Beth -
Every machine in your workshop should have some sort of preventive maintenance schedule. What that schedule looks like, and what it entails, depends on what kinds of components the machine has. For example, in a machine with a compressor for cooling (refrigerator, some tempering machines), you will want to check the refrigerant level on at least an annual basis and vacuum the heat exchanger (radiator) on at least a quarterly basis if not more often. I recommend scheduling the maintenance 3-4 weeks before heading into a busy production period. August for Christmas, early-January for Valentine's Day, etc. This means you have time to address issues before downtime becomes critical. I have one customer who schedules preventive maintenance on a monthly basis, taking all of his machines out of production over a weekend. They produce over 10,000 bars/day and there has never been an interruption during a critical production period.
Motors something to look closely at and clean, as are critical wear parts such as bearings and seals.
DO NOT overfill the machine. The stated capacity is the entire bowl. The actual capacity is under the axles when working with chocolate. Overfilling will increase processing times, in part because mixing is less efficient.
There is no typical order for adding ingredients - except that the order and timing of adding and the length of processing has an effect on the flavor. Both sugar and cocoa butter absorb aroma and flavor, so adding them in early in the process makes it more difficult to get rid of undesirable aromas and flavors. It's worth experimenting to see what your results are and what you like. But, given the small machine, I would put work just the liquor until it was very fluid and then add the sugar in in one-third or one-fourth portions and give each portion time to grind before adding the next. If you add the chocolate in all at once you're likely to cool the chocolate down too much and the wheels will seize. And yes, I know this because it has happened to me.
Powdered sugar, when added to chocolate, will immediately suck up any moisture in the chocolate and make the chocolate very thick. In addition, it changes the taste of the chocolate, in part because of the way the sugar absorbs aroma and flavor, which are different than with large-crystal sugar. So, that's something to consider.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
clay - http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/