[purplehaze]

mthompson, I just noticed something about the dimensions of your rig sketch. It looks like the keggle will cover the entire burner opening. This can cause your flame to be partially smothered by the exhaust gasses it creates. I find that the holes in the skirt are not enough.

I had this problem and its fixed easily by resting the keggle on some pieces of 3/8" steel round stock giving the exhaust room to escape. If its difficult to imagine just think of how a home gas stove works with the pot sitting on a cast iron grate. The round stock I used were the bent sections cut off a Bayou classic burner assembly. They are not welded to the stand I just put them under the keggles on brew day.

[mthompson]

Originally Posted by mserke

Have you thought about mounting that top that you did in sketchup so that it would rotate flat and latch onto the legs and then become unpinned and rotate back down when not in use so you can still store kegs and have a height that is usable for brewing?

I think I understand what you are saying, just having a hard time visualizing it. Could you elaborate?

I'm thinking a lot about mobility too, since I currently brew at my in-laws (group brews with 3-4 people brewing different stuff) .... Eventually with this stand I want my stuff at my house, then have it mobile enough to take over there once a once or so.

[mthompson]

Originally Posted by purplehaze

mthompson, I just noticed something about the dimensions of your rig sketch. It looks like the keggle will cover the entire burner opening. This can cause your flame to be partially smothered by the exhaust gasses it creates. I find that the holes in the skirt are not enough.

This became really apparent when I added an opaque keg-sized cylinder to the top of the sketch. That was the first thing that came to mind.... It just looked "smothering".

I thought about 86ing the 45° pieces and shrinking the squares a bit and adding thin upright (1") bracing to keep kegs in place... I saw someone on here do that. This would allow venting in the corners of each square.

Thoughts on that as far as enough venting?

[Markd27]

Looks good so far!

[purplehaze]

I don't think modifying your rig is necessary and you could probably do without the 45s. I think the vertical bracing others have used is more to center the keggle over the flame and keep it from moving. You need to lift it up a bit to get that exhaust flowing.

Having the keggle cover the most of the opening actually worked in my favor when I was trying to get faster boils during winter. All I had to do was add a skirt around the keggle (At a cost of $12)which uses the hot exhaust gasses to heat the sides. The keggle is lifted by 3/8" and the skirt sits below it on the flat part of the rig top. It produces a much faster boil and uses less propane.

I don't want to pollute your thread with pics of my setup but if you want I will take a few pics tomorrow and PM them to you. This way you can visualize what I am saying and it might give you a few ideas. Again I don't think you need to modify what you have.

[mthompson]

Originally Posted by purplehaze

I don't want to pollute your thread with pics of my setup but if you want I will take a few pics tomorrow and PM them to you. This way you can visualize what I am saying and it might give you a few ideas. Again I don't think you need to modify what you have.

That would be great. I would rather modify it now in the beginning than as an after thought. I have to work out the burner mounting. I think I settled on BG12s, with a cut up corny keg for a wind screen. If I cut the corny wind screen section in the vertical, it should stretch to be welded on a few sides of the octagon center... And maybe leave enough space in the front for the burner tube to fit through.

I am still tossing around ideas for the base as well. I'm leaning towards a shorter base, with a slight flare in the bottom for stability.

MT

[mthompson]

Ok,

Had a 60°F day on Wednesday, and a snow day yesterday....so I got a bit of work done on the frames:







All shined up....


I forgot I had this smaller one too.


Cutting wheels are scary when they shatter and you hear the pieces hit 3 of 4 wall around you...this is all that was left under the nut of the grinder.



Gotta do some redesigning of the stand in SketchUp and figure out the base. But, it should be ready to weld after I finalize everything and go over the plans with the welder. I thought about trying to do it with the MillerMatic 210 MIG, but I'd spend more money on a gun, wire, and a new tank with Argon/2% CO2 than I would to have it cut and welded by a guy down the road from me.

For the top I am thinking shrinking each square by 1", and getting rid of the 45° angle pieces. This would allow the gasses to vent in each corner of the square and allow more of the keg skirt to rest on the frame. Thoughts? Otherwise I can find some ss rods to weld on top to raise the keg a bit.

I'm also brainstorming burner mounts and how I could make them adjustable. I have a bunch of 1/8 ss sheet, I was thinking of cutting rectangles to mount the burner on, welding 2 ss threaded rod pieces on each side, and cutting slots on the wind screens for the threads to fit in, then ss wingnuts on the outside. I can get all these ss fittings (up to 3/4") from the Man's Mall (aka Mill's Fleet Farm or simply Fleet - best store on Earth!). And I am on the hunt for a junk corny keg that I can salvage for wind screens, otherwise a few ss stock pots will work too. Gotta check the local thrift stores for pots.

Stay tuned....

[mthompson]

Here's another stand rendition I made up.




I'm not sure if this will be sufficient to vent exhaust gasses or not.

Time to think I guess....

[Monster Mash]

Nothing is better then free scrap material!! I built my entire brewery out of scrap material, even my 30 gallon pots....

[Junkster]

Hmmmm...... "Salvage Brewing Co." - I like the sound of it! Some people just don't recognize fine junk when they see it!