Weekend Brutus!

I finally got most of the materials to start building my single tier Brutus 10! I have been collecting the parts and tools for about a year now. I'm gonna post pictures of my process for anybody interested. Cheers!

Done for the night.

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Top done now for support beams

Now to start welding!

that's 2x2 mild steel right? and a harbor freight 20amp weld pak right?

Looks good! What are your dimensions?

Done for the night. Eyes starting to hurt.

It's dimensions are, 28" tall, 48" long, 12" between tubes on top. Every short cut tube is 12" long, 10 total. I cut all of the metal on a band saw at school, filed the inside ends and then hit them with a flap disk on the angle grinder. I then used simple green cleaner to degrease it before welding. The welder is the 90 amp flux wire welder from harbor freight. If you decide to use it, make sure you buy a roll of Lincoln or miller .035 flux wire, 12 bucks at home Depot. Yeah its 40 feet of 2" mild steel strong as hell!

Do you have any close ups of your welds? I just picked up the same welder from harbor freight but have not used it yet.

If that's the cheapy harbor freight autodarkening helmet.. throw it out NOW. I've talked to serious longterm welders and they are telling me those helmets let in too much flash before they darken. you will do damage to your eyes. If you welded for only one night and your eyes hurt... that is a big indication of the quality. Go get yourself a cheapy non-auto if you can't afford a good auto. At a minimum, close your eyes till after you arc. My buddy swapped out for a good Auto helmet and he never has eye strain anymore because of this.

I have a cheapy Radnor that I refuse to use. Spend some cash on the helmet. You only have two eyes.

I've been working on it like crazy. My welds have been pretty bad for about 50% of my build. I finally dialed this sucker in and am making GREAT joint welds with penetration on both sides of the metal. I will post a pic of my progress soon.

What do you guys think about the angle joints that you've probably seen on other builds. I don't think I am going to put them in for the sake of air. it just seems the metal surrounding will get a lot hotter if I block even more of its area up. I'm talking about the top of the build btw.

This is the top corner. I cut some leftover tube and fit it In place with the welder. Ground it down. Turned out pretty nice.

Have to wipe it down tomorrow and then throw on the casters. I have a gas pipe machine and two burners. I will make a wind shield and install that all this weekend. Hopefully be firing it up by Sunday. Will wait for warmer weather before I paint it and a little more money so I can buy my pumps and temp controllers. Scrounged up a few relays, couple transformers and three gas valves yesterday. Am going to get a couple ignition modules and Hsi's in the next month or so. The wiring parts the easy part for me. I'll keep throwing up pics for anybody interested.

petrostar said:

Have to wipe it down tomorrow and then throw on the casters. I have a gas pipe machine and two burners. I will make a wind shield and install that all this weekend. Hopefully be firing it up by Sunday. Will wait for warmer weather before I paint it and a little more money so I can buy my pumps and temp controllers. Scrounged up a few relays, couple transformers and three gas valves yesterday. Am going to get a couple ignition modules and Hsi's in the next month or so. The wiring parts the easy part for me. I'll keep throwing up pics for anybody interested.

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For what it's worth, I painted mine with this paint. It took just under 3 cans @$8.99ea. I bought it at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

For best results you need to "cure" it. I simply ran the burners up for 5 minutes or so and then let cool.

I've brewed twice and I have no bubbling of dis-coloration at all...they also have different colors.

petrostar said:

Have to wipe it down tomorrow and then throw on the casters. I have a gas pipe machine and two burners. I will make a wind shield and install that all this weekend. Hopefully be firing it up by Sunday. Will wait for warmer weather before I paint it and a little more money so I can buy my pumps and temp controllers. Scrounged up a few relays, couple transformers and three gas valves yesterday. Am going to get a couple ignition modules and Hsi's in the next month or so. The wiring parts the easy part for me. I'll keep throwing up pics for anybody interested.

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Looks good, today was a good day for inside project.

