Coffee Roasting - Converting a hot air popcorn popper into a coffee roaster.

This gives a description of my method of converting a hot air popcorn popper into a coffee roaster.
The finished project looks like this:


The project has two parts:
1) Modification of the popper, described here.
2) Fan speed and temperature control, described here.

I chose this modular approach for a couple reasons: I expect the pop corn popper to fail at some point
and I want to be able to easily swap in a new one. I also wanted to be able to experiment with some
currently manufactured popcorn poppers and see if I could find one that would work well.

From what I have found so far the West Bend Poppery unit is the most popular for roasting
coffee. This is the "original" 1500 watt unit, model 5459. The "poppery II" is only 1100 watts and
I don't believe as easily modified.

My approach was to modify the popcorn popper to have two cords rather than one. The original
black cord is used to power the heating element. A new cord is added to supply power to the fan.
This modification is very easy to make. My "control board" simply splits the incoming power from
an extension cord to a motor speed control and a 1500 watt dimmer. Power arrives at two
outlets to which the modified popper is connected.

A couple notes:

If you create bookmark for this information make the link to this page. Pages below this
may move around a bit over time.

I am describing what I have done. If you attempt this and destroy a popcorn popper, or
worse electrocute yourself don't blame me.  This project certainly voids the warranty on
a popper and has the potential to damage a popper (or yourself) if you make a mistake.
If all this looks difficult please don't attempt it.