Heat/ Wind Shield

Hello everyone. I am constructing a heat/ wind shield for my banjo burners and would like some input on the thickness of the steel. Does anyone know what a decent thickness would be that would be durable to the heat and still easy enough to bend into a circle. I will be ordering strips from McMaster Carrer and turning them into a circle and secured by screws or bolts. Thanks.

brewnami

I bought a roll of 12" flashing from Home Schlepo. I made a pattern from cardboard, traced it out on the flashing and cut it out. I used rivets to hold it in the circle. I cut several out because I didn't know how well it would hold up. It's very thin, but has held up for many batches. - Dwain

A recent article in one of the brewing mags showed someone who used a galvanized tub as a wind/dog shield. They cut a small area out to allow for lighting and the hose I think. Looked like there was about 4-6 inches distance between the tub and the burner.

Maybe a bit more $$ than flashing, but it would also double as a boilover collector.

I am working on these using the suggested 16 ga. carbon sheet metal.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/welding-101-fun-brutus-build-164749/index3.html

Thanks everyone.

BendBrewer:
Can you tell me where you bought your steel? I am looking at McMaster Carr and they don't list their steel by gauge. I am not much of a metallurgist as you can tell so I am hoping you can help me translate what I need from their site:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#steel/=agzi59

Actually nevermind. I found this helpful gauge conversion online:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/gauge_sheet_metal.htm

Thanks so much everyone.

Try a scrap yard first. Stainless sheet for less than retail carbon steel.

I'm about to upgrade my brew kettle burner to a Banjo and I'd like to use a similar setup. I hear the Banjo is a beast. I don't have access to a welder anymore so I'd like to use the heat shield to help serve as a structure for mounting the burner...4 holes in the shield to mount to the burner tabs and the shield held to my Brutus stand with 4 brackets, screwed into the frame and the shield. Is aluminum strong enough?

Without knowing exactly what you're working on (in terms of burner setup) it's hard to say, but I can tell you that I used 22ga steel for my project and it holds up just fine. Aluminum flashing used in this way would wilt away almost as soon as you turn on the burner.

Here's a link to my thread

Really makes a huge difference in both the opportunity for the flame to blow out and actually in efficiency as the heat is prevented from just going around the kettle right away.

This is what I use. It's already assembled, cheap, portable and works really well.

Nurmey said:

This is what I use. It's already assembled, cheap, portable and works really well.

Click to expand...

I was doing something like this (building a barrier) although it wasn't quite as good as this approach. What I like about wrapping the burner stand as I have shown in that thread is that it not only blocks the wind but also keeps the heat on the kettle much better helping the issue of the KAB4 burner being a bit too far from the bottom of the kettle. Also it's nice to not have anything else to setup/move around, it's just part of the burner.

You can always purchase a 12" stainless steel spring form pan. The one I bought was made from 18 gage 304 stainless.

Sawdustguy said:

You can always purchase a 12" stainless steel spring form pan. The one I bought was made from 18 gage 304 stainless.

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GOOD IDEA! Where did you find these???

I found a 10 ft roll of "galvanized flashing" at Home Depot. I'm guessing this us just steel covered with zinc? I might try it as a shield while I search for some stainless.

I bought 4 inch wide strips of 16 gauge and was thinking it was going to be a pain in the butt part of the build. I determined the diameter needed, multiplied by pi and made a mark on the sheet at that length. I then used a full corney keg and started 'working' the sheet into form until the end met up with my line. Once I got it close, just cut the excess off, (excess made forming them into rounds a lot easier) held the ends together and tacked them. In all honesty, it took me about 5 minutes per. I ended up being surprised on how easy it was to form them.

I would avoid using Galvanized when dealing with heat. The heat effects the galvanization and can put off gases. VERY dangerous when welding and it's always a safety note. Not sure how bad it would be with a heat shield...but honestly for the little energy it takes to find metal elsewhere... I wouldn't risk it.

dannedry said:

GOOD IDEA! Where did you find these???

Click to expand...

http://www.cheftools.com/Fat-Daddios-Springform-Pan-Round-12-Inch-x-3-Inch/productinfo/02-1902-05/

Thanks Reaver. Good point. I'll avoid galvanized.

I'm a little frustrated because I am putting a lot of effort into finding metal locally yet striking out. All the scrap yards I've called purchase metal but will not sell any of it. McMaster-Carr has cold rolled carbon steel sheets that are 0.031" width, so about 22 gauge steel. Is this thick enough? I'll be mounting my burners to some brackets I built. The shield will mount to the brackets, through bolts that attach the burner to the brackets. I don't think I need the shields to be super rigid.

Reaver said:

I would avoid using Galvanized when dealing with heat. The heat effects the galvanization and can put off gases. VERY dangerous when welding and it's always a safety note. Not sure how bad it would be with a heat shield...but honestly for the little energy it takes to find metal elsewhere... I wouldn't risk it.

Click to expand...

misterVT said:

Thanks Reaver. Good point. I'll avoid galvanized.

I'm a little frustrated because I am putting a lot of effort into finding metal locally yet striking out. All the scrap yards I've called purchase metal but will not sell any of it. McMaster-Carr has cold rolled carbon steel sheets that are 0.031" width, so about 22 gauge steel. Is this thick enough? I'll be mounting my burners to some brackets I built. The shield will mount to the brackets, through bolts that attach the burner to the brackets. I don't think I need the shields to be super rigid.

Click to expand...

Definitely don't use galvanized, I have 22ga steel (not stainless) right next to my burner and it is fine, the melting point of steel is north of 2600 degrees fahrenheit and 22ga seems to be thick enough to be able to dissipate the heat from the burner before any point gets close to there. For my project I was able to easily find "weldable steel" (which I believe is regular carbon steel) at Ace hardware quite easily. I think it came in a 12"x24" or possibly 12"x48" sheet. Lowes also stocks this I believe. The other option is to use a place like onlinemetals.com these guys are great (that's a link to the metal I'd use if I was ordering from them btw) you can order sheets pre-cut to any size you want, they just charge by the square inch of metal. You can also order stainless from these guys if you prefer.

Again I think if you check out the thread I linked earlier you'll get an idea for what I've done with the metal, it works just fine.