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lol god know's how much. Honestly i lost count because its spread out over 1.3 years now but if i had to guess probably 8K. Welding equipment (gas, tanks) ~2500 steel and pipe~1200 Random TC fittings ordered from china ~1000-2000 MFMs 600 for 2 random control boxes, random parts 1000 buffing...

I’ll post one soon. Had a lot of other stuff going on the last few months but I’ll make an update soon. I expect the build to be done by summer which is a lot longer then I originally planned. But it’s coming.

That is true. It's easier to ignore this fact though. Most of my plumbing is 1", but there will be probably 10 instances of 1.5 to 1. I could insert reducers, just unsure if the performance gain will be negligible related to the trouble. I will consider it more seriously though going forward.

Sight glass. I like this one, purchased from ebay. Will get a second for the BK recirc loop also. Need to join this gap from the sight-glass to the MFM. Custom part half fabricated. Different angle. Elbow cut a fit up. Completed part post weld. Rig so far. And so it goes slowly. I'm hoping...

Fabrication of a custom spool for gap junction. Inside look, pretty smooth, sanitary weld. Some of my nicer work. Final product. 2 custom parts were made for this connection.Turned out pretty nice. Temperature probe up top comes down exactly to the center of the cross. This will be the...

Starting to connect the HLT to the MT.This is the return from the herms coil headed back to the MT. At this point i realized i needed Ts. So, a month we wait. Ts finally arrived, can continue. This gap on the left is going to need a custom part fitted / welded. Fabrication of the gap...

It's been a while since i updated this. Been busy with other projects and traveling, and had to wait on a lot of parts I ordered to arrive. I welded a cut up threaded C-clamp to the frame where the MFMs will go to support them properly. Threaded bolts are height adjustable to support the pipe...

And some random shots I thought were interesting. Here is a situation where I forgot to install the purge box during a weld. Was busting so many of these out that it just slipped my mind. Realized about 3/4 of the way around what I had done. Luckily it was a 1" fitting so I cut it out using...

Close up...Side view. You get an idea of how i am