Another BrewSteel: BadAss Brewstands

Williams 728
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Im almost doen with my new system and im amazed at how close my system is to yours, minus the SS stand. I can't wait to use mine and I'm really interested to hear how yours works as well. Ill eventually post something showing the build and design.
 
rtrevino said:
im almost doen with my new system and im amazed at how close my system is to yours, minus the ss stand. I can't wait to use mine and i'm really interested to hear how yours works as well. Ill eventually post something showing the build and design.
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photos photos photos
 
No pictures until I finish, it has changed a few times so I don't want to show it off just yet. It has 3 keggles with custom sight glass / Jaybird false bottom / cam locks / whirlpool fittings, bcs460, netgear wireless adapter, keg cowboy plate chiller, (2) march 809 pumps but may add a third, needle valves for all of the burners, (2) BG14, (1)BG10 for the Direct Fire RIMS, EBay valves, silicone hoses, Honeywell pilot lights. The frame has the control panel running the length of the frame with everything mounted in it; the switches, needle valves, BCS and all other electronics. My only concern right now is if the heat from the BG14 will make the control panel too hot for the electronics. I'm going to try and test fire it and get some readings and see if I need to relocate the BCS, relays, and netgear adapter. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
Putting a thin plate behind the face panel will help dissipate heat as well as burner shrouds. Also, by providing a rear exit for your flame heat wash to reduce front heat build up. Kettles are much better at directing heat in the direction you want. With their convex bottom, keggles spread the flame in all directions decreasing your ability to control heat wash.
 
OneHoppyGuy said:
I threatened to give his stand away if he divulged the cost... :cross:

This system includes a stainless RIMS tube and trub filter from Brewers Hardware, a BCS 460 controller, hard plumbing, automated burner, 2 stage chiller, kettles...
around $5000 with far more features than you will find anywhere (manufacturers) at any price.

Wait until you see all the kettles, RIMS and stuff

Here's a teaser
P1030879.jpg

Contact us and tell us what we can build for you
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No one guessed at the price paid, the vendor himself confirmed the cost in this very thread (and then $500+ later for shipping).

If the buyer is happy with what he got then so be it, however i think it's extremely shady to just sweep the experience under the rug.
 
Trying again....

Seems like the post here trashing Kurt is Deja-Va when a certain TX stand builder was trashing him. Now a different name but same thing....
 
BeerguyNC61 said:
Trying again....

Seems like the post here trashing Kurt is Deja-Va when a certain TX stand builder was trashing him. Now a different name but same thing....
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Huh? Who is being trashed? Not sure if you are referring to me, but my earlier post was more about being surprised that you'd invest that much and then have to be responsible for damages on your own, but the OP is fine with it, so be it.

Sorry for the hijack, I'm out. :off:
 
Sorry Mark
Wasn't you who was bashing Kurt. His earlier post were deleted along with mine.....

Again sorry if you thought I was referring to you.

Brew on....
 
How does an awesome build thread by horric29 and OneHopGuy turn into a crap discussion on who's responsible for some damage that neither party had any control over? Thank goodness OneHopGuy and horric29 are consummate professionals and haven't gotten involved in this madness! Us fellow HBT members should be thankful for their openness and time taken to share with us their project. Let the two parties involved work out the issues if there are any, and the rest of us can sit back, relax, have a home brew and watch the build and brewing continue;)!!!!!!
 
I swear this whole thing is going to lead to my exit from brewing... I just finished converting to electric today... Hooked up my water and the plumbing that Kurt had in place leaks like there is no tommorow... I pull all that apart, re solder, and then water test... The damn kettles he sold me at several hundred dollars a piece leak... I have no idea what to do... It's been a year of nothing working out...

Would silver solder work on stainless steel kettles? Any ideas? :drunk:
 
horric29 said:
I swear this whole thing is going to lead to my exit from brewing... I just finished converting to electric today... Hooked up my water and the plumbing that Kurt had in place leaks like there is no tommorow... I pull all that apart, re solder, and then water test... The damn kettles he sold me at several hundred dollars a piece leak... I have no idea what to do... It's been a year of nothing working out...

