My brutus ten

Here is the start of my Brutus ten. Trying to stay pretty close to the original. Made with same size tubing but not stainless due to price. I plan on powder coating it once it's completely mocked up. Should be just as durable and cleanable. Let me know what you think so far.

Josh

The powder coating will burn off around the burners. Frame routed gas is a bad idea. Otherwise, the stand looks great.

Thanks for your input. I don't understand why using the rear frame section is a bad idea? Please enlighten me.

The frame is not designed or rated for gas. It's not safe. Unlike other elements of home brewing, gas is not the place to cut corners. As great as Lonnie's Brutus design was a great gift to the brewing community, his gas beam was not. Instead, it created a lot of very unsafe brew stands.

The wall thickness of The pipe is well within limits to handle the low pressure it will be handling. I pressure tested it up To 160 psi with no issues. It will not exceed 30 psi with propane. Thank you for your concern but I believe this is a non issue. I deal with these things professionally so I think I will be fine

So, as a professional you are allowed to use square tubing for gas supply?

Yep. I am done arguing with you. If you do not like my stand than please don't post. Sick of dealing with keyboard commandos...one reason I do not post much. Has Lonnie's stand blown up on him?

I'm not a keyboard commando. I am curious though what type of work that you do that allows you to use square tube for gas. Answer me and prove me wrong. I have no problem admitting that I have made a mistake. Please educate me.
You may be able to build a 'safe' frame, but how many will copy the design that won't? It only takes one.

I feel no need to answer to you. I don't care what you think nor feel the need to be "right" or "wrong". I am confident in my stand. It does not leak. I will not explode. Thus, I feel no need to argue with you over the use of square or round pipe. Its not relevent. You said it yourself "You may be able to build a 'safe' frame, but how many will copy the design that won't? It only takes one." I don't care if some one copies my design. Its basically Lonnie's design up to this point so if by any chance some one that didn't know what they were doing decided to take this task on I would sleep just fine knowing it had nothing to do with me. I see you sell your own version of stands...are you just butt hurt that you didn't get a sale from me?

I would just like to say there is a reason to use black pipe and FWIW you "DID" ask what everyone thought about your stand.....

Hellfire_studios said:

... Let me know what you think so far.

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Note: don't ask others what they think if you don't want to hear their thoughts.

OneHoppyGuy said:

The powder coating will burn off around the burners. Frame routed gas is a bad idea. Otherwise, the stand looks great.

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Yep you are right. I did ask for thoughts but are you telling me that you would not be alittle bit upset with this kind of response? You could have approached the subject in a different way that would have made it easier for us to have a conversation about our views. I have already looked at some of your designs before I started this project and had planned on contacting you for some input for future steps in my build. but with a snarky response like that right out of the gate its apparent that further input would not be constructive. Thanks. Can we move on now?

Dougie63 said:

I would just like to say there is a reason to use black pipe and FWIW you "DID" ask what everyone thought about your stand.....

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This is a much better approach. Other than "safety", what are some more reasons to use pipe over the bar?

i scared to approach it the wrong way.

How tall is it with the kegs on there?

Hellfire_studios said:

This is a much better approach. Other than "safety", what are some more reasons to use pipe over the bar?

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Black pips is rated for gas material, thickness ect square tubing is not, could have a thin weld and a little time could have a leak later on rust ect.

Hellfire_studios said:

This is a much better approach. Other than "safety", what are some more reasons to use pipe over the bar?

Click to expand...

double post

I decided to go with black iron because I doubted my ability to make leak free welds. I do like the clean and tidy look of the lonnie style gas bar, what are the the safety concerns other than leaks?

Op I think your stand looks great so far, it would be a little too tall for me but I'm a short guy

Tidy...it's right at chest high. A few more inches and it would be too tall but it's just about where I want it.

One thing I want to point out: Black Iron Pipe these days is usually just black painted steel - it's come to be recoined as Black Steel Pipe but it's still being sold as Black Iron. So it will rust too. Some are not even seamless - you have to be careful. I'm not saying I'm advocating one way over another - I myself use Black pipe just because I vented my frame. I just think don't think many know about this little misnomer.

Thanks wmc! I am gathering electronics for it now. Should have all the plumbing done tomorrow.

