SmokinBeans Senior Member Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 37 Location: Sonoma, CA. Expertise: I love coffee
Grinder: cheap whirly blade thingy Drip: Bodum 3 cup French Press Roaster: Stainless Back to Basics...
Posted Sat Jan 17, 2004, 1:34pm Subject: Home Made Bean Cooler
My turn to contribute to the wealth of Home Crafted Roasting items.
I created a simple to make (well...it took a few hours...but no complicated tools necc.) Bean cooler that should be able to accomodate a full lb or more of hot beans.
Materials: Aluminum Gutter screening material...6" wide roll Steel Wire to "sew screen material basket together". 2 lb. coffee can (I've been home roasting so long now ...I didn't have any on hand...LOL ) Short length of 1 1/4" heavy duty PVC pipe. Heat tolerant Epoxy...I used Marine Grade epoxy...but High temp silicone might work too. Shop Vac with long hose.
I made the basket by first forming a slight Cone shape out of the screen material that easilly fit into coffee can with room to spare at sides, and so that it 1/2-1 inch of sreen was outside of can to fold over edge of can. I layered a second and third piece of screening material to close off bottom of cone and overlap two sides (ea.) of cone (ends of second and third pieces reach to edge of can but don't fold over rimand third layer of screen had to be applied around and over it. Every spot on the basket has at least two layers of screening at bias ply that creates a Moire pattern of pretty small holes...no worries about my mokha dropping through.
Used steel wire to weave/sew screen material together....needle nose pliers helped alot.
It is important to leave "air space" at sides and bottom of basket (when installed in the can) so that air will be drawn through beans from all sides rather than just from bottom near the exhaust hole/pipe. I actully bent a "divot" in the bottom of the basket so that it stays well clear of the exhaust pipe.
The Lid is two layers of screen that overlaps edges of can just barely...I fastened it to one edge of basket with a few loops of wire so that it "hinges" easilly...there is no "latch"...I just hold it shut.
Epoxied PVC pipe into a hole cut in bottom of can...I laboriously used a small awl to poke many small holes in bottom of can, around circumference of penciled circle, traced around PVC pipe...then punched out the hole...there is probably an easier way to do that...but this worked well.
The finished item (PVC pipe) plugs into the hose of my old shop vac (has a cloth bag that can be "dampened" so less danger of hot chaff setting a fire... although I doubt that would happen...it has a long hose to go through before getting there...and I don't feel very much warmth in the hose or the PVC pipe while using this...it cools too fast.
I can also turn it on and suck up excess smoke while roasting to supplement my ceiling fan if I can position it close enough to my roaster.
see photos at URLs below...couldn't figure out how to post multiple images to this message.
This thing works AWESOME...It brought a 1/4 lb. vienna roast down to warm to touch in 25 seconds...I can dump directly from my whirley pop straight into the Cooler Can and cooling starts instantly...previously I ran my Popper out to my porch and dumped into a S/S collander ontop of a box fan...in addition to a 10-15 second delay getting the beans to the fan, that system would take 50 seconds or more to cool 1/4 lb of beans to the same point.
The new cooler sucks the chaff into the vacuum...Previously my front porch was covered with chaff...yaaaa...a clean porch from now on.
Posted Mon Jan 19, 2004, 8:42pm Subject: Re: Home Made Bean Cooler
Nice work Smokin' Beans. Thanks for the great pics. It's always great to see what others are doing. Here’s a little job I rigged up using a dirt devil vacuum from a thrift store ($7) a couple of nylon straps ($.10) and an old bucket and piece of wood I had laying around (free). I took the cover off the dirt devil so that it would fit inside the bucket. I strapped it to a piece of wood using nylon straps then screwed through the side of the bucket to hold the wood in place. A hole in the side of the bucket exhausts the air. A 10” colander fits right on top. After I roast I dump the beans right into the colander which is sitting in the bucket, I plug it in and air is sucked down through the beans cooling them in no time. The dirt devil moves a lot of air… too much to blow it up through the beans (the beans go flying, I tried). It cools really fast and it cost next to nothing. - carl
Posted Tue Jan 20, 2004, 2:10pm Subject: Re: Home Made Bean Cooler
Hi Matt, I move the beans around with a big spoon while their cooling. I would have preferred that the air blow up through the beans to remove the chaff that's left but no big deal. Some of it goes through the sieve and what's left over isn't anything to worry about. I have to laugh at it's appearance. With the colander sitting on top all the ugly stuff is hidden. One thing I don't like about it is the noise, but I only have to run it for a min. and it's about the same as a shop vac. I don't imagine the neighbor like it too much outside their window at 10:30 at night when I do my roasting. ~:-) -carl
Posted Tue Jan 20, 2004, 2:44pm Subject: Re: Home Made Bean Cooler
Congratulations SmokinBeans and CoffeeCat on the impressive bean coolers. 1 minute blows mine away. Right now I am using my HWP as a cooler. I dump the beans from the Z&D into the HWP, close the lid and hit the cool button. The Z&D load is a bit large for the HWP so I have to pick up the machine and rock it in a circular motion to keep the beans agitated. When the HWP was my primary roaster I used a Poppery 1 (my first roaster) with the heater disconnected as a cooler. I went to the HWP as a cooler because the poppery spread chaff around the kitchen.
Both machines cool the beans in about 5 minutes.
You have inspired me to come up with a "higher performance" cooler. It will probably involve my spare Z&D roasting chamber.
Posted Tue Jan 20, 2004, 3:02pm Subject: Re: Home Made Bean Cooler
Hi Phil, I need to add that I'm currently roasting in about 35 F weather so the cold air that's being sucked past the beans makes a huge difference in the cool down time. I suspect when it's 80 F this summer my cooldown time will increase proportionatly - carl
SmokinBeans Senior Member Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 37 Location: Sonoma, CA. Expertise: I love coffee
Grinder: cheap whirly blade thingy Drip: Bodum 3 cup French Press Roaster: Stainless Back to Basics...
Posted Fri Jan 23, 2004, 12:18pm Subject: Re: Home Made Bean Cooler
Cooling time update
I roasted a full lb last night and the can cooler got beans down to "warm" in 1 minute 20 seconds. I did it in my kitchen...ambient temp was 65-70 F.
I realized that while holding the lid closed I could get more efficient airflow through the beans by holding it upside down while shaking...I realized this about 1/2 way through the cooling process, so perhaps time will come down a bit on the next roast.
I am soooo STOKED that I don't have to run out to the porch any more to cool my beans.
ksmccul Senior Member Joined: 17 Jul 2003 Posts: 257 Location: iowa Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: pro-line Vac Pot: old school glass cory Drip: Mellita Clarity/Pour... Roaster: convection/stir crazy combo
Posted Thu Apr 1, 2004, 10:30am Subject: Re: Home Made Bean Cooler
I just rigged up one of these vacuum/bucket/collander coolers last night... took about 5 minutes... cut a hole for the hose shoved hose into side of bucket set collander on bucket dumped beans, turned on shop-vac stirred slightly... cooled 1.5 pounds in around 2 minutes!!
senorswiss Senior Member Joined: 10 Feb 2008 Posts: 109 Location: West Lafayette, Indiana, usa Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Silvia Grinder: espresso: EB, others:Maestro... Vac Pot: Moka Pot Drip: French Press, Aero Press Roaster: Modified HG/BM
Posted Sat Jun 7, 2008, 12:54pm Subject: Re: Home Made Bean Cooler
Carl, I really liked your bean cooler since the vacuum is inside the bucket. Since I'm in school, I don't have a lot of room to keep all my coffee related toys , and this seems to be a perfect solution for me. I picked up a different vacuum at my local goodwill last week, but the design of the motor wouldn't allow me to mount it inside the bucket. However, today I found a dirt devil for $5, so I was very happy. It seems to be exactly what you used from looking at the picture of your motor. I still have to finish drilling holes in the stainless steel mixing bowl that I found at Walmart, but otherwise I am done. The bowl makes a very nice seal with the bucket.
Has yours held up to the heat involved in cooling the beans?
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