The History

We had never heard of Otto Swadlo before and did a little background check. With some digging, we came across an interesting story about Mr. Swadlo’s factory in Vienna, Austria. He had a small shop front with an office, a secretary, and a very large assistant (6′ 11″ with size 16 shoes). Apparently, Otto was a small man himself, only 5′ 1″, so they were quite a pair. Otto and his assistant hand-cast all of the parts from molds made in the 1920s or 1930s. In the 1940s, the German Military marched in and in one day converted the factory from coffee roasters to machine guns. What Otto did during the war years is unknown. The 1950s brought peace, along with some new updates to the burner and ignition systems around 1958. Post-war Europe was a new and fast-paced world with bigger companies taking over small ones for the sake of rapid growth and modernization. As an old man, Otto eventually sold his business to Probat.

Bringing Otto Home

Fascinated by the history and craftsmanship of this particular roaster, we contacted the owner the same day he had posted it. He had several other people interested but said he would hold it overnight for us because we were the first to contact him. Deciding to leap at this chance, we left our newborn son happily with Grandma and Grandpa and drove an old pickup 8 hours through the snow up to Astoria, Oregon. In case you were wondering, getting a roaster made of cast iron up into a truck bed then back out and upstairs is not easy! It took four guys awkwardly grasping the nonexistent handholds and putting out their backs to get Otto home.

Restoration Process

The roaster fired right away, but we wanted to do a few restorations to really dial it in. We replaced the old insulation with new ceramic fiber insulation, put in a new gas train, and installed new fire bricks under the burner. After a good deep cleaning, Otto was ready to go do some bean slaying!

Thanks to Jay for the history
Martin for advice on the restoration
Yulia for the photos