Kca I plan on venting the top sections of frame as well. Going to drill two eighth inch holes on bottom sides of all top frame sections. Figure the air in side will need to expand and contract with the heat.

That's what I did - there's a contingency on the forums who will tell you that doesn't happen but this is definitely a better safe than sorry measure I think. If anything it'll help reduce heat from absorption by giving it a place to vent.

I agree totally

So what is the safest way to run gas on the Brutus? Black pipe with two tees and an elbow at the end for the three burners?

Again you're going to get a million opinions on this - but black pipe is pretty simple, readily available and can easily be cut to custom lengths at your LHS. Many people go this route as did I. Many others use propane hose with fittings. And then some use copper or aluminum.

Above all, KISS. Happy to help if I can.

I got everything mocked up and sent out the stand to be coated. When it gets back I will get it all plumbed up and wired and move on to getting the kegs ready to top this beast.

Ok, I got everything wired up and I have some issues. I wired everything pretty much the same as Lonnies but I added lights in line with all the switches. so when you turn on that switch the light associated with it should light up. I get it all wired up and plug it in and nothing happens. I have power running through the main power switch to the power bus and into both my controllers (TS2 loves). But the lights do not light up. And I do not get any LED lights on the controllers. When I wire the controllers direct to the power bus (not through the switches) I get LEDs and everything seems to work properly. I am thinking the switches are not working properly. I am not an electrician but I would think that a 125v 20a switch should be plenty to run this setup. Any one else have problems like this or some advice?

Thanks in advance

Can you post a pic of the wiring? or a block wiring diagram? It's hard to troubleshoot just by talking about it. It would be helpful if we could "see" what you have inside the box.

Great looking stand by the way!!!

I don't know what kind of switches you have, but I had a similar problem with mine, I had them wired like a residential switch with hot and common both going to the switch. Once I dropped the commons and just had the switches opening and closing the hot wire, everything worked fine. As mentioned above, a schematic of some kind would be super helpful.

Disclaimer: I am not a certified electrician

I have the switches just opening and closing the hot wire. I have attached a picture of the wiring diagram I based my setup off of. Let me know if you can't open the file. I am on a Linux machine and some times jpg files get screwing.

the only difference between my wiring and this diagram is I have in line lights in line with the switches so that when you turn on the switch the lights come on. They are 125v in line LEDs the guy at the electrical store said that you just run power through them on the power line so where I have a power line coming out of the switches they go through the lights and into the controllers, valves, and pumps.

okay, when you plug in the control box and turn on the MAIN pwr sw, does that light in the upper left corner of your box come on?

I will assume that upper left sw is your main power switch.

Do you have a multimeter? are all your switches three position switches? Looks like they are in the middle position and you have on-off-on type switches?

you say when you by-pass the switch you get the LED's to light and the controllers work. If that's the case I would say your switches are wired incorrectly. If they are three position switches "on-off-on" there should be three connections, the middle one should be the supply, and each end connection would be for the "on" positions.

they are two position switches. Yes you are correct that is the main power switch. I get the light next to it to turn on when the switch for the controller is turned on. But not if the controller switch is off. I think I figured it out. The guy at the electrical store said that these lights should be wired "in line" with the power. I think if I take them out of the line and wire the switch direct without going through the light, then run a power wire from the switch to the light and then the other wire on the light to the common it should work correctly. I am thinking this is why the light comes on when the controller switch is in the "on" position. because it is then a closed circuit? Just a thought....

I have a multimeter and I have tested the resistance on the switches and they all seem to be in working order. I should have some time to work on it tomorrow night and I am going to try to wire it like my above statement and see what happens. Let me know if you think I am on the right path.

Josh

Yes, I think you are on the right track. Let us know how it goes. Fwiw, I think the guy at the shop didn't know you were wiring up discreet components. Anyway, use the "load" side of your switches, that should work out for you.
I like the idea of the LEDs, I might have to add some to my control panel.

ok I took the lights out of the mix and it works. so now I just have to rewire the lights correctly. I am electrically stupid lol. I will post pictures of this thing all together just waiting one more keg on top and it will be ready to fire up. Thanks for the help.

Josh

Great work! Sounds like it's time to start brewing!

Here is mine

Looks great!

got the lights wired up today and it all works well. Going to get my last pump tomorrow and finish wiring it up. I will take some pics of it when I finish the wiring. thanks again for the help.