3 tier stand - help

[theQ]

Hello,

Right I am preparing my containers for my 10 galons brew station but soon, very soon I have to build my stand. I have a pretty good idea how the stand.

I want the MT and the HTL on top of each other and the boiler on site - like this little text diagram.


HLT
|---|
| BK |
----| MT
| |---|

The only problem is I don't have any welding equipment and to build on hiring the welding would probably be expensive.

I have seen some stations build of perforated steel beams. Any other ideas ?

Thanks in advance!
Q

 

[fosgate]

Couple options.
Buy this stuff for just over $100
http://www.harborfreight.com/70-amp-arc-welder-68888.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/3-piece-welders-leather-combo-set-94128.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-16-inch-aws-e6013-electrodes-2-lb-96812.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/1-16-inch-aws-e6013-electrodes-2-lb-96812.html

Or you can rent the stuff at a rental center if you have one in your town. Usually find steel pretty cheap. Rent a plasma cutter as well or buy a steel cutting saw blade if you have a circular saw. might need a cheap $15 handheld grinder. You could also skip the welder and go with a bolt option but realistically by the time you get halfway through drilling holes in metal you will have wished you had gone about welding.

I learned how to weld in high school and dabble with it now and then but I have always just gone to a local tool rental for anything out of basic needs for even some things like a bearing puller. Just hard to justify buying some tools to use once and store. Just make sure you stop and reserve the stuff, get your steel, remeasure and mark all your cuts etc to minimize your time.

 

[revco]

Welders are not incredibly expensive, but it does add up. Mine works for $65 an hour and as long as you have things planned out well, they can probably whip something like this together fairly easily. A full stand, though, will probably cost you as much to have built as an inexpensive (but decent) 110V welder, like a Hobart Handler 140 and possibly a chop saw. (And then you'll have a welder, chop saw and some skills for other projects!)

I'll be building my stand early next year (once I recover from my keggles and stuff I'm doing now) and have decided to buy the welder, saw and incidentals because it's a better investment for me long term. I contracted my keggles to be welded, because I didn't want to mess around with TIG.

Here's some ideas to save money, if you don't want to bite off on purchasing a welder. You can easily pay for a chop saw by doing the measuring and cuts yourself. Mark your pieces well so it's easy to fit together and put these on your design diagram. Try to test fit all your pieces so you're sure it will come together as planned. It might be better to purchase a pre-made burner shroud since these can be more expensive to one-ff by a fabricator.

I'd suggest spending a little time learning Google sketchup. You can design pretty much any kind of stand easily, which helps you to visualize it and check tolerances for burners, pots and other stuff. From there, you can easily get your cuts.

Good luck!

 

[royal1911]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00264G584/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I just bought a king cooker on amazon for $153. I thought this might be a good inexpensive solution for 10 gallon batches. It might be something your interested in too.

 

[Mpavlik22]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00264G584/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/182-5788844-5255724?ref_=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_SC_dp_1

I just bought a king cooker on amazon for $153. I thought this might be a good inexpensive solution for 10 gallon batches. It might be something your interested in too.

What's ur thoughts on the king kooker?
Could it support two keggles at once?
Does it seem like a quality product?

 

[royal1911]

I don't know yet. It was delivered today and im going to put it together tomorrow night. Im gonna do a 5 gallon brew Friday as a first batch. I will try the keggles soon. I am waiting to order some weldless ball valves.

I don't think it will have any problems with 2 keggles though.

 

[theQ]

Thank you all for for responding to this. I think I am going to start with stand like this. Will modify later to make it more vertical but I think this is a easy way to start with. No welding needed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elishapage/4336336492/in/faves-91908069@N00/

 

[dbrewski]

I thought you wanted a three tier? It's not that hard out to do out of perforated angle iron. Just get a cutoff saw. I ordered the parts from McMaster, they had the corner brackets and sets of bolts/nuts/washers to go along with it.

 

[theQ]

yes, I do! but will start with that and by 3 end frames one 3 feet tall and 2 6 feet tall and create somethng like you did. I will have do so some cutting on the horizontal bars and wel them to the middle frame. Your is nice, did you run some numbers, how much it cost you to build it.

Is that blue thing lower right a water filter ?

 

[dbrewski]

Yes, a water filter, less than $20, works great.

The stand itself was about $220 in parts including delivery. The burners, manifold and gas lines were additional to that. I could probably find my order from mcmaster for a parts count.

 

[Mpavlik22]

Yes, a water filter, less than $20, works great.

The stand itself was about $220 in parts including delivery. The burners, manifold and gas lines were additional to that. I could probably find my order from mcmaster for a parts count.

I'd like ur list if possible. I really like ur stand. Since I can't weld this looks appealing.

 

[dbrewski]

This was the order, only the first four lines are for the stand, and it totaled $222 in parts. The other stuff is for the manifold build, it is not a complete list. For instance, burners, orifices, and copper tubing to go from manifold to burner are not shown here. This list totals $267 plus shipping and tax. I probably had $50 in burners and manifolds.



I used a chop saw with a metal cutoff disk to cut to length. Here are some dimensions. In the upper right hand in darker ink is the inventory of cut lengths.



Hope that helps. When bolted together this stuff is solid as a rock. Good luck!

 

[theQ]

What kind of filter is that ? Where did you buy it ?