My Weldless Build Using Strut

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The best parts company for strut is Caddy they make all the different fittings. You can get stainless strut for about $6.50 a foot if you like. I would call a plumber and ask where he buys material cause you need some strut for home brewing. Never know he might get it cheaper for you, pay him and give him some brew for the trouble. I do mechanical systems some times I have a store put Ranco's on sale for $45, I grab 2 or three for friends all the time.
 
here are a few pic of other fittings that are great to use
IMG_0853.jpg
IMG_1070.jpg

I use strut a lot there are tons of cool fittings this is a job I finished up the units in the strut racks a boilers. the arms they are on are rated for 800lb you can get them up to 36in long could mount them and free span brew station off wall

IMG_0852.jpg
 
Also if you are looking at building a strut stand they make Strut nuts. These fitt in side the channel so you can put the open side down and bolt through a fitting, the nut grabs both sides of the Channel and work great. Or if channel is up use them to bolt extra stuff to stand,ie hooks for mash paddle, controll box brackets.
Also strut comes in three sizes
5/8 in
1 5/8
3 1/8

The 3 1/8 is very strong I use it to hold 300lb air conditioning units with out bracing in 5ft spans.
 
Here are some pics from the opening brew night on the rig. Real happy with the direct fired mash. With these burners I was worried they would create too much heat even on the lowest setting. Not so. When the temp hit 150 I would kick on the burners as low as I could keep it, and with a good recirc flow, it would take about 5 mins for it to get up to 154. Nice even temp rise. Otherwise, pretty uneventful. Next up is the Honeywell 8200 gas valve with standing pilot so I can actually use the output from my Auber controller.

I'd love to know more about the blue flexible gas line you have... where you get that? How long is it? Do you like it?

I've been using one of those yellow bendable metal ones you attach to a dryer...not long enough and gets in the way!

Thanks!
 
I'd love to know more about the blue flexible gas line you have... where you get that? How long is it? Do you like it?

I've been using one of those yellow bendable metal ones you attach to a dryer...not long enough and gets in the way!

Thanks!

I did lots of digging when planning my rig on whether or not to get the "real" flex hose, and when I priced all of that out for my run, which is 25', it was insane, like I could've been on LP another 50 years before I made up any savings by going to NG. I did research and found that the standard butyl rubber air hose is extremely incompatible with NG, and read somewhere that it will quickly break down the rubber and then not sure what would happen. PVC, that I checked HERE and a few other places, has excellent compatibility with NG. So, I made my decision to just find some 1/2" PVC air hose and it has worked out great. Super flexible as you can imagine, and I only have it hooked up for the few hours I'm brewing so I never really leave it unattended so if something crazy were to happen I'm right there. I got some nice NG QDs for the ends so I have one on my outlet just inside the garage in the laundry room, and the other on my rig. Hook up the hose by push-in lock QD, turn on the valve, and its ready. So, to answer your question, that hose is not official NG gas hose by any means. The PVC stuff will however be very stable with NG which is why I chose it. Just need to stay away from the standard air hose, which is just run of the mill rubber. Also, got that 1/2" NPT 25' section on ebay for $25 shipped (an obvious steal). It's Goodyear brand, and their PVC hose is generally blue in color. The key is to find some industrial supply place selling it as overstock or something like that, which is what this was, new, but overstock.
 
Guys, I was at my local Home Depot a couple of days ago and I verified that they did have a whole section of connectors for strut. I was specifically interested in the corner pieces and they had several sizes. It was all hanging right next to the two sizes of strut in the electrical dept. So connectors are available to some extent at HD.
 
Just to follow up, I found a great deal on the same hose I bought on ebay. They sell it HERE for $20. Not sure of the shipping, but this is the exact stuff I have, 1/2" Goodyear Pliovic PVC hose.

And, here are the QDs I bought, and the cheapest place I found to buy them. Awesome quality. I got 2, one for each end of the hose. Valved so they shut off when not connected.
 
Yeah, I got 2 and wasnt able to get the rig set up to use them for over a year. Talk about frustrating. Not cheap but good quality and worth it for convenience and safety. Glad you dig the links. I dug around for a while looking for the best deals. Are you building a weldless stand or just wanted info on the NG?
 
Yep, me again,

I was reading about how it's hard to roll those hoses up when it's cold... Have you found this to be a problem? Last thing I want is 25ft of hose that I can't get to stay in place because it won't bend in the cold. Space in my garage is getting to be tight with all this brewing gear!

Thanks again!
 
I read that too but did not notice it one bit. I brewed 2 weeks ago and it was about 50 in the garage when I finished up and it rolled right up in a 18" diameter roll. I'll see how it goes in 40 or 30 deg weather.
 
This might be a dumb question, but what are you cutting the strut with? An angle grinder?
 
