YM-2 Sweeper Arm Design

[topher]

Ambex does supply the brushed arms as well as the flex arms...I have had no problem with either. As to being rigid..mine are not..they flex :wink:

 

[Fresh Roaster]

Another idea... finished beans are very light. A simple additional spring-loaded trailing arm pushing to the outside edge would work great. It would drop down as the beans drop out and do the final clean up with very little to push/pull. Wouldn't do very much until the tray started to get empty but it certainly should finish it off nicely.

 

[Fresh Roaster]

Ambex does supply the brushed arms as well as the flex arms...I have had no problem with either. As to being rigid..mine are not..they flex :wink:

Yes, but the ones in the picture certainly don't look like such. Nonetheless, seems like an easy fix or mod. I would think the brushes would be nice in keeping the tray clean. Curious though as we have fooled around with this, have you ever had any problems in metallic taste or need to clean the brushes? They seem to collect a lot of crap over a proportionally small amount of roasting. After a while they really stink. :shock: THe only solution we found was an overnight oven cleaner session and alcohol bath. Clean as a whistle but had to do it way too often to preserve taste.

 

[Coffeeexpert]

Have not had problems with the smell of the brushes. Clean them weekly with water and a clean cloth. The brushes will stay true and work properly for about a year. Then, after normal use, they will wear, bend, and some of the needles will become dislodged and end up in your beans.

 

[lachris]

Made some sweeper mods - Promising!

Well last night I tested the modifications I made to my replacement sweeper arms and I must say the results were very promising. :grin:

I simply adjusted one of the fingers so that it was touching the UHMW bearing piece at the hub - this pushed the beans away from the center and towards the middle of the cooling bin. With the other finger I made sure to have it just touching the outer bin wall with enough slant on it to pick up the rest of the beans from the middle of the bin (left from the other arm) and enough so that it can push the beans out of the chute after a few revolutions. With only 5 or so beans left behind (perf metal not flat - sweeper arm doesn't touch the same all the way around the bin). I can deal with that!

Now if I could figure out how to add photos to my posts I could share the idea - I'm sure this is nothing new! Anyway it works for now.

With the arms where they are, I had to remove one of the two screws from each finger - not sure how long that will last. Also you have to make sure the screw is pretty tight or it will loosen and the finger will not sweep true - thus not picking up or pushing the beans as desrired.

 

[lachris]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31428932@N05/?saved=1

Okay tray this and see if you can get to the Flicker page where I tried to post some photos of the arms.