Would silver solder work on stainless steel kettles? Any ideas? :drunk:
Click to expand...

Refund?
 
Yes, you can silver solder stainless. Others have done it with success but I'm still not sold.

We had a stint with soldering last year and it was a giant failure. They were leaking because of damage during shipping and because we've found the process to be tricky. If you plan to attempt you'll need this: Silver Solder and this Flux.
 
Markd27 said:
Refund?
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Yea, I wish... He has you pay via paypal and after the 45 days are gone I think your up the creek. I just opened an inquiry with my credit card because they include a 2 year warranty on all items... Not sure if this is going to qualify or not... There isn't exactly anyone to "fix" it...
 
SpikeBrewing said:
Yes, you can silver solder stainless. Others have done it with success but I'm still not sold.

We had a stint with soldering last year and it was a giant failure. They were leaking because of damage during shipping and because we've found the process to be tricky. If you plan to attempt you'll need this: Silver Solder and this Flux.
Click to expand...

I don't have much of an option short of finding a shop to weld it for me or buy new kettles with the attachments, faucets, thermowells, etc that I need. I don't really have a penny left to put into this. I have three 15 gallon leaky kettles now lining my shelves in my brew shed.... LOL
 
Not that you should have to do this, but it is going to be cheaper to have someone fix the welds than to replace the kettles.I don't know anyone in the area that does it though.

I feel so bad about the problems you've had with this rig. sucks.
 
stevea1210 said:
Not that you should have to do this, but it is going to be cheaper to have someone fix the welds than to replace the kettles.I don't know anyone in the area that does it though.

I feel so bad about the problems you've had with this rig. sucks.
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LOL, Mr. S. You should be happy I'm finally ready to brew short of some leaky kettles! HAHA. With a bucket to catch the leaking water from the kettles, I could actually brew! :mad:

I actually had all my elements running well, RIMS running well, etc... Just filled up a bucket with my leaks in the course of an hour...
 
Welding over the silver solder isn't possible. It contaminates that weld and causes it to spatter. You'll have to get it REALLY clean and even then it still may not weld.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news....
 
SpikeBrewing said:
Welding over the silver solder isn't possible. It contaminates that weld and causes it to spatter. You'll have to get it REALLY clean and even then it still may not weld.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news....
Click to expand...

Well, I spent the last hour leaving VM's and email's for a bunch of local welding shops to see if someone can help me out before I try to silver solder it... If all else fails, I'll likely be sending your pictures to recreate the kettles/fittings for me Spike!
 
A good stainless welder is almost impossible to find. Everyone will give you the, "yeah I weld stainless all the time!". Then when you ask them to backfill the weld they tell you their not familiar with that.

Make sure the welder is familiar with backfilling the weld for stainless and I would also throw in that it has been silver soldered.
 
Reading this thread is bringing up bad memories.

I won't buy any "custom" or large items that I can't see in person for this very reason. In some cases people are just plain dishonest and won't stand behind what they sell, in others they simply aren't operating at a high enough margin to be able to absorb and rectify these kinds of problems when they occur...leaving you with no option but to try and sort out their problems for them.

Nothing is worse then buying something that leaks and finding out that you're on your own to try and fix it. I've been there and I hope it works out for you...
 
horric29 said:
Well, I spent the last hour leaving VM's and email's for a bunch of local welding shops to see if someone can help me out before I try to silver solder it... If all else fails, I'll likely be sending your pictures to recreate the kettles/fittings for me Spike!
Click to expand...

So is the vendor not helping you out here?
 
I just read the 7 pages,
OP, man that sucks, sounds like you didn't get what you paid for...

Any word from the brewstand guy?

I was looking at brew stands for a year, and some of these small companies claim to make a brew stand better and cheaper than the big boys(sabco, b3)...almost good to be true...
I finally pulled the trigger and got a B3 and couldn't be any happier...
After reading all these threads and how unhappy people are with them I'm glad I spent the extra money...
No problems after a year and half!!

Good luck with your build, hope everything turns out good for you!

Igotsand


sorry wrong pic...
 
SpikeBrewing said:
A good stainless welder is almost impossible to find. Everyone will give you the, "yeah I weld stainless all the time!". Then when you ask them to backfill the weld they tell you their not familiar with that.

