What does $800 get you......

A Kenmore Elite dishwasher, with super large stainless steel tub and door, built in food grinder, triple stage water filtration, and steam sanitizer feature. I can literally fit a 30 quart stock pot in there (with the top rack taken out, yep, another feature).

That'll be cool for cleaning and sanitizing bottles huh?

That's what $800 got my wife.

What did it get me?

The chance to completely dissassemble our old dishwasher.

From it I scaveneged;

wiring harness with connectors, a turbidity sensor, various line voltage switches, sensors, and servos, a 2 digit led display, a control board with various bits (I have no idea yet), a 1/12 HP 3000rpm electric pump motor, a couple other 120v pumps (water in and discharge), a squirrel cage vent fan (and motor), a float switch, rotating spray arms, an odd bit I might be able to use as a CIP wand (pics later), a 3x3 sheet of 316 stainless steel, and a 900 watt electric heating element.

Now, I just gotta figure out a (brewing) use for all this crap.

Yes. But what did your OTHER wife get?









You stud!















Or is "lucky guy" more appropriate

Nicely done!

I'm sure you could devise a sterilizing unit out of that heating element plus some other stuff there from the old dishwasher. Personally, I would have gutted the old unit, and converted it into a sterilizing system of some variety for just about everything imaginable. steam cleaning and an injection system added into it for whatever sanitizer you want.

$800 will get me either eight $100 hooker-bots, or 800 one dollar hooker-bots. Hmmm....

go for the two dollar hooker bots if you can find them... :rockin:

Well Shiiiiiiiit!

Motor is too dang fast. To reduce the speed to the 300rpm max that Schmidling reccommends I'd have to use a 1.5" sheave and a 19" sheave.

And I'd have to totally redo my hopper and mill station to accomodate the big dang sheave.

Oh well.

My buddies dryer pooped out, so maybe THAT motor is still useful.

What temp are the pumps rated at?

You have the makings of a dandy CIP unit for cleaning carboys...

I think I may have to check CL for "Please, just take it away" dishwashers and dryers.

The spray arms would be good for sparging too.

conpewter said:

What temp are the pumps rated at?

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Nothing stated on the motors or the housings.

The dishwasher was a sanitizing dishwasher so I assume no more than 150*F. Based solely on the sanitizing mode specifications.

Turns out the water in pump is not actually a pump but more like a 120VAC valve. Might plumb that for a switchable HLT filler. Hmmmmmmmm.Will have to see how restricted the flow is first.

So far, it's looking like most ofl these parts are in fact useless to me except the vent fan. Both the motors are too fast for anything useful, IMO. I was hoping the smaller motor might be useful as a mash mixer but, it looks like the rpm's are too fast on that too.

Ah well.

jds said:

You have the makings of a dandy CIP unit for cleaning carboys...

I think I may have to check CL for "Please, just take it away" dishwashers and dryers.

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There is one bit that might work for that. Unfortunately, the arms are too long to fit in a keg unless I chop the ends off and then plug them somehow. I am still virtual engineering that idea in my head.

GilaMinumBeer said:

There is one bit that might work for that. Unfortunately, the arms are too long to fit in a keg unless I chop the ends off and then plug them somehow. I am still virtual engineering that idea in my head.

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that should be easy enough with a hack saw and some epoxy. As far as the motors you can get some pretty cheap reduction gear boxes to use them.

Jonnio said:

that should be easy enough with a hack saw and some epoxy. As far as the motors you can get some pretty cheap reduction gear boxes to use them.

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Care to offer some suggestion as to where?

I googled and came across some but they were $100 to $200. I can get a motor for less than that.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Care to offer some suggestion as to where?

I googled and came across some but they were $100 to $200. I can get a motor for less than that.

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keep your eyes open on ebay - there are a lot of people that use various gear boxes for robot building and RC. They are usually able to handle a fair amount of torque. You might also be able to do a dirty PWM controller for the motor to pulse it. I am not positive though what the motor specs are and if it could handle that.

You also don't have to get all the way down to 300rpm, I run my mill faster with a drill.

conpewter said:

You also don't have to get all the way down to 300rpm, I run my mill faster with a drill.

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True. I can get to 500rpm with a 1.5" and a 14" sheave but, I also want to imrove my crush. With a drill I can get a decent 65%-75% efficiency running it at a relatively fast speed. I'd say a speed of 1pd/3sec (approx).

But, when I hand crank (60-100rpm) my efficiency jumps to 80 or better.

I deally I'd like to motorize to 100rpm max.

I still have a 17lb thrustt DC trolling motor that I'll have to inspect closer. I haven;t been able to trace down any specs on that motor to know what the RPM ranges are. Mebe I can dissect it and get to the lower rpm's with still plenty of torque to not sieze the mill. If instead of direct coupling I go with sheaves and a belt I can prolly still do this without chancing trashing the motor or mill. Since the belt will slip if the mill locks up.

I was just hoping to plug this thing in, flip a switch, fill the hopper, and let it go.

With the TM it has a variable speed controller but, I;d either have to lug a battery and keep it charged or devise a way to hook this up to a charger for constant power.

I just wish it were warmer out so it'd be easier to tinker in the garage.

Could you maybe run it through something like a light dimmer or a resistor to slow it down?