I lucked into a decent priced 3 vessel keggle with a heavy duty stand, three big banjo burners, two march pumps, and a blichman terminator.
The HLT had a sight glass, 1/2" MPT SS valve with barb. The MT had a dip tube and top hat screen, 1/2" SS valve with barb. The BK had a bazooka, sight glass, and extension on the 1/2" valve and barb fitting.
After one brew (my first in many years). I built a propane manifold on the front of the stand to control the burners instead of running behind the stand to two propane tanks to adjust the flame.
I added a double gang electrical box with waterproof housing with a switch to a outlet to control each pump. I mounted that on the front corner post. Enough running to the extension cord to plug and unplug the pumps.
I got tired of sticking my hand in a boiling kettle to take temp readings because the temp gauge was too high for 5 gal batches. I used a SS nut and bolt with O ring to plug the higher hole and drilled a lower on in both MT and BK at about the 3.5 gal point. Now I can raise or lower the temp gauge depending on batch size.
After two batches and problems keeping the fermentation WARM enough. I built a fridge fermentor with dual stage controller (STC 1100). I went a little crazy and bought two old fridges for $50 ea, a chest freezer for $50, and then I found a FREE freezer on the side of the road. You guessed it- I use the free freezer and the others sit unused (so far).
I rotated the Blichman on the front so the IN and OUT wort connections faced forward. The IN facing the wort pump and the OUT facing to the left of the stand to discharge chilled wort into a vessel. I installed it on a hinge so I can drop it and sanitize it when not in use,flip it up, rinse, and be ready to brew.
I tweaked (bent) the dip tube on the MT to pick up more wort under the top hat for better efficiency.
I removed the bazooka- it clogged terribly. I installed a compression fitting and shortened dip tub so I can whirlpool (manually) and get a better volume efficiency.
I went ahead and installed all tri clover fittings on the system instead of the PIA barbed fittings and hose clamps for ease of moving the hoses and cleaning. $$
I was having problems purging air out of the lines from the valves on the vessels to the pumps, so I installed 3 way valves on the tanks with a barb on the top with a 3" section of hose. Before I'm ready to use the pumps, I open the valve, slowly bleeding the air from the hose until it's full of liquids and I'm ready to pump.
I just installed a weld less whirlpool on the BK. I used a 90 degree 3/8" barb to 1/2" NPT with lock nut and O ring on the inside. On the outside is a 1/2" extension to a 1/2" valve to a 1.5" tri clover. The whirlpool tests pretty good. I installed it a the 3.5 gallon mark.
I got tired of my hose slipping out of the MT during sparge. I installed a similar weld less fitting at the 13 gal range on with a 90 degree elbow to 3/8" barb- straight to a 1.5" tri clover fitting (above water line). A piece of sanitary hi temp hose loops around the tank for sparging ALA the electric brewery method.
I have two more projects in mind.
I want to replumb the blichman with some hard pipping to include a temp gauge and a venturi aerator (with inline filter). I have the blichman inline thermometer and it works very well but connecting it using tri clover for ease of back flushing has been problematic. Now I have to unscrew the barbs, attach a tri clover for cleaning and back flushing then reverse to brew.
I need to make covers for the march pumps so I don't drop wort in them and short them out.
Then of course there's the hop stopper, hop back, oxygen aerator,....
I've brewed 5 batches so far, another planned today. Then I'm going to try a 5 gal all grain batch and move up to 10 gal batches.