Date: 14 Jun 2006 21:40:10
From: Ken Fox
Subject: $9.99 Target Dechaffer
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This post will only be of interest to those few home roasters who end up
with a bunch of cool beans that are still full of chaff. If you need a
cooling solution as well, this suggestion is probably not for you (see
below).
My 1lb sample roaster (which I use to roast 500g per batch) has a great
cooling tray that cools the beans down to room temperature in 2 minutes or
less. What it does not do is get rid of the chaff. In an "earlier era" I
used a cannister vacuum cleaner to suck the chaff out of the tryer hole but
concerns about possible fire hazards and sucking out too much heat from
roasting beans sent me on a search for other options.
My first solution was to use a very large collander on top of a stand fan
that was parallel to the ground, outside. This worked but I ended up with
half the chaff on my clothing in the process, and some of it in my eyes.
This WOULD work for bean cooling too however it is pretty messy.
On my recent trip I passed through a lot of cities and a lot of Walmarts and
Targets. In a Target north of Seattle (and probably in your local Target as
well) I found some home "orginization" accessories that were made of mesh
with a proper hole size. These things include storage bins for such things
as CDs and DVDs, and they come in silver finish and black finish. Of
particular interest is a carrying basket that is similar in shape and size
to those you find made of plastic in Walmarts and Targets and some grocery
stores, but this is made of metal mesh, in silver and black also. The
handles pivot back and forth like those in the markets, and are coated in
foam on the handle surfaces you would hold were you to carry it as a basket.
The beauty of the thing is the hole size. There are other accessories in
this line that might work better for you; have a look at the section in the
Target store and if youi see something better for your use, post about it.
I'm not certain what the finish is made of; it looks like either colored
vinyl or possibly paint. In any event, I would not count on it being able
to tolerate the temperature of beans just out of a roaster. I cleaned mine
up with some dish soap, and have tested it on a fan (most any type of fan
you can get to lie flat would work); it works great for dechaffing as long
as the fan isn't too powerful. On the highest setting, my fan blows beans
out with the chaff, but on medium it works great.
If this helps anyone else out there, then this post was worth making.
ken
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