ChuckJaxFL's single tier, all electric build thread

First step: bought metal

I've never seen anyone track how much time it actually takes to complete one of these. I don't know if I have the discipline to actually track how much time, though. I justify my existence 6 minutes at a time all day, every day already. I don't know if I want to continue that at home. I'm going to try it, though.

2.0 - driving & getting stuff
14.5 - measuring, cutting, welding the frame

Okay - that's enough. I'm NOT tracking my time on this.

Sculpture

Pots & Plumbing

Controls

Consumables

Good luck man! It looks like you are off to a good start. I'm trying to finish mine up and it is going on two years (I think).

Thanks!

If everything goes the way I want it to, I'll be that long on mine, as well. I intend to build a "basic" setup, then add layers of complexity as I learn new stuff (and can afford it). I've spent the last year teaching myself Arduino code, I'm pretty comfortable on that end. I also want to end up with a nice graphical interface, thus the Raspberry Pi. I'm illiterate on that end, for now.

I've always found the best way to learn these things is by doing a project. Good luck, I'll be watching this thread evolve.

Well "The Plan" was to come home, make some miter cuts and, maybe, tack a few of the pieces together.

However, all I got to do was put the kegs on the pile of metal, and look at it.





These things happen.

In all seriousness though, my wife just landed an awesome job after an period of unemployment. I hope everybody has the same kind of distractions I have.

Got some more parts today. At lunch, I went and picked up some casters. Also the raspberry pi showed up today. This will be a completely fresh start with the raspberry. I've never so much as held one in my hand before, so, putting this to use will take a while.

Cool, looking pretty good

Looks good man. I am moving to Jacksonville in September maybe I can see the finish project.

Finally, "first blood"


I just nipped the corner enough to determine if the 45 setting on the saw was accurate, which it was.



First cut, and after cleaning so I could get a good point from which to measure.



After cutting the four, I lined them all up marked the other end at once.




And then the cut line.



and the got the other ends cut & cleaned up.



When an office worker does metal work, this is what an hour and a half gets you - a whole eight cuts. In my defense, that does include a "Hey honey, will go to the jiffy (convenience store) and get us some chocolate?" run.




And, call me cheap, but I'm keeping these to help me get the welder dialed in. I just bought the welder and started a few weeks ago, I don't intuitively know how to adjust from the "sticker settings" yet.

I'm really surprised at how long it took me just to do that. And my hands are killing me from the wire brush. I have pretty severe CTS, and have worn a brace on my right hand for years. The saw isn't painless, but it's not awful. The grinder with the cup brush I can feel all the way up and to the base of my ear.

Very nice start. I love the chop saw action shot!

HankyPanky said:

Looks good man. I am moving to Jacksonville in September maybe I can see the finish project.

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I used to live up your way, out on General Booth Blvd I think it was.

I'm a new brewer here in Jax. I'll subscribe to this thread and keep an eye on your progress. Good luck!

First lesson of the day, don't try to get "one more cut" from the chopsaw blade.





And, I must be doing better. This time it only took one hour to measure cut and cleanup eight cuts.

I'm glad I'm keeping the scraps. Here's the first attempt at welding on this particular thickness of steel for me.





The bead looks kind of piled up. And, on the inside:





No penetration whatsoever. That's with the recommended settings on the sticker.

I moved the voltage up to "C" and try again.









It's lumpy, but better penetration. I'm going to try the same settings again, and try to be more consistent with my travel speed.

Well, I wouldn't think that you would have to bevel 16 gauge. However, with my current skill level I guess I'm going to need to. Here's a piece of scrap on which I beveled the joint before I welded up. I turn the welder back to the recommended settings by the way.

Welded side:



Backside:

I am having a hell of a time figuring out a way to hold these first 2 Pieces Sq., and in the same plane, at the same time. This is what I came up with:









This is, of course, just for the tack weld.

"Top shelf" is tacked!



This is slow going.

chuckjaxfl said:

I used to live up your way, out on General Booth Blvd I think it was.

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Ya I currently live about 15 minutes away but I am on deployment now. Which sucks!

I'm slacking on the pictures.

I got the top and bottom totally welded out yesterday.

chuckjaxfl said:

I'm slacking on the pictures.

I got the top and bottom totally welded out yesterday.

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I also cut four mounting plates for the casters. I just tacked them together to make grinding them go a little quicker.

That's it for today, time to clean up. Two tiers, and I've got the wheels on it at least.

Not bad for my first weekend. I learned lots of ways to not do things.

