Larry, thanks for the informative thread on the DIY cooling tunnel. Its cool to see other MacGyvers out there...I like the DIY approach whenever possible. It kind of suits my mindset on many things.

A proper cooling tunnel would theoretically work in my space, but it would take up so much space to rend it an impractical solution for me.

I guess I'll stick to parchment paper for the belt...I was just curious, since I saw a video of the belt with a silpat type material, and thought it would be cool to do. I do this with textured acetate sheets when I hand-enrobe...guess I'll stick to that when wanting the textured foot.

I'm just hoping to make good use of the JKV with all its attachments, now that I have it operational in the space. Turns out the space was already wired for 3-phase, (if you recall my previous thread on the subject), so I didnt need that phase converter after all. Was a shocker to both me and the owner of the building, when the electrician told us we were good to go!

Dallas,

I suspect the 2m take-off belt is too short. I've read that chocolates about 8 minutes in a cooling tunnel to set properly. Thus with an 8 foot cooling tunnel, the belt can move 1 foot per minute. a 16 foot cooling tunnel allows the belt to move at 2 feet per minute and so forth.

The challenge with just having the take-off belt (no cooling tunnel) is the chocolates would have to sit for quite awhile before being able to touch them to take them off the belt. Like Clay mentioned, the paper take-off allows you to move the chocolates elsewhere to cool and set.

Do you have space for a cooling tunnel? the old chocolate life website has basic instructions on building one, or you could add a manufactured one to your system.

Interesting, re: textured-belts. I have a 2m long take-off belt, so its something I could definitely consider. I like the textured foot look.

@dallas - commonly used on enrober (take-off) belts, no; they are most often found on cooling tunnel belts.

The take-off belt on most enrobers is too short for the chocolate to completely set, that's why paper or parchment is used to cover the belt and to make it easy to transfer the product to some other location to finish cooling. The textured belts (often with a logo) are custom-order items.

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@DiscoverChoc

I came across a short video on the internet showing an enrober belt with what appeared to be a silpat-styled belt, or cover. I've got parchment paper rolls or acetate rolls, but a re-usable silpat would be pretty cool. You get the texture of the silpat on your bonbon bottoms too...I like that look.

Is this something commonly used on enrober belts?