WANTED Grain Roaster or Plans

[CarolynGrace]

I'm looking for some assistance hacking a soybean roaster, or locating someone who will custom roast near Johnson County, IA.

As a small-scale poultry producer, as much as I'd like to buy organic feed, it's going to be out of my price range this year and I'm seeing other producers in my area in a similar position.

I've managed to track down some conventional non-GMO corn, soy, alfalfa, oats, grinder and mixer. The challenge now is roasting the non-GMO soybeans.

...Anyone tried building an inexpensive roaster? or know of a custom roaster in eastern IA?

 

[aczlan]

These people claim to have one for sale, asking $1500: Farm Equipment For Sale: Schnupp 50 soybean roaster
Might be a bit of a run to PA though.

Aaron Z

 

[DaveOmak]

Carolyn, I've seen roasters built from perforated metal using a ribbon burner.... build a drum from the perf metal and rotate it over the burner... I don't know the volume you are looking for... if that would be feasible or not....

 

[forgeblast]

Homemade drum-roaster, 98.7% finished! Taking it to the next level!!! - Home Roasting • Home-Barista.com
It appears that the coffee crowd has a lot of plans for small roasters, you might be able to scale them up.
I did a search for rotating drum roaster.
Homeroasters.org - Discussion Forum: Halogen Radiant Roaster
How to Build a Peanut Roaster - Howtopedia - english

 

[jmarotz]

I use one I built for peanuts, works great.
Plans are only $10.00
Make Your Own Peanut Roaster Drum! - PeanutRoasting.com Hand Made in the U.S.A. Peanut Roaster Drums, Machines, & Roasting Equipment

 

[eatonfarmer]

I built a bean roaster a last winter. I've used it for a year, raising 1500 broilers and feeding layers and hogs. It's a lot of work, and is trail and error. I couldn't get enough heat out of two propane burners, so I went with a big cut-out fuel tank under it with a wood fire. Very low tech!
The drum the beans are in is roughly 300 gallon, with a heavy pipe through it mounting in pillow-block bearings. I turn it with a large sprocket and a 1hp motor with a gear reduction with brings the rotation down to about 15-20/min I'd guess. I mounted thermometers in the side and watch them.
You can also do a urease test.
I can roast 6-700lb which is enough for a ton of chicken or hog feed.
This is more like a survival experiment on an island...
there are many labor-saving changes that could be made.
Scales on the grinder-mixer would be the best! Then I could get away from my current system which relies on the weight of various things in a 5 gallon bucket.
So, there you go. It can be done. It's difficult or impossible to do perfectly, and everyone will tell you it can't be done, is a waste of time, and is too expensive. Some days I think they are right!

However, it saves a lot of $ if you have a source of non-gmo beans and roasted ones have to be trucked by the pallet and are 11-1200$/ton.
Good luck!