My Weldless Build Using Strut

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Got new burners in and installed them brewed first batches last sat cranked 40gal the are 200,000 btu capable and rock 10gal to a boil.


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Primary
10g Double Black IIPA
10g Jai Alai Clone
10g Zombie Dust Clone
10g Rye Saison
 
Darkness said:
Got new burners in and installed them brewed first batches last sat cranked 40gal the are 200,000 btu capable and rock 10gal to a boil.

Primary
10g Double Black IIPA
10g Jai Alai Clone
10g Zombie Dust Clone
10g Rye Saison
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Got a jet burner myself. Cant wait to assemble and get that puppy roaring.
 
I work for an industrial supplier and we sell strut along with all of the fittings. My biggest suggestion would be to get your complete list of strut and fittings and take them in and have them quote you out. Usually when you buy in bulk, at least at my store, we'll work with you on the pricing. You can also add all of your drill bits, cut-off wheels, etc. to that list and increase your odds of getting a more competitive price.

Cooper B-Line is another good manufacturer to look at for all of the fittings if they haven't already been mentioned.
 
Darkness said:
Got new burners in and installed them brewed first batches last sat cranked 40gal the are 200,000 btu capable and rock 10gal to a boil.
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Looking great. Let me know if you come up with a good solution for a wind screen. Last (and first) time I brewed on the new strut rig with 10-tip NG burners it was pretty calm so I didn't have to worry about the wind, but will probably need to come up with something long term. I've read that with these burners you can't choke them off too much though. You need to have pretty good ventilation in and around any type of wind screen.
 
Looking great. Let me know if you come up with a good solution for a wind screen. Last (and first) time I brewed on the new strut rig with 10-tip NG burners it was pretty calm so I didn't have to worry about the wind, but will probably need to come up with something long term. I've read that with these burners you can't choke them off too much though. You need to have pretty good ventilation in and around any type of wind screen.


I brew in my basement with exhaust fans and makeup air for the room wind is no problem for me. But that said you could use a section of sheet metal pipe that fit between your strut arms just use self tapping screws to hold it up and cut to length. Might be the easiest.
 
Prob last (and only second on the strut stand) brew session of the season. Have it dialed in pretty good now. NG burners were key. Probably cut 20 out of brew day, easy. Got the Auber PID monitoring temps, just don't have the Honeywell valve hooked up yet.

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Hey Gifty and others who have done this. How difficult was it cutting through the strut with an electric miter saw and the cut off wheels?
 
JonesSoda6 said:
Hey Gifty and others who have done this. How difficult was it cutting through the strut with an electric miter saw and the cut off wheels?
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Gifty mentioned in an earlier post that it takes a little bit of time to cut through the strut with a cut off wheel. I also made a few cuts with a cut off wheel, and was surprised by how long it does take. I actually made most of my cuts using a sawzall with a metal cutting blade. This gave me as square a cut as the cut off wheel, and was a lot faster. The channel cuts pretty easy this way. I am including my experience because you might want to give this some thought if you already have the sawzall.

Mark
 
LuiInIdaho said:
Gifty mentioned in an earlier post that it takes a little bit of time to cut through the strut with a cut off wheel. I also made a few cuts with a cut off wheel, and was surprised by how long it does take. I actually made most of my cuts using a sawzall with a metal cutting blade. This gave me as square a cut as the cut off wheel, and was a lot faster. The channel cuts pretty easy this way. I am including my experience because you might want to give this some thought if you already have the sawzall.

Mark
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Much appreciated. I can only imagine going through 12 ga steel is going to take forever.
 
A fine toothed metal cutting blade and the sawzall worked faster than the metal cut off wheel. At least this was my experience. I also used something like the Rockwell Jaw Horse (Home Depot Rigid Brand) to hold the work steady. A vise or some clamps holding the strut to a table or some saw horses would also do the trick.

Here is another trick I picked up with working with this stuff. I needed some holes where none were drilled. I used a regular hack saw, took apart the blade, and then reassembled the saw in one of the slots of the strut. I was then able to cut out the middle section between two adjoining slots. This effectively made one long slot out of two shorter ones. I was then able to install my bolts where I needed them (I was doing this on the back side and did not have the items facing the channel.) The channel cut rather easily with the hack saw. I was impressed.

Mark
 
Can't wait to build mine. Would you suggest using a chop saw for cutting the strut? I can rent one locally for not that much, so was thinking of doing that.
 
If you are going to rent a tool, you might consider renting a Sawzall. I found that it made just as clean a cut, but was faster than using a metal cut off saw. Also, if you were renting, I would not rent a chop saw for wood. This might do some damage to the saw or to some pieces of the saw that you might have to explain or be liable for. I did try it with my chop saw and a metal cut off wheel, and I went back to using the Sawzall.

There might be a price difference in the rent between the cut off saw and the sawzall. That could make a difference in your choice.

That is my two cents. Mark
 
Yeah, I was going to say, you can rent either mitre/compound mitre or regular chop saw. Chop saw is made just for this, cutting strut (steel). I have not tried to do it with a sawzall, but I got to think you would get a more square, cleaner cut with a chop saw where the piece is held in place and you're hitting it at a direct 90° angle. Then again, you said you tried that and went back to the sawzall. I just can't get that in my mind how it would be better. Maybe quicker, but not more accurate, can't be. I have used sawzall a bunch of times, but never on steel, so I can't attest from personal experience. But I think a large chop saw (>12" blade) would have to do a nice job.
 
i am buying my strut locally but buying all my fittings from the recommended GP-LLC (strutchannelfittings.com). I had $90 worth of fittings in the cart and went to checkout. I filled out my checkout info and then before putting my card info in, i got a phone call. I was on the phone for about 10 mins and then a big red banner popped up on the site. Said enter coupon code SAVE now for 10% off. Sweet
 
LiquidFlame said:
I guess what I should be really asking is, are you guys using 1-5/8" x 13/16" or 1-5/8" x 1-5/8"
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I bought 5 sticks of the 1-5/8 X 1-5/8 and 1 stick of the 1-5/8 X 13/16. I built the structural parts out of the big stuff, and I used the one stick of the smaller dimension to hold my gas lines, etc.

