKTO was to get the twin blade from KK. Less noise and better adjatation. Give it ago. It's 95% done, and not a bad job for what it cost or the time it took to put it all together. Now it's all about the coffee and what's in the cup! :coffee2:

Yep, that's the plan - I'm going to pop out to Bunnings after dinner and get a fireblanket, finalise my cooler (just gotta cut the holes) and do a roast. I know I should start off small..... but I'm really tempted to just throw 600g in and go for it... :D

Lacehim · December 2011

I used zip ties to keep my fireblanket on. Good luck. 600 should be fine, just dont' leave yourself with a small amount if you only have that harrar to roast. PS. Bean Green was next day delivery! ???

Kelsey · December 2011

I saw that! If it works out tonight, I'll be putting in an order with BeanGreen.

Kelsey · December 2011

Preheating now.

Kelsey · December 2011

Aaaaaand we're away!! Already longer than my first popper roast!

Kelsey · December 2011

First crack came at 11.30mins, with what I thought was SC coming at 15.40mins. Pulled it almost immediately. First crack was relatively easy to hear, SC less so. The final roast looks a little uneven, but not worse than some professional roasts I've had, not sure if that's a characteristic of the harrar or not. Either way, I need to align the driveshaft more precisely (thanks for the tips on that KK) and get the springs on the agitator blade. I'm sure that at least some of the unevenness was down to the blade performance. No matter what, I was going to roast tonight and I'm not unhappy with the results. Thanks for all your help do far KK, Lacehim and AM!

Lacehim · December 2011

Kelsey. Wow. Nice roast mate. Loved the write up, you really built it up! :laugh: The harrar I roasted looked just like yours, very uneven. If you've placed your BG order you should find that other beans will roast differently and more evenly. SC is quieter from my experience, but is usually accompanied by an increase in smoke too. At that stage it's okay to lift the lid and have a look and listen for a sec. Great job, and it's been a fun experience watching you building it. Great to see the results after all that hard work!

Your going to be busy over Christmas and New Year roasting to you hearts content! Keep us updated with progress and future roasts won't you.

Kelsey · December 2011

Thanks Michael! Ideally AM will make it up this week and we'll all catch up and work out the kinks. A couple of little hiccups:

[li]I needed to remove the handles on the inner pot as they stuck up at an angle that prevented the TO from sitting on the top with a nice seal[/li] [li]At the last moment the driveshaft wobble got worse causing a lot of scraping and in desperation to just give it a try I removed the silicone seal between the inner and outer pots and simply tucked in the fire blanket to form a seal. This allowed the pot to sit a little lower and the agitator a little higher[/li] [li]The wobble still caused a bit of 'knocking' in the pot and occasional jumps. I had to hold the pot down lightly to keep it in place[/li] The first I'll fix by either inverting the handles (doesn't seem possible) or by mounting another handle. Everything else will be fixed by sorting out the driveshaft and agitator. All in all, a success!

Brett H · December 2011

Looking very promising mate. A bit longer and you be on the money. Nice work!!!

Kelsey · December 2011

on 1323785240:

Looking very promising mate. A bit longer and you be on the money. Nice work!!!

You're not wrong! Morning After Report: I have two things to report:

[li]It's pretty under-roasted[/li] [li]The Breville Smart Grinder is not a good companion for the home roaster[/li] I definitely need to get a hold of a Hario, Porlex or other cheap hand-grinder, because the BCG800 just doesn't cut it on under-roasted beans. Brett, it now makes me think the problem it had with the finca wasn't the burnt beans but the under-done ones. It's a shame, because the BCG800 is in all other respects a fine machine. It just clearly doesn't have the motor power behind it necessary to chew through beans that are lightly roasted, at least not on an espresso setting. Back to the roaster tho - I need to make the adjustments spoken of in the previous post and get another roast going before I run out of beans.

Lacehim · December 2011

Order some beans from BG. The Harar is uneven and was probably not the best for a first roast. Your always welcome up here, we can iron out the issues and roast the two side by side.

Kelsey · December 2011

Sounds good - I might see if I can get clear to come up tomorrow.

Koffee_Kosmo · December 2011

It looks like the roast needed a few more minutes Possibly the bright light of the TO through you off a little While learning and getting used to your roaster, don't be afraid to let a roast run longer and finish it by a visual colour check Both crack stages will emit smoke as an indication of its impending start KK

Kelsey · December 2011

There was very little smoke at all during the process - only a few wafts. I wonder if my previous 30 minute 'de-chaffing run' had something to do with it? But you're right, the light did throw me off - it made it look much darker than it actually was at the time. I'll definitely let it run longer. In our phone call last night you mentioned (I think) a sealant to help keep the drive shaft straight? My little boy was being a wriggler during our conversation, so I was a little distracted and now I'm not certain - can you advise please?

Koffee_Kosmo · December 2011

on 1323815827:

There was very little smoke at all during the process - only a few wafts. I wonder if my previous 30 minute 'de-chaffing run' had something to do with it? But you're right, the light did throw me off - it made it look much darker than it actually was at the time. I'll definitely let it run longer. In our phone call last night you mentioned (I think) a sealant to help keep the drive shaft straight? My little boy was being a wriggler during our conversation, so I was a little distracted and now I'm not certain - can you advise please?

