simplicity is key

I went out to roast up some Puro Scuro for espresso this morning and when I put the green beans in the roaster the arm came loose. Crud. So I fiddled and diddled with it for a while, and scraped off the (pretty useless) RTV500 food-grade silicon cement that was supposed to hold the arm assembly in place. I tried using some copper wire to hold the thing together, I tried using the tinfoil, all to no avail.

Then I tried just removing the washer that I had in between the wingnut and the rotating arm. The wingnut then was able to screw further and tighter onto the plastic screw and held the arm rather firmly in place.

I got the beans well into second crack without a roaster failure. Nice.

I suppose pretty soon I will have to replace the plastic bolt altogether, or maybe I'll just be super lazy and buy another popcorn popper. Nah. I'll replace the bolt -- that's cheaper and way more fun.

The top of the roaster (which is the expensive part) isn't giving me any trouble (yet), although the glass is getting rather opaque from the oily bean-smoke. Huzzah.