What kind of welder are you using? Flux core or mig wire? You can also turn your wire feed down to avoid building up too much bead which also lets you travel slower. And get more heat into the work. If you have a 4.5" right angle grinder, I strongly recommend using flap wheels for edge prep. Heleta abrasives is a great place to get flap wheels, cut off wheels etc. Remember to measure on the diagonal to make sure your piece is square. You can invert have too many clamps. C clamps are my preference.

Lincoln 180, regular 0.25 wire & 75/25.

I'm pretty happy with the welds, once I beveled the edges some. Since I can't see the back sides of these welds, I practiced on the scraps for quite some time. My practice runs probably add up to three or four feet of actual bead, before I started welding on this frame. Maybe excessive, but I have complete confidence that all of these welds penetrate through.

Damnit.



I got a little done, though.

C'mon, get a 10 pound spool!

I would have loved to get a 220v welder. Had planned on running it off the generator. Couldn't find one for anywhere near my budget so ended up with a Lincoln Electric SP-100 for $120 on Craigslist. Turns out the 110 outlet on the gen is only 20 amp and the machine needs 25+ amps for my materials so I had to run my thickest extension cord to the basement washer outlet. Welding 1/8" steel (solid wire, 75/25) with a 110v welder makes you learn to weld well quickly.

I also should have gone with a larger argon tank as filling that little 10 pounder got expensive and annoyingly frequent.

Nice looking setup.

Thanks!


Not much to report. I added the cross members. What do you want on a Wednesday night?

Been at the computer instead of the garage recently. One of the things I want to do is try controlling each pump output by phase-angle controlling the motor instead of putting a ball valve on the exit of the pump head. I recognize that, since our pumps are centrifugal, there's a good chance I'm wasting my time. But, hey, I want to try it anyway.

If it works, I'll use it to control sparge runoff rate, to control the MLT level during sparge, and use it balance chill water vs. hot wort for the chill cycle. If it doesn't work, I just wasted a Saturday drawing up this board. I sent the board off to the board house, and ordered the parts from Digikey. If it sucks, I'll let you know.

Wouldn't it make more sense to test this on a bread board first? It's been a few years since I did any pcb work, but last time I quoted a prototype board it was a couple hundred bucks.

BrocksHomebrew said:

Wouldn't it make more sense to test this on a bread board first? It's been a few years since I did any pcb work, but last time I quoted a prototype board it was a couple hundred bucks.

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Yup. I'd prefer to breadboard first. The Chugger site says those pumps run about 290 watts, though. I couldn't find any guidance on how much current a breadboard can handle, or the spacing between the conductors. I was able to find specs on track width/track spacing for the PCB with relative ease, though.

Quick turnaround boards manufactured in CONUS are expensive; prohibitively so for me. I use iTead. This is a 50mm x 100mm board, 10 copies is $25 for color boards, $20 for green. 50mm x 50mm is something like $10 for green boards, $12 or $15 for colors. Pay them via PayPal, email a set of Gerber files off to China, wait a few weeks, get 10 boards. So, the investment is not that much, really.

The other boards are all 5v & 12v only, I've got some of those running with ATTiny85's on breadboards already.

Not a lot to report. Less that I can show with a picture. I got the last of the supports welded across the bottom tier, and the vertical supports welded in. I think that's the last of main frame part of the welding. I expect it should be just brackets & such now.

I've started a very rough Arduiono sketch that read one of the freescale pressure sensor (for volume measurement) via an ATtiny85 via I2C, reads a DS18B20 via 1-wire, and blinks an led via an ATtiny85 via I2C, simultaneously. I have the results of the two sensors being sent when requested from my Raspberry PI. I have a rough python script written that will request those two bits of info (well, ints of info... get it!?!?! HA!!) from the Arduino and display them in text format I guess the next step is to try to get that data onto a GUI or web based interface of some sort, and figure out how to enter a command from the RPi back to the Arduino.

Good mail today.

Annnnnnd, a small package from China

I wish I had more to report. I haven't done just a whole lot. Here it is, partially painted, and with the rims tube mounted.

I need to order an extension for the rims tube. I'm going to lower the bottom end of it 1 foot, and turn the inlet to the left, towards the pump you see hanging from the middle keg.

Also, since my last update, I got in on Jaybyrd's false bottom deal!

subbed
PS - thanks for the stand!

Starting to clean up the kegs before I start cutting them. This is more work than you can imagine, the reports of how burdensome keg polishing is are not exaggerated.

chuckjaxfl said:

Starting to clean up the kegs before I start cutting them. This is more work than you can imagine, the reports of how burdensome keg polishing is are not exaggerated.

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I agree - it is an absolute pain in the ass. Not to mention the mess it makes. Lookin good though.