Although not "recommended", I used a basic compound mitre saw with a cutoff wheel I bought at harbor freight. They say for extended life of the saw its not a great idea, but for 20 cuts it wasn't bad. One $2.50 metal cutoff wheel did the whole job.
 
HDIr0n said:
What fittings did you use for attaching the castors to the stand?

Thanks,
-G

He used 90 degree connectors with one long-one short leg. The castor is screwed to the short leg. This assembly is placed under the strut leg. Then the long leg is bolted to the strut channel. It will work great. Mark
 
No, not at all. I thought it was going to be tougher than it was. Just went to HD and bought all kinds of different sizes of 1/2" pipe (3", 4", 6", 10") because you can just return what you don't use. I then just pieced it until I hit the right heights. Used pipe dope or the yellow gas pipe tape and crank it down good with a pipe wrench. One of the easier parts of the build.

Can you tell me about the regulator? Is that a special regulator required for thos burners?

I always thought a regulator wasn't required for NG, because there is alredy one on the meter.
 
Excel sheet with live links would not attach so had to do a screen shot. Full parts list to build what you see above. Total for my build so far is $142. Bummer is it makes sense to buy the 100-pack of strut nuts even though you only need like 40. Bolts are super cheap for that size and qty. The beauty is you can make the main beams and/or the height anything you want. And if it's not what you like, just buy another stick of strut for $14 and cut some new length. Unbolt the old and bolt in the new.

Can you also post the exact lengths that you cut them to?

I see three different sizes that you used!

This looks perfect and would love to build one exactly like that!
 
Can you tell me about the regulator? Is that a special regulator required for thos burners?

I always thought a regulator wasn't required for NG, because there is alredy one on the meter.

Good question. I searched a while for info on this too. Not a whole lot of guys are using NG, but I did contact one member and he said even though the house NG is regulated, you still need one at the stand, to drop it into the range that works best for those burners. I also read a lot of places that you don't need one and they are a waste. That being said I got the one recommended HERE and hooked it up to test (for $33). The point of it is so you can get a healthy (blue) flame even when those 10-tip burners are throttled down real low. I hooked it up and it did seem to allow me to get the blue flame at a lower flow rate when I throttled it down with the ball valve, but not a huge difference. On my setup it's not going to matter much though because I'm using a Honeywell 8200 valve for my direct fired MT burner, and that has a nice built-in regulator with precise control. My BK/HLT burner is going to run at full steam so I won't really need to regulate that. It cranks majorly when the ball valve is wide open. Tons of heat with solid blue flames. I've read these burners like to run at wide open. The venturi is setup to pull in air at a certain flow rate so when you drop below that you're dropping below it's intended use. You are to put the regulator before the ball valve, so you always have the pressure regulated, then you use the ball valve to throttle the flow to set the flame height. I'd say it's not a bad thing to try if you have problems getting a good flame at low throttle setting. Otherwise these burners run great off my house NG, nothing in line.
 
Can you also post the exact lengths that you cut them to?

I see three different sizes that you used!

This looks perfect and would love to build one exactly like that!

Yeah, I went with just two stations for a few reasons. One, I don't see a need to have flame control (ie. a ASCO or Honeywell or other valve to turn heat on/off) on the HLT. So, I heat up mash water on the wide open burner side, and then transfer to the MT for mash. Recirc and measure temp with an Auber PID and RTD temp probe T'd into the inlet of my pump (awesome way to set it up btw). After mash I get the BK close by on floor and pump first runnings into it. While that was going on my sparge water was heating up so I pump that in to the MT (BK still on the ground) and after the sparge water is in I just take the HLT off the wide open burner station and put the BK up in that same spot. Cuts down on the size & weight, and I really don't need a 3rd burner using this setup. Hence 2 stations.

I wanted 4" between pots (which is a nice distance I think, original Brutus 10 with 2" is too close imho) so I cut the 4 main sticks at 36". Then I wanted the stand just about keg height, and didn't plan to put it on wheels, so with the strut being 1.625" in height, that made the vertical supports 20.75" x 6. With the strut stacked on top and bottom of that height (so the verticals are actually supporting the main beams) it puts the height at exactly 24". I found that the strut is so sturdy going just 36" in length I didn't really need vertical support in the middle of the beam, so I have a few extras of those. I put one on the front to mount the pump, but it doesn't do much supporting. At 24" just a touch above the top edge of a keg/keggle. Then the horizontal keggle supports are 12.75" x 7.
 
