Huky500 drum roaster

[az erik]

After getting my start with a popper and different length extension cords I moved up to a Bemhor. Then from the Bemhor to a Hottop B. Then Hottop B with TC4C and Roastlogger. Now I have moved up to a solid drum 500g gas fired machine and um wow. I only got to run 4 pounds through it last night, I have a learning curve with the machine and Artisan, and with dealing with larger loads/smoke!

The machine it's self is very simple. It's well built and has a few things I am really starting to enjoy, like the trier and gas. With the solid drum config and the 72 rpm motor it's pretty quiet and compact. Over all the machine is stunningly small. Just barely larger than the HT, but with tons more moving parts, fans, ducts, pipes, screens, etc. The move from electric to gas was a night and day eye opener. One thing for sure is airflow makes a big difference in the machine behavior.

The gauge on the front of the machine is in C and is for the drum. It doesn't react as fast as I'd like and the conversion to c/f in my head is very slow. Though I do find myself using it to get a general understanding of where the drum temp is I do use a MET probe with the Center301 dual thermo running USB to my laptop -> Artisan. I had read a couple of other statements about MET 'ceilings' being around 500f before tipping occurred. I didn't witness this last night as I had accidentally run one roast well into 625f MET. I rocketed right into 2c on that one, WAY early. 1c started around 3:30! Whoops, I'll try to drink it anyway.

Airflow is something neat and it appears in my case really needed. Due to using a 15kBTU Iwanti burner the flame on full gets sent out the sides of the Huky, The side vents were quite red twice. If I bump the fan to 30/40% via a Variac it actually pulls the flame up. This in turn causes MET to rise and the internal drum temp to rise about 2f/sec. Pumping the fan to 50% causes a rise of about 4f/sec MET. Without airflow the drum and MET rise quite slowly. Sadly I did not find a way to drop the MET or drum temp fairly quickly. Cutting the fire totally and ramping the fan to 100% started a MET drop about 30 seconds later.

I am very happy with this little machine and look forward to many more roasts with it. I did use almost a full 8oz of butane in 50 min of running the roaster, this is good for me as I plan 4 to 6 lbs in a roasting day. Clean up of the machine is easy so far as I only have 4 roasts on it, but it does drop chaff on the burner, which randomly flamed up.

Second roast was a success

Drop actually happened at 2min. I have to find the shortcuts for Artisan

The 4th roast kinda got out of control, lots


No pics of the actual machine yet, was too busy running back to back roasts haha. ET/BT are reversed on these.

The machine and I are in Chandler,AZ if anyone wants to take a look, run a roast let me know.

[az erik]

Snapped shots when i ran home today.
This is a small craftsman toolbox, it has enough room for it, but just barely. The wood spacers under the burner are because this burner is about 3/4 shorter than his supplied IR burner that I skipped in favor of an open flame. I'll work on venting as at one point I was trying the trier only to get a face full of smoke from the fan.


Does drop a little chaff on the burner but this was the remnants after 4 #'s last night. Beans themselves are quite clean.

[hankua]

Congratulations on the Huky! It's a pretty thing besides roasting coffee. 

I did some air flow measurements on the Huky using a anemometer with the standard butterfly valve. Kind of surprising how sensitive the air valve is. Although the numbers are not in front of me, vent closed still had quite a bit of air flow, and would use 1/8 and 1/4 settings as well.

The instructions with the roaster are wild, dropping in really hot with no air. Is this with the vent tube off? If your in the drying stage why would you run with no air instead of low air? 

The Huky is a hobbyist roaster built by one. I don't think Mr. Li ever expected it to be a huge hit in the world wide home roasting community.

[az erik]

Last night I ran 400g of decaf and fixed the probes so Artisan was helpful. Realized the 15kBTU burner has more than enough umph to keep or raise the MET after drop as noted here. This still happened way faster than I hoped and it was the last of a decaf that was well over a year old.


The later roast with the temps dropped and me still climbing on the heat at charge. I think I'm going to stop doing that depending on how these turned out. I ran the fan at 15% (Variac controlled) right up to 1c, then about 65% through 1st, fully cut the flame, then relit about 1 minute after 1c ended. 100% fan just before drop.


Going back and looking at others curves I'm still coming up WAY aggressive, backing down the heat is harder than I thought. For a hobbist roaster I couldn't be happier.
This took 90 min vs the 5ish hours before

[jano]

If I'm reading your start temps right, they're just a bit too high Get the BT/ET/MET to below 500 before you start.

That should get you going towards a decent ramp towards 1C in the 8-12 minute range.

[JW]

I agree with Jano. From my experience (I'm at about 900 roasts with the Huky), you should aim for a 200F turn around , 5-6 minutes to 300F, 3:30-5:00 from 300F to 1C. Finishing time and temp is up to you, but generally I go to at least 2:20 seconds (most often more) from the start of 1C to drop.

[az erik]

Yeah it was the aim I was totally overshooting. Stepping on the gas at charge. Good thing is it's drinkable. And good enough to haul a pound with me to Maui next week. Some of these turned way to fast. I am finding good results in the 450 MET range, just need to keep it there and stop futzing with everything else. This roaster moves a lot faster than a HT for sure, least with my lead foot