Mark
 
Yeah, I think the square 1 5/8" works best for this application. Allows you to match things up better. I went with the 12ga and it is sturdy as can be, and not overly heavy. I can slide it about my garage with ease. Using the thinner 13/16" stuff though is a good idea for mounting and misc things and in fact I might do that when I hard mount my burners. The spreadsheet for my build is a few posts down on the first page. Lists the specs for everything I used.
 
Nice. I half assed mine, and went with a combo of strut and flat bar for the top and 4x4s for the legs, but after seeing this I wish I just did the whole thing in strut. My thinking was that this would get the job done until I decided to build and weld up a nice steel one.
 
anyone have shipping problems with the recommended strutchannelfittings.com? Not sure what happened but I ordered on the 19th and got the confirmation email on the 20th. Didnt even think about it over the weekend. Decided to check the tracking late Monday (24th) and its not even in the UPS system. I know with the holidays things are slow, but if they really notified ups it was ready to pickup on Thursday, hard to believe I cant track it.
 
LiquidFlame said:
If your using casters, what are you using?
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I used three different types of castors. I put four castors on one end, so that I can tip the stand over on one end to achieve a smaller footprint for storing my stand. For this, I used four swivel castors, three inch wheels, that have a half-inch bolt post. I ran the bolt-post through the slots in the unistrut, and then added some washers and half inch nuts.

For the bottom of the stand (in the brewing position) I used two swivel castors with four inch wheels. These also have a half-inch threaded post that I ran through the unistrut slot, and attached with washers and half-inch nuts. On the other end, I used to fixed castors that bolt on to a solid surface. I bolted these to some steel, which I then bolted to the unistrut. I wanted these castors to not swivel so that it would make it easier to move the stand from a vertical position (storage position) to a horizontal position (brewing position) and vice versa.

Others have used castors with a half-inch threaded post that they fastened to the short leg of an L connector. They then fastened the L connector to the unistrut using the special nuts, etc. Look at Post # 73 in this thread.

I hope that you find this helpful.

Mark
 
bucfanmike said:
anyone have shipping problems with the recommended strutchannelfittings.com? Not sure what happened but I ordered on the 19th and got the confirmation email on the 20th. Didnt even think about it over the weekend. Decided to check the tracking late Monday (24th) and its not even in the UPS system. I know with the holidays things are slow, but if they really notified ups it was ready to pickup on Thursday, hard to believe I cant track it.
Click to expand...

UPS did not even post proper tracking but my order showed up in 3 days. I am more then pleased with their service and speed. These things are heavy duty to boot!
 
JonesSoda6 said:
UPS did not even post proper tracking but my order showed up in 3 days. I am more then pleased with their service and speed. These things are heavy duty to boot!
Click to expand...

yea not sure what happened to mine. Got the first notice on the 20th. UPS didnt actually pick up til the 26th. Supposed to be on the truck today though.
 
Here is my brew stand in the vertical (storage) position and in the brewing position (horizontal) with HLT MLT and kettle.


I still have to add shelves, a three way valve, and a heat shield for the boil kettle. This was a great project. Thanks to all who participated in this thread. Mark

image-3344846214.jpg


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LuiInIdaho said:
Here is my brew stand in the vertical (storage) position and in the brewing position (horizontal) with HLT MLT and kettle.

I still have to add shelves, a three way valve, and a heat shield for the boil kettle. This was a great project. Thanks to all who participated in this thread. Mark
Click to expand...

That is awesome. Love the ability to tIp it on it's side. That will save some space. I was trying to come up with a way to make mine fold up. I never thought of this. What a great idea. I'm stealing it.
 
gifty74 said:
No problem. You're going to love how sturdy the thing is when you're done. I started mounting my gas rail last night. They make a nice hose clamp that locks into the strut. You can then slide it to wherever you need it, and it clamps down super tight. I should have the burners mounted and plumbed after tonight. Then I'll just put a branch of strut off the side, mount the controller, wire up the pump, and should be good for the initial trial brew session.

Another helpful tidbit, the March 809 pump is about 3.3" in diameter. I got the 3" pipe clamp and it is just a bit too big to really clamp down and secure the pump in a vertical position. I'm going to swap it out for the 2.5" clamp and try that tonight.
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Did the 2.5" clamp for the pumps work out better?
 
LiquidFlame said:
Did the 2.5" clamp for the pumps work out better?
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Actually no. Forgot to post back. The 2.5" clamp was too small, so I went back to the 3" and laid some thin rubber strips (used a blown bike tire) in between the pump and clamp and it worked like a charm. Seemed better to be tightening down on the rubber instead of metal to metal like it is with the clamp on the pump housing. The rubber took up the play and made it really snug up well.
 
gifty74 said:
Actually no. Forgot to post back. The 2.5" clamp was too small, so I went back to the 3" and laid some thin rubber strips (used a blown bike tire) in between the pump and clamp and it worked like a charm. Seemed better to be tightening down on the rubber instead of metal to metal like it is with the clamp on the pump housing. The rubber took up the play and made it really snug up well.
Click to expand...

You also have the added benefit of the rubber absorbing any vibrations from the pump motor. This, too, will help keep the pump nice and snug.

Mark
 
Just a heads up to everyone. This Sunday we are going to assemble and take pics of the process regarding the use of the unistrut. So if you have any questions let us know and we will try to answer during the construction day.
 

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