Glad to see this thread.
I run a small engineering factory in addition to my interest in chocolates. I was interested to try out Panning and was thinking and reading about it from whatever came across. After a while I decided to build a panning machine myself and for trial I just tied a pan on one of my Lathe machine using some metallic wires and rotated it with help of the lathe motor.
To cool down the chocolate instead of using a blower I used my coolant pump to pour ice chilled water on to the pan. This proved to be a disaster. It cooled won so quickly that the chocolate stuck to the pan instead of almonds that I was trying to coat. Then I used a hair drier to warm it up and again started the process but it didn't look promising due to below factors:
1) Lack of cooling. I needed a blow cool air over the product being coated.
2) Lack of obstacles in the pan. Some small rods or other stuff are placed i the pan which keeps the product tumbling instead of sliding. It also helps avoid sticking of products.
I am tied up with a few things now and hence unable to make above modifications to try again but will definitely try it in December when weather is cold and it will be easier.
PS I did watch the video on youtube where a guy proposed using a drill or dremel to rotate the pan. If i remember correctly the guy in the comment section said that the drill motor soon gave up and hence its not a proper solution for a panning machine.
