The WB (mark I) is a heavy duty 1500 watt popper with a cast alloy roasting chamber, and a heavy duty 110 volt fan.  It is well made electrically, and wiring is solid and safe. Again, I emphasize, I do not recommend anyone making this modification, unless you have leaped from tall buildings with a small parachute, or stuck your head in a lion's mouth and survived with at least half your brain.

A long search was made for just the right class chimney (?) and finally found a replacement globe for a Dietz #30 Lantern which one end will fit just nicely into the metal top of the roasting chamber. The glass is fairly thick compared to a regular chimney glass. It is not pyrex. Apparently there are only two on the coffee roasters list that has had any experience with glass chimney and both report no unpleasant experience with them. Glass breakage if occurs, they claim, only produces a crack in the glass.

The glass is held in place with two metal slot covers from a computer case (for lack of finding anything better at the time....I am working to a more practical solution to this). These are fastened to the chamber with the screws that normally hold the rest of the bakelite chamber.

The outer case was cut down to length and metal brackets were mounted on the popper base to fasten the case on. This will protect the user from terrible burns for at least the lower portion anyway. It is sturdy enough to allow the user to pick up and empty the beans. For cosmetic purposes, a cover was made for the top of the case using a plastic which will melt if used....but I cheated a little to make the unit look better. I will work on a bakelite cover for this part.

Trials:  Our first trial was cautious, using protective face masks etc. to check out the first roast. The roast progressed very nicely without incident and while the glass is hot, does not show any signs of a problem. I will continue to be cautious for a good number of roasts. Roast time for some Colombian ran about 6 minutes to a light medium roast (IMO) and good visibility of the color was present. Coffee brewed up very well and to my complete satisfaction. The Mexican Organic roasted well.  Some beans jump out and this can be fixed. I haven't fashioned a chaff collector as I just vent the chaff out the window with a powered vent. Want to see the Vent?
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