Single Tier (Brutus style) Paint Question

After searching countless threads, I hope someone can give a firsthand account of painting a stand.

I had a buddy weld up my single-tier stand, cleaned it, and proceeded to paint it with VHT engine paint. I was so pumped to get the thing all dressed up, when I realized you are required to bake the paint for several hours....

The stand has been sitting in my 100+ degree brew room in southern New Mexico for over a month, which I know is no substitute for the recommended baking procedures, but am curious.... will the entire stand start to flake and peel? Of course I expect the burner shrouds/wind shields to burn off, but what about the rest of the stand?

Should I expect to strip the entire thing and start over...? Properly this time???

It won't flake or peel just sitting there. Without curing the paint it will get scratched up easily. I just set my keggles on mine and fired it up. The pots help transfer the heat to my stand. It worked beautifully.

At this point, less concerned about scratching, although not looking forward to it. Glad to hear it worked for you so far!

Thought I'd add a couple pics, just for the hell of it.

Mine sat for a couple weeks with zero issues... Just cured it yesterday. I was really anal about getting the temps just right according to the manufacturer's recommendation so I took the cover off my girl and had it hovering over each side as I fired the burners.... Giant waste of time! (And I had to do it twice, one on each end of the single tier stand). That was my really long way of saying, when you do paint it +1 to throwing pots on and firing it up.... Looking back I had no real control and it still turned out great.

I felt like I was being really smart at the time though

Well, threw the keggle on for about 20 minutes, and this is the result. Pretty much what I was afraid of.....

Well that sucks. Is that burned paint or just a crap load of carbon build up?

btw, did you notice if your kettle bottoms were completely sealing the top of those wind screens? It sure looks like there's virtually zero opening inside the screens when a pot is resting on the stand. If that's true you're going to need to put some pot-rest spacers on top of the frame to let those burners breath...

Cheers!

Yeah, it's actually burned, not carbon build up. And unfortunately, i didn't consider oxygen during the build. Big mistake. I'm gonna cut vents to fix. She'll burn fine once the keggle is on, but had to remove to ignite because of the deprivation. Obviously defeats the purpose of a pumped single tier. Sometimes you gotta learn the hard way....

Sorry about your stand, something that could help the vent issue is to attach some angle iron pieces spanning all the corners... Keeps the pot in place and the kegs actually rest on the angle iron, not the cross beams of the stand. There is a tiny bit of clearance that way

Here's a pic of mine that I'm building now.




I have a windscreen as well, I just left it off during this curing stage.

On a side note. Where did you get your casters? And are they threaded into inserts. That's my next step and I like how clean yours look!

That's a great idea. I'll probably just plasma cut the screens because the burners are 5.5 inches below bottom of the keg now and don't want to raise them, reducing pressure.

I got the casters at Harbor Freight. We welded a nut to a2" plate we cut, then welded it to the frame. Looks slick and works great. I also have room to make height adjustments to level it if necessary and can swap them out if they get worn out.

Despite my paint and oxygen problems, it has been a blast to build! Still need 2 thermometers, a few camlocks, and more silicone hose, but I'm getting there. I planned to build this over a year, but went buckwild and am about 90% done in a month..... getting married in September, so I had to put the parts list on hold for a bit. In the meantime, I've still got my 5gal system to keep on brrewin!

By the way, your system looks nice!

Thanks! I'm jealous of your progress! I'm in slow-mo build mode. It's gonna take probably another year before its done... Piece by
Piece. Right now it's basically the most overkill burner stand on the face of the planet. I use it to boil and that's it. Still using the cooler mash till I source another keg, get a false bottom, covert the immersion to a HERMS coil, buy a couple pumps, etc, etc... Sheesh, did I say a year, better tack on another couple months

Absolute blast though, I enjoy building it as much as brewing!

Cheers!

I've had good results with rustoleum bbq paint. It's flat black, so easy to touch up. I usually repaint once a year or so. Keeps rust down and looks good IMO

The close up is after about a year... few beer spills...classic brew days. Takes 1-2 cans and about an hour and it looks brand new again... It's due for a makeover.

Was thinking about trying header paint on the legs and bottom, but leave the top as black bbq paint. Might give it a shot this year

Komocabo said:

The close up is after about a year... few beer spills...classic brew days. Takes 1-2 cans and about an hour and it looks brand new again... It's due for a makeover.

Was thinking about trying header paint on the legs and bottom, but leave the top as black bbq paint. Might give it a shot this year

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and pics! Nice stand! I kinda figured I would have to go with a flat black for ease of use, but really hoped to spice it up with color. Never thought about going with two colors... may go that route. The flat black on my buddy's rig is the same as yours, and has held up through the same use/abuse.