gifty74 said:
Good question. I searched a while for info on this too. Not a whole lot of guys are using NG, but I did contact one member and he said even though the house NG is regulated, you still need one at the stand, to drop it into the range that works best for those burners. I also read a lot of places that you don't need one and they are a waste. That being said I got the one recommended HERE and hooked it up to test (for $33). The point of it is so you can get a healthy (blue) flame even when those 10-tip burners are throttled down real low. I hooked it up and it did seem to allow me to get the blue flame at a lower flow rate when I throttled it down with the ball valve, but not a huge difference. On my setup it's not going to matter much though because I'm using a Honeywell 8200 valve for my direct fired MT burner, and that has a nice built-in regulator with precise control. My BK/HLT burner is going to run at full steam so I won't really need to regulate that. It cranks majorly when the ball valve is wide open. Tons of heat with solid blue flames. I've read these burners like to run at wide open. The venturi is setup to pull in air at a certain flow rate so when you drop below that you're dropping below it's intended use. You are to put the regulator before the ball valve, so you always have the pressure regulated, then you use the ball valve to throttle the flow to set the flame height. I'd say it's not a bad thing to try if you have problems getting a good flame at low throttle setting. Otherwise these burners run great off my house NG, nothing in line.

Thanks. I'll try the regulator. Seems like a good idea to me.
 
I think they are called rod clips for some reason.
here are a few picks of pages out of suppliers book.
IMG_0729.jpg

IMG_0728.jpg

IMG_0727.jpg

they are L11 in photo
 
No offense to any one here but I gotta say that the three most useful threads on this forum has been - for me:

- gifty's weldless strut thread
- Apple Jackers Lime-aid thread (God I love that stuff!)
- Revvy's bottling and no secondary threads

Ok, that's actually four threads, sue me!


:mug:

And congratulations for us getting a beer animation!
 
Thank man for posting this!!! Since I first read this I designed and started to build my own. All I have is the base frame. I have been amazed at the amount of different parts and configurations that can be achieved. Thanks agian for an amazing example and idea!!

image-1043288739.jpg
 
That looks friggin awesome! I like the idea of just using the same 3-way connection fittings to connect everything. Makes ordering simple. Love the wide design so you have plenty of room between the pots. Heck, I might expand to this in the spring. The best part is I can just pick up the long sticks and have it retrofitted in a matter of minutes. So what's the smaller pot, and HLT? The other cool thing about that strut that I'm finding is when wiring to pumps/valves/etc you can just put it in the channel and you barely need any wires ties at all. The fittings keep it snugged down at every turn.
 
I basically used what you had done and ran through the price calcs between a two pot design and three pot design (66"x30"x16.75") and it ended up being only $50 more for three pots. The smaller pot is my old boil kettle and I just threw that up there for prospective. The plan will be to have three keggles and get pumps to do most if the work. I'm also going to use 3 BG-14 for burners. Im also going to run 1/2" EMT conduit for electrical... If I get there.

My biggest thing, especially since this is my first large brew stand, is flexibility. The fact that everything is just bolted and can be reconfigured or expanded is awesome!!!
 
Can anyone post a picture of their wheel/caster set up? I am going to be embarking on this project this Christmas break and have a lot of it figured out for a 2-tier system but am having a tough time getting the wheels down. Does anyone have any part numbers or specific instructions on how theirs work? Thanks in advance and this thread is awoken a brew-demon inside of me.
 
Can anyone post a picture of their wheel/caster set up? I am going to be embarking on this project this Christmas break and have a lot of it figured out for a 2-tier system but am having a tough time getting the wheels down. Does anyone have any part numbers or specific instructions on how theirs work? Thanks in advance and this thread is awoken a brew-demon inside of me.

Sure, no problem!

If those pics aren't familiar, you didn't read the thread.....:drunk:
 
Oops, my bad. I think I had an information/excitement overload on this threat. Thank you for pointing that out.

I have been playing around with SketchUp today for the first time and wanted to know your guys thoughts on this 2-tiered system I have tumbling around in my brain. Any suggestions or ideas would be most helpful. I am running natural gas out to the attached garage this holiday break and will prob be getting some 10 jet NG burners unless you think something else would suffice.

I am just relieved at the cost savings of this system compared to welded stands. Live long and brew!

Sorry for the first time sketches, just trying to put what is in my head in order for some critiquing.

BrewStand1.png


BrewStand2.png


BrewStand3.jpg
 
Oops, my bad. I think I had an information/excitement overload on this threat. Thank you for pointing that out.

I have been playing around with SketchUp today for the first time and wanted to know your guys thoughts on this 2-tiered system I have tumbling around in my brain. Any suggestions or ideas would be most helpful. I am running natural gas out to the attached garage this holiday break and will prob be getting some 10 jet NG burners unless you think something else would suffice.

I am just relieved at the cost savings of this system compared to welded stands. Live long and brew!

Sorry for the first time sketches, just trying to put what is in my head in order for some critiquing.

I've been thinking about building one just like this. Thanks for posting the plans. I've also been trying to figure out if you could do a 3-tier with this stuff.
 

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