Crimsonwine said:

For what it's worth, I painted mine with this paint. It took just under 3 cans @$8.99ea. I bought it at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

For best results you need to "cure" it. I simply ran the burners up for 5 minutes or so and then let cool.

I've brewed twice and I have no bubbling of dis-coloration at all...they also have different colors.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice, I wanted to do red or green. I have a buddy who does powder coating but his oven isn't big enough for my stand. I'll probably go your route. Did you heat the metal before painting? In between coats? Did you use primer? Thanks. Peter

petrostar said:

Thanks for the advice, I wanted to do red or green. I have a buddy who does powder coating but his oven isn't big enough for my stand. I'll probably go your route. Did you heat the metal before painting? In between coats? Did you use primer? Thanks. Peter

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It is mild steel and I just wiped it down and sprayed on the paint....no primer...and no the frame was not heated....

This was taken after the first two brew sessions....

That's literally almost exactly what I'm going for. Where did you get your pump? What type of plate chiller? What type and where did you get your tubing? I'm also going to elevate my control panel.

petrostar said:

That's literally almost exactly what I'm going for. Where did you get your pump? What type of plate chiller? What type and where did you get your tubing? I'm also going to elevate my control panel.

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Those are March pumps....I got them through Austin Homebrew They were on sale for $139.99/free shipping...

The chiller is from dubadiesel, I got the 30 Plate chiller with four male 1/2" threads.

All the tubing and fittings are from bargainfittings.com

So I'm assuming your stand is 2" steel. What type of wheels did you get, how did you mount them and where did you get them? I wanna buy them and gas pipe tomorrow.

petrostar said:

So I'm assuming your stand is 2" steel. What type of wheels did you get, how did you mount them and where did you get them? I wanna buy them and gas pipe tomorrow.

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Yes it is 2" steel.

I found the wheels on eBay....
New threaded stem caster set of 4 | eBay

and the threaded inserts are from mcmaster carr.

part number 60945K31

Now just need to go get the rest of my fittings and pipe it. Then paint.

Now for the fun stuff! I love having connections! Every thing here for $160!!! All brand new. Already converted valves to LP. I'll post pics soon.

Yay!

Got em today.

Time to drill

Wow, what an awesome project! Its pretty amazing that you did all this yourself. Congrats!

I'll have it working by Sunday.

Don't mind the mess. Here's the control panel arm. Eventually doing a brewtroller but for now it will be switches and relays. Now to get a control panel, orrrrrr..... To build one...

That's just sexy. Great job!

Cleaned up that angle and finished my gas lines.

Building the controls box tomorrow. It will be 12x12x6" deep. I went underneath the lower support with my piping because I'm going to put a shelf there and hide everything. I like the cleaner look. I also like the idea of cleaning my stand and not worrying about boil overs hitting my gas valves. Pictures of control panel to come.

Congrats on stepping your game up!!! Below is the one I built with my brother (about 2.5 month-long project).



Getting it dialed in, and having a flawless brewday on your Brutus is incredibly gratifying.

Your stand looks great. Where did you get the switches and lights? Know a good place? Do you mind the controls being so close to the burner? Does it get hot?

Digital read outs and other such stuff came from www.coleparmer.com, and a few things came from amazon.com and northernbrewer.com. Heat from my HLT never really gets to my control panel, but my jet burner is up to close to get a true jet. My burner is dropped down more under my boil kettle and it makes a hell of a jet, gets 5 gal boiling in no time. I just start my strike water first thing and then do other things like cleaning and sterilizing when it is getting up to temp.

Only things I had to learn the hard way were, get the quick disconnects for your hoses now, because if you don't you will want them later (unless you are doing hard plumbing). Also I use a hop spider with paint strainer bags to keep my hops out and that works great.

I have a stainless hop spider and 250$ worth of stainless quick disconnects and valves.

so I have to ask. does anyone have a final cost on building just the stand and controls? I have a nice brew rig right now but it's on an old wood stand and I like the rig you have and that is exactly what I want to build but I'm having a hard time getting a parts list and a cost of things so I know how much to save lol. Any information you are willing to share would be helpful.