Permatex High Temp silicone red. Also comes in Copper both are good but copper is little better Temperature range -65

Kelsey · December 2011

Thanks KK

Kelsey · December 2011

Just got Borat's sprung agitator blade in the mail - he sent it express post which was just awesome! Thanks mate, much appreciated!

Kelsey · December 2011

Today the missus, my little boy and I headed up to Lacehim's place for homemade woodfired pizza, beer and coffee roasting. (would make an ideal venue for a social, if Lacehim doesn't mind me proposing that option!) I'd already performed some adjustments to help with the drive shaft alignment and although there's a little more to do in that regard it's performing ok. The most important factor was receiving Borat's spring-modded v1 agitator blade and Lacehim similarly modifying one of the others. Worked a charm. Noise is now massively reduced to the point where I can actually hear the beans and there's no more crunching sound as the beans get caught under the blade. Looks a lot cleaner in operation too. We roasted a blend (which has escaped my addled brain - we had an attempted break-in at my place at 3am this morning, so I'm a little tired right now) that progressed almost perfectly, with only a minor hiccup when a misplaced beer bottle disrupted the wiring and caused the motor to grind to a halt. Fortunately this was in the first few minutes of operation and was sorted quickly. Didn't time it, all up it ran for about 20 minutes and was pulled on R2C. I'm extremely happy with the end result:

And here's a quick snippet of the roast in action: [embed=425,349]

Thanks again to Lacehim, KK and Borat for their help with this project - it's been invaluable! I've got a couple of minor tweaks to make and then the roasting station will be setup properly in the garage. Once my BeanGreen order arrives I plan to have a crack at the Java Kalistat as a straight SO.

Koffee_Kosmo · December 2011

That spring mod on the agitator is so smooth Glad its worked for you as well as I designed it to work Nice looking roast result Kelsey :thumb: The beauty of the KKTO roaster design is its highly tweakable, and once set up the way you want it then it will work flawlessly for years KK

Lacehim · December 2011

Kelsey, our blend was 40% Brazil Sweet, 35% PNG elephant 25% Indian MM. KK, one thing we did notice is that once in a while the pot with the agitator jumps slightly. Doesn't seem to effect the agitation, the whole top pot moves, the bottom pot doesn't. Very quiet with the springs on, and they work a treat.

Must remember not to put a beer on top of the wires! Lukcy we where only 2 mins into the roast! :doh: I think there must be a loose wire there somewhere, but I wasn't going to go looking just incase I broke it again!

Thanks for making it a great day Kelsey. Loved meeting your family too.

Kelsey · December 2011

I reckon it's the MM that gives it that strong flavour. Not unpleasant by any means, but very distinct. I'm going to try to make the connections between the motor, drive socket and drive shaft a bit more secure as there's a lot of play in there at present and I think that's the reason for the odd hop! Michael, we had a great day yesterday, it was so lovely to get the families together, our kids played so nicely. Thanks again for all your help!

Koffee_Kosmo · January 2012

I am sure others are interested so - I am posting to request an update How is it all going with the roaster KK

Kelsey · January 2012

I've done very little to improve the driveshaft - drilling out the hole on the stand made enough of an improvement that I'm just going to leave it for now. I have some ideas for my KKTO mkII, when I have the garage and tools to build it - essentially I'd update the driveshaft using a drive extension set and grind down and tap the top to attach the agitator blades. I think this would give a more stable connection to the motor as the existing connector's just a little wobbly. That said, I'm roasting every 10 days or so, weather permitting. No problems at all - so damn easy. I just mix up about 600g of greens, preheat the KKTO at around 50 degrees, thrown in the beans, leave at 50 deg for 5 mins, then crank her up. Usually about 9 - 11 minutes later I hear first crack and then 6 - 8 minutes after that comes 2nd crack. Dump, cool, bag, wait (ok, not really), drink. My wife now believes my home roasted coffee is the best coffee she's had anywhere. She's having a hard time dealing with the DiBella decaf I got her the other day before my BeanGreen order of decaf arrived. So all in all, an unqualified success!! Thanks KK (and Lacehim and Borat and BrettH!). One question tho - what do you reckon the minimum batch size would be without adding bulldog clips or performing other mods?

Koffee_Kosmo · January 2012

One question tho - what do you reckon the minimum batch size would be without adding bulldog clips or performing other mods?

Should be around 300 grams Do a little dry run experiment - The beans should be picked up by the blade and the wave mass of the beans And beans should not be left on the sides untouched Hope that makes sense KK

Kelsey · January 2012

Makes perfect sense, thanks KK - about what I thought.

Lacehim · January 2012

I agree. 300gm, and I can do up to 600gm. After that it's just a bit slower, and rolls into 20mins. I only used the bull dog clips to roast say 100gms for a few siphon brews.

Glad your having fun Kelsey. I'm happy to help with your MK2, and you know you can always play about in my garage if you need more space/tools.

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