Forum Activity for @Dallas

Interested in this discussion. I recently purchased a flow wrap packaging machine and am investigating my options with regard to film. 

Hello. I am looking for a Savage Brothers Fire Mixer 14, in excellent condition. I am located in Calgary, Canada. Please drop me a line if you have one you're looking to sell.

Thanks.

No, tabling it is not practical in my production environment, although in small batches its fine to table it. I temper all ganaches.

I use cocoa butter silk to temper my ganaches. 

I temper ganaches in filled bonbons 100% of the time. The difference is night and day.

I'm also in Calgary. Are you willing to work in cad, with a reasonable local price? 

Hi. I'm interested in your guitar. Whereabouts are you located?

Thank you for sharing this, Daniel.

I've also been in the market for one of these machines, and would be interested in emailing your contact. I'll let them you know referred. 

Best.

Yes, it most likely is overkill for your uses. We regularly do 40-50 plaques at a time.

You require the complete system, including compressor. 

Unlike small airbrush systems, it has a large (and loud, comparatively) compressor, a much larger hose (think garden hose thickness), and costs more. However, it is a beast in production. 

I use a FujiSpray HVLP system. It works very well, but is a serious piece of equipment. It uses a gravity fed spray gun with a 3oz stainless cup, so you can heat periodically during application. They have interchangeable needle/nozzle sets of varying sizes, and different cup sizes too, although the 3oz is the only stainless cup option. I use the smallest one for spraying cocoa butter into plaques.

I am interested in the two mah jong molds. I already have a set of the chinese coins. I can do a postal money order or EFT, whatever is best. 

Hi there. I'm interested in your Mah Jong sets. Am located in Calgary. Please advise.

I'm also interested in your vibe table, and am curious about which shapes your plaques are. Are they CW plaques? Located in Calgary.

Nice, Jim. That EZt is sure a useful device! I got one from Kerry recently, and its proven an invaluable resource in my kitchen.

" Otherwise the reader can take this errors as a charming fact for this book, translated from german to english. - See more at: https://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/forums/opinion/16249/fact-checking-chocolate-the-reference-standard#last"

Grammatical and typographical errors in a book are not charming, and show a lack of respect for the entire book writing and publishing process, and an absolute disdain for the end reader. Don't write a book in English if you cannot do your due diligence, by having it properly edited.

-advice from an author/editor of a number of books and publications.

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!

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.

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? 

Thanks for your info, Larry.

Yes, this one is definitely a 3-phase machine, with a NEMA 16-20R outlet.

I briefly spoke with Ian this morning re: this issue, but he had no idea about the 3-phase with regard to this machine.

Machine is roughly 12 years old.

Thx, Dallas 

Thanks for your reply, Clay. 

I'm located in Canada, so I'm looking primarily at canadian distributors. Electram and PhaseQuest are both available here in Calgary. That pesky exchange rate is killing us up here, right now.

Hi folks.

I recently bought a second hand JKV30 and I'm curious if any of you are familiar with this machine?

The place where I plan on using it doesn't have 3-phase power, so I'm looking at a rotary phase converter to power it properly. But I'm trying to find the HP and max heating loads, so I can size the phase converter right, but I'm not having any luck finding this information.

As we all know, the documentation that comes with the machine is lacking at best...so I thought I'd check if any of you fine folks are able to shed any light on the subject?

I'm looking at a 10HP rotary phase converter, which has a 1.3x max rating. Is this sufficient? Overkill? 

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Thats great news! The NE has a lot of good industrial space, at a fraction of the cost of inner city.

I'll pledge, but can I get my dividends in chocolate liquor?

What part of the city are you heading to?

Congrats!

Are you keeping the Inglewood store? 

I use different types of coconut oil in specific confections. 

I prefer using the unrefined oil for the most part, although with more delicate confections, I have an option of a more refined product, that retains most of the characteristics of the unrefined, but with no coconut taste. Costco carries both types, here.

Except in the dead of summer, I find confections made with coconut oil hold up pretty well, with limited leakage issues. I do live in a cooler climate, so this isn't as big of an issue...I'd imagine it would be more of an issue for some of you. In warmer climes, the oil does find fissures in the outer chocolate shell to exploit, if you plan on enrobing your product.

In Greweling's book, he suggest one plays with ratios up to 28% coconut oil, for different mouth feels.

Coconut cream is nice in ganaches...I have a confection that uses it in place of cream. I havent conducted any really lengthy tests on its shelf life yet, but it easily doubles the shelf life of a confection, as compared to cream-based.

I'll second the Mol d'Art suggestion. 

I use different ones, sized from 3kg up to 12kg...they serve their purpose very well, and the price is right. They're very lightweight, can be easily moved around the kitchen, and can be put away when not in use.

Brad, what has Bernard done to you personally that causes you to constantly attack him and his products? I would think one's time would be better spent improving their own product and offerings, than to belittle and criticize others in the industry. Have you actually worked for him, and he slighted you, in some way? Bernard has done a lot to put chocolate confections on the map in Calgary. Props are due, and respect is earned for what he's done over the past 30+ years in the city. 

If you think your products stack up, why not submit them to be judged? What have you got to lose? As you stated to me personally, your products qualty speak (taste) for themselves, and taste rules...why not throw them into the ring and see how they stack up? 

HI Lesley,

Is this still available? Mind if I give you a ring later today, to discuss?

Dallas

I'm doing their Chocolatier class. Its very thorough, and you get a ton out of it, if you spend the time and do the work/practice. You only get out of it as much as you're willing to put into it. Its called a part-time intensive, but its heavy on the intensive part! I've fortunately got time to work at it daily, so I'm getting a lot of great experience and a ton of practice.