Charge, ROR and time to first crack

[easygene]

Since I now have a few roasts under my belt and now confident enough to roast some Gesha for the holidays now have to find some way to keep getting better.
Now my roasts are vastly superior to what have been able to produce on my old Gene Cafe roaster.  For years compared notes and received advice from Bold Java and John(both GC owners) over on HomeRoasters.  Dave still chimes in on theory although he has a different roaster.

Charge, ROR and time to first crack hold the key.  Temperature via gas and airflow management are the means to the end.  The Huky is so fantastic it is so hard to mess up a roast after you become familiar with the controls.

I'm having trouble at the moment getting first crack down in the nine minute range with an SHB bean.  I know I have a constriction in the exhaust at the exit end due to my adding some metal tape to act as an adapter.  This could act as a damper on the fan and be a factor in dragging out 1C.     Some of you have been getting first crack in the 7-8 minute range.  This is too fast IMO but would like to have nine minutes capability consistently.

I keep going back to airflow.  Variac has really helped.  stayed right around 70 last roast.   Cyclone need?  Playing with the idea of asking Mr Li to fashion me a 2 1/4 male(his end) to my 3 3/4 inner diameter female standard dryer hose adapter.  To hold price down fashion it out of same metal.  He could then offer this fitting as an option.   At the moment this is the weakest part of the Huky exhaust.  It deserves to be the strongest.
And work on making exhaust funnel mate more securely to top of fan.   

The reason I bring all this up is there have been some fascinating threads lately on here about charge and gas/fan management.  Some of you have brilliantly expounded.
I like my bud Marshals(endless cycles) observation speaking about the time to 1C that generally you should reach 212F at 25% of the total time.
I'm going to be including that in my roasting notes on the back deck tomorrow(70 degrees, global warming phenomena).
If this proves consistent may have to ask Marko to include it in Artisan.
Keep it coming!

Thanks everyone.

[edtbjon]

Hmm, that about reaching boiling point at 25% of the total time seems weird. Say that we're going for a total time of 12 minutes. (For making the example easy to count with. Anyhow, it's really close to what I usually aim for, maybe just a tad longish...) Then 212F would "fall" at 3 minutes. I would be satisfied getting my TP at 212F, but not at 3 minutes, rather at 1.30 - 1.45. If we'd use that 1.30-1.45 time that would make a total roast time of 6-7 minutes, which is way too short for my liking anyhow.
But let's continue to see what's left (and let's take a bit of Mr. Rao into the mix). I like to get 20-25% of the total roasting time from 1Cs until drop. For the sake of simplicity say 25%, i.e. 3 minutes. That leaves us with 6 minutes for both the beans to dry and to go through the pre1C Maillard phase. (Or with the short roast time we're down to just 3 or so minutes.)
So, I'd really like to hear Marshal explain his thinking in this. What kind of roaster does he have in mind etc. Right now, it's just a number which doesn't really make sense to me (see above...).

[monkey_lever]

I've been trying the opposite ... getting FC after nine minutes. At the beginning I was using high heat (80 % total capacity) /minimal airflow and my MET (back of the roaster) was climbing up to 250 C and I was able to get FC really quick if I didn't pay close attention to the roast. Rigth know Im using more airflow / 40 % heat at the beggining of the roast and Im getting FC after nine minutes.

If you need and adapter you can get one that is made for cars. Im using one without problems. http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-to-2-1-2-Straight-Reducer-Silicone-Turbo-Hose-Coupler-51mm-63mm-BLACK-/262182677774?hash=item3d0b4e2d0e:g:VdQAAOSw9N1VqgeQ&vxp=mtr