rounding third

we're almost round third base, heading for home. that, of course, is my father in law--the man responsible for cooking up the recipe i've concocted. thank goodness he knows what he's doing and how to put stuff together. this pic to the left is a view of the gas controls side panel and the pulleys that turn the drum inside the roaster. if the gas controls look familiar, say, kitchen-like-familiar, that's because they are formerly a part of a kitchen stove. with four burners arrayed like the top of a gas stove and a middle pipe-type burner running down the center of those, we should have the btu's to get 'er done right. natural gas, in case you're wondering.

speaking of the right, that's him again holding on the hopper and chute throat. on the drawing board the hopper's diameter seemed appropriate for our purposes. once it got sized up next to the actual roaster body, however, we both agreed that it is too tall, too thin. it may require a step stool to load manually, something i'm not too keen on doing, especially at near-capacity loads. but it's an easy fix for some future date and not a critical error. just fabricate a lower, wider one and voila!

today, i got this email from him that read:

Hi Aaron,
Just a quick note...You're looking, for the first time, through the sight glass of Big Brown. You're good to 1200 degrees F and have a 3 x 3' viewing area. The trier goes by the little tick mark just below it. -Dad

i think he went to the local fireplace shop to get that, since the other day he told me his son, my brother-in-law, had recently gotten some replacement glass for his fireplace there and it clicked that this would also serve our purposes. i would've probably also preferred the trier and sight glass to be on the left side as you face the front of the roaster, next to the gas controls. but now i think i might just be getting nitpicky. after all, my father-in-law did place the sight glass and trier at the exact heights i requested so i wouldn't have to stoop or tippy-toe up to see them, or have to hold my arm/shoulder in some ergonomically uncomfortable way for any period of time.

you can also see the drop door that will empty beans into the cooling tray. ah yes, the cooling tray. running into a spot of trouble there. the plan as it stands right now is to basically attach (possibly detachable) a box with a separate fan to the bottom of the chute area. time is a little low for us now, so that may be the running option and we can tweak or change it after it arrives. and about that e.t.a.? we're looking at just over two weeks now. unfortunately, i won't be roasting with it in two weeks, as I still need to find and sign for a new place to put her. but i've got a line on some places and the move in shouldn't be too big a wrinkle to iron out.

more later. just wanted to share some of my excitement.