Control Panel Build

I've been working on a control panel, and thought I'd post some photos of the build. This is for an electric HLT and heat exchanger. There should be enough room in the box if I ever decide to convert my BK to electric.

Here is the box I'm using. It's an old recloser control I scored from work.

And here is the pile of crap I pulled out of it:

Cutting holes. Conduit punches are fun.

Nice! Free scores from work are the best. Keep us posted!

Primed

And painted

Components mounted





Now its time to start wiring.

Looks great. I think you might have enough room for a guest bedroom in that box.

What is the round thing on the side of the box?

Are you going to mount it on a wall?

that is an awesome box and and awsome build! Can you tell us everything you are putting in there and where you got it? I would love to do the same thing!

Thanks for the complements

What is the round thing on the side of the box?

Click to expand...

Its a gong for alarm annunciation and letting me know when the timer times out. The thing is LOUD. I wanted to be able to hear it from inside the house.

Are you going to mount it on a wall?

Click to expand...

I'm planning a two tiered setup, so the panel will be mounted below the HLT and probably bolted directly to the brew stand frame. Haven't worked out the details of that yet.

Can you tell us everything you are putting in there and where you got it?

Click to expand...

I was fortunate enough to get most of the stuff (gong, fuse blocks, indicating lamps, e-stop button, aux relays, terminal blocks) from the scrap heap at work. Things I bought myself include:

30A contactors from http://www.guardiancatalog.com/
2 x SYL-2353 PIDs from Auber
Sestos timer from ebay
SSR & heat sinks from ebay
30A outlets, 50A range cord (for panel feed), 30A dryer cords (for heater outputs), 50A GFCI spa panel from Home Depot
Switches from digikey

I like the color choice!

Looks like good progress.

TB

Nice! That's going to be a nice panel when you're done! Looks like a hefty box too.

So its been a while, but I've finally made some progress. I installed a spa panel w/ 50A breaker.



I surface mounted an outlet directly on the panel. This is to be the source for the control panel.



Here is a shot of the wiring:



Here is the panel energized for the first time:



This is a shot of me testing. The cannon connectors on the bottom right will go to the heat exchanger and HLT, and contain the RTD wiring, float switch cutout, and stirrer wiring. The outlet is for the pump. The hole is for a future connection to a grant float switch, once I can snag a connector from work.



Wiring shots:





Here I've got the RTD rigged up for testing. I haphazardly dropped the metal wire jacket into an energized lug and properly tested the GFCI. Barely felt a tingle!



Here is the cord end of the cannon connectors. These things are sweet.


Next up is building the HLT and HEX. Stay tuned.

Getting ready to finish wiring-up my 50A GFIC spa disconnect. Really like how you surface mounted the 50A receptacle on the side of the enclosure. Slick!