by ahgee2 » Sun Aug 01, 2010 8:25 pm
Hmm, I wouldn't quite agree with the "inevitably give up on them" bit. With some basic electrical skills, you can turn a popper into a very nice little roaster indeed. Separate the power to the motor and the element, put the motor on a variable DC power supply, run the 40 ohm bit of the element through a PID with a thermocouple in the bean mass. Buy a hurricane lamp chimney and stick it in the top of the popper to enlarge the "roast chamber". Stick the PID/DC power supply in a separate project box, with mains on/off and heat on/off switches, and just run a couple of cables to the popper, so when the popper eventually fails you can throw it away and substitute another one off Ebay for £5. After 15 months of roasting I've had one element burn out on me and no problems with the motors. With controllable heat and fan, I can roast up to 180g at a time, have done side by side tastings of the same beans roasted in this kit and a Quest M3, not a huge difference (apart from the price). Happy to share details if you're interested.
Andrew