Pulled the drum..

[topher]

Wow! What a day. Turns out our trouble last week was not just a bearing. This morning our 120 kilo roasters was making some nasty sounds. We ended up having to tear the whole thing apart. The collar in the back that moves backwards and forward so to adjust the drum broke. We had to pull the hopper, yank face plate and pull the drum. After 16 years of roasting this is the first time I have ever had to do this. If you are lucky you will never have to do this! The face plate was tricky. We broke 4 of the bolts due to heating and cooling down destroying them. Drum weighed a ton...but we got it pulled and should have it back from a local fabricator this afternoon. Will post pics tomorrow of the hole ordeal!

 

[topher]

 

[Alun_evans]

Wow! I have been soooo lucky!

 

[topher]

Well the whole thing is back together! What a pain in the butt!! Turns out the collar on the rear of the drive shaft had broken. The whole drum was sitting on the shaft. We had a fabricator weld a new heavier duty collar to the shaft. To all my fellow roasters...I hope you never have to do this on a large roaster!

This is my confidence face!!

 

[IndCoffeeOfPA]

Topher,

That looked like an awesome project. Glad to see you guys got it back together and are back to roasting!!

Happy Holidays!

Eric

 

[topher]

Well...to be honest. I think we spoke a wee bit too soon. The drum is a bit warped...not much. There are 2 high points...nothing huge but it is about a 16th of an inch. Enough to make it so it grinds if we adjust the drum and if we make it so it doesn't grind the beans fall out the front. We have a local fabricator helping us fix it. Hopefully we will be back to full capacity in the next 2 hours.

 

[topher]

well it was a long 17 hour day..had to roast almost all our coffee on our 60 kilo today. While we did that we sheared the front of the 120 kilo drum due to the fact that it was warped. I will post a picture of this nifty wee tool we used...I am to tired to do it tonight..if I don't make it back tomorrow..HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

 

[topher]

Well it is a complete success! The roaster runs like new!! Here are some pictures of the tough little tool we had made to shave the front of the drum. Thank goodness we have an awesome fabrication guy locally! I would have never thought of shaving the front of the drum...from what I heard in the past you usually have to replace the drum. I just saved so much money!! WOOT!

 

[marko53219]

Thanks much for sharing the pics. That is just incrediable to see :shock: .

Mark