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Home |
Popper Roasting |
a Gas Grill Roaster |
Cooler |
Grill Roasting |
a Coffee Tree |
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 I started with a Char-Broil Quickset Gas grill, 40,000 BTU. I paid $169. 00 at Home Depot. This is a large no frills grill with no side burners, bun warmers, but a lot of room inside the grill. I purchased a Universal grill thermometer and mounted it near the front handle of the grill cover, which is about the same height as a lower part of the roasting chamber. I also purchased a Universal rotisserie kit and used most of the parts, but replaced the motor with a used reduced gear motor from a printing press ink agator. I put a 1 1/2" pulley on the motor and a 4 pulley on the rotisserie shaft. This gives me about 20 RPM. The original motor was about 5 RPM with the wind behind it.  The roasting chamber was made from a 24 X 36 sheet of perforated aluminum, 1 angle aluminum, 2-8 stainless steel stove pipe caps, a sheet of 22 gauge steel cut into a 4 spoke support wheel, and the rotisserie shaft and fittings from a Universal rotisserie kit. I purchased everything except the stainless steel end caps at Home Depot. I found the end caps at a stove pipe dealer on the web and paid about $19.00 a piece. I could have probably found them at a local heating supply store, but I did not have the time to locate this during working hours. Ideally I would like to have had an 8 perforated stainless steel cylinder fabricated, but I did not have time to pursue this during business hours.  The rotisserie shaft runs though the drive side end cap, roasting chamber, a four spoke support 2/3 of the way through the chamber, and the removable end cap and handle. The end cap on the drive end of the chamber is pop riveted on with the rotisserie fitting lock/food prongs extending through drilled holes into the chamber. This holds the chamber in place on the shaft and the forks help engage the cylinder to keep engage to the rotating shaft. I also used the rotisserie kit rotation guide/fittings on either end of the shaft to hold or support the shaft on the grill mounts. I found the center of the end caps and drilled a 3/16 hole and then used a 3/8" wood chisel to hammer an X shaped score pattern across the hole to mark the square rotisserie shaft. Next, I placed the cap on the floor supported by wood underneath with a 1 hole drilled to the top piece to allow for the shaft to be pounded through. I hammered the pointed end of the shaft though the cap and the X score I made gave way and I got a fairly tight X shaped hole for the shaft.  The support spoke holds the rotisserie shaft in place when the end cap is removed and provides support to the fairly flexible cylinder.  The removable end cap has a square hole punched in it and the handle. The handle is needed to have something to pull on to remove the end cap to dump out the roasted coffee. The cap is actually too tight, I probably have too many rivets in the cylinder under it. The cap collar is 3, it should probably be cut back to 1 1/2 for easier removal. That stainless is a bear to cut or drill, I am saving that project for a winter weekend when Im real board and want to torture myself.  Having read of others experiences building gas grill roasters and their success with a rotisserie motor, I was not satisfied with the snail speed of not much more than 4 RPM of the original rotisserie motor. With larger batches, 4-5 lb, I wanted faster rotation of the roasting chamber for more even heating of the beans. I also believe that faster rotation will move the air around more inside the chamber and keep the temperatures more consistent throughout the chamber. I tried rigging the original motor with the pulleys reversed to increase the rotation, which only worked with an empty chamber. It would not rotate with the weight of the beans. I acquired an old gear reduction motor from work, from a web printing press ink agator. The motor is mounted on a piece of plywood which is attached to the grill tray with two hinges. I used large washers on the bottom of the plastic grill tray to help keep the weight of the motor from pulling the hinge bolts through the plastic. The motor mount swings up toward the rotisserie, allowing me to remove the V belt to remove the roasting chamber. I can also adjust the tension on the belt by positioning a piece of scrap wood under the plywood base, and thus limiting how far the motor swings away and control the tension on the V belt.  I noticed the side of the motor facing the grill was getting hot, so I made a heat shield from a piece of galvanized metal and attached it with one screw from the motor cover. I made a thin cork washer to put between the metal and motor cover so the metal does not touch the motor cover. The metal shield is curved slightly and wraps part way around the front of the motor. | Return Home | Popcorn Popper Roasting | Building a Gas Grill Roaster | Bean Cooler | Gas Grill Roasting | Growing a Coffee Tree | Links | Contact | |
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