In my quest for the perfect roaster (I was looking for a US made cast iron drum roaster [a slow roasting convection unit - maybe combined with air also], which does not exist, I spoke to the Diedrich Company, which make commercial size roasters (expensive). Their rep said they have talked about and want to produce a quality unit for consumers but so far it has not gotten past the talking stage. Not sure of the real reason, if they are waiting for this roasting craze to take off before they jump in or if it is what the rep claims is a liability issue. The rep told me that there is a lot of liability with consumer roasters. I did not question them about the details of that statement but I assumed they meant the possibility of a fire starting. Having not ever roasted myself, yet - Terry will vouch for that - I'm not sure what else they might have meant. Anyway, although I will most likely get something to use now, in the meantime, ! I thought I would share that with you all. A quality made, miniaturized Diedrich, like maybe one of their classic models, seems like a consumer's dream come true. Hope they follow thru with their idea. Just my two cents. Robert |
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> Robert, I'm always interested in new products and hear rumors from time to time about something new. The fact that we currently have several roasters from which to choose is very good for the consumer. I'll be surprised if Diedrich decides to get into the consumer market, and would love to see someone make a home unit that allows user electronic tweaking of the roast profile. I think it's neat the way the consumer finds a way to tweak what they have in spite of the controls designed-in to these products. People that roast coffee are a pretty inventive/imaginative lot IMO and they demonstrate it all the time with their workarounds, ideas and inventions. The companies that make home-roasters are rightfully concerned about consumer use. Fire or getting burned by a hot component are on the top of the safety list, but those things exist for a great many other home products too. I've roasted (safely) for over a year now and the best advice I can give you is don't leave your roaster unattended. Good to hear you're gonna wade-in and start roasting with the rest of us. Our collective community of roasters on this list and their experiences are very valuable to anyone that decides to home-roast. Coffenut :^) |
<Snip>
Thanks for the note! I always wish someone would make a small roaster that
was basically going to last a lifetime. Somehow, I feel it would have to be
a low-overhead, garage operation; an established company would have to
charge so much for a small roaster to make it a viable part of their
financial equation. In a way they do ... sample roasters. These are about
$2500 for a single-barrel model though, perhaps a little more. Or the other
route is to make a bunch and cut your production costs, but this takes a
lot of money up front, and the proiduct always turns out 5x more expensive
that you thought it would be. But in the motorcycle world you have people
able to do small scale stock- almost custom - production of things like gas
tanks and fairings for not-too-outrageous prices. You wonder if the
equation couldnt work for a small sturdy roaster.
Tom
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Great coffee comes from tiny roasters"
Sweet Maria's Home Coffee Roasting - Tom & Maria
http://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast">http://www.sweetmarias.comhomeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |
Tom is right. The killer of most items such as this is overhead (and tooling). I've given this some thought, coming from a manufacturing/job shop background. To make a roaster, you are going to need a design, prototypes, testing, most likely UL approval (but not necessarily), LIABILITY INSURANCE, advertising, suppliers for raw materials and finished components, etc. A roaster will have cut, formed, welded, plated and/or painted, punched, drilled, and machined parts. It will have motors, gears, electrical wiring, heating devices (electric or gas), and a whole host of other items. To make a go of it, you need to start with at least 50 pieces of every part on the roaster, as setup and tooling costs from the vendors go way up with smaller quantities. Then you have to amortize any tooling cost over whatever production run you think you will have. Fortunately today, with CNC machining centers, laser cutters, and other quick setup tooling, this is much less than in the days of manual welding and castings. Of course, if you were handy and had a small machine shop with some sheet metal tools at your disposal, you would be set. But, to make it with professional appearance and not look like some science experiment, it will take a lot of investment. Material costs for such a roaster, provided it is built similar to a professional machine such as a Diedrich, would be at least $300 to $500, for a 1 to 2lb. machine. Then you would need a several hours of assembly time at $10 to $12 an hour. Then, plow $40 a hour of overhead onto that. That's very low for most larger companies. THEN you'll want to make a nice profit. It is very easy to get into the $750 to $1000 selling range without even trying. Now, high volume production would reduce this substantially, but that ain't gonna happen (at least not in my terms of high volume), and there you have the catch 22. You need volume to get the price down, but you need to get the price down to get volume. That's where the up front investment kicks in to set it up with high volume in mind. Then you have the risk of eating a big pile of inventory and tooling costs. Ahh, the fun... Back to my Poppery... Chris Tom & Maria wrote: <Snip> Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop!http://webmail.netscape.com/homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast">http://shopnow.netscape.com/Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today athttp://webmail.netscape.com/homeroast mailing listhttp://lists.sweetmarias.com/mailman/listinfo/homeroast |