Make sure the welder is familiar with backfilling the weld for stainless and I would also throw in that it has been silver soldered.
Click to expand...

Yea.... That was a great surprise to me when I stopped in, I hadn't done much looking at the kettles (at least not close enough to realize that they wern't welded, they were indeed silver soldered) The guys at the machine shop picked that up right away. They said they don't usually have great luck cleaning it up and getting a good sanitary weld there but, he said worst case, they can put a sanitary patch in place over the hole, knock out another one, and properly weld in a new fitting. I paid damn there 3x what you sell your kettles for and they are silver soldered...
 
Barnesie said:
Reading this thread is bringing up bad memories.

I won't buy any "custom" or large items that I can't see in person for this very reason. In some cases people are just plain dishonest and won't stand behind what they sell, in others they simply aren't operating at a high enough margin to be able to absorb and rectify these kinds of problems when they occur...leaving you with no option but to try and sort out their problems for them.

Nothing is worse then buying something that leaks and finding out that you're on your own to try and fix it. I've been there and I hope it works out for you...
Click to expand...

Yea... I think I have some good business folks here in town helping me out. The guys at the machine shop were actually excited that I was in homebrewing and said they would have me fixed up quick. They were working on tons of large stainless stuff in the machine shop when I walked in, I was impressed that they even gave my tiny kettles the time of day... It was the beer! :mug:
 
Markd27 said:
So is the vendor not helping you out here?
Click to expand...

Nope... Not really... I think he decided my demands were a bit outrageous in his eyes... He wanted me to ship back all the broken kettles, burners, etc, at which point I would wait another 6 months while he fabricated a new stand. I would have to take care of mounting/wiring/etc across the stand.

I found it rather insulting that I would go another how many months with no brewing, no apology, etc... There was even a point made that I was given "such a great deal"... I was a test dummy for the guy.

I see he's sold quite a few other stands on here and folks have been happy. I just got screwed. He posted on here somewhere admitting that my stand was messed up and that we are at an "impasse"
 
BeerguyNC61 said:
Were the kettles damaged too in shipping? Sounds like the shipper had fun with that crate!
Click to expand...

Yea, the first one came with the valve plain snapped off... The second one, I doubt it was ever even tested, I just put water in it for the first time and it came springing out around the welds...
 
horric29 said:
I found it rather insulting that I would go another how many months with no brewing, no apology, etc... There was even a point made that I was given "such a great deal"... I was a test dummy for the guy.

I see he's sold quite a few other stands on here and folks have been happy. I just got screwed. He posted on here somewhere admitting that my stand was messed up and that we are at an "impasse"
Click to expand...

I was in a similar situation (FOR A LOT LESS MONEY) and it's incredibly insulting when someone does shoddy work and hides behind shipping costs as a reason not to rectify a bad situation.

That's the problem with some of these small vendors and classified folks here, they're barely turning a profit so they can't afford to fix anything that might go wrong when it does...and something will go wrong eventually.

Unfortunately you were the guy holding the bag when it went to crap this time and you got royally screwed. I hope everyone interested in the whole "custom metal fabrication by mail" deal finds this thread and give some serious consideration to what their options will be if they're not satisfied.

It's great to hear that you're on track to be up and brewing again, that's the most important thing. :tank:
 
Glad you found someone local and are almost ready to brew.leg me know when you're good to go because I'm coming up for a brew day.

Sorry you're still dealing with this mess instead of brewing.
 
OMJ said:
Did you ever get this all fixed up?
Click to expand...

Not quite yet... The story took another turn... I found a local brewer who runs a machine shop to do my kettle welding... They went to take my supposedly welded kettles and repair the leaks... Yeah... All silver solder... They just cleaned out the silver solder and I believe the two kettles should be done this week.

Of course my stuff is their lowest priority... My conical arrived today so I'm itching even more to get going... I have enough gear to brew (2 working 15 gallon kettles) so I could heat up my water in the BK and move forward... So I'm hoping Saturday plays nice for a quick Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout brew day... When I do get to brew, I'll take some pictures of the hack job I did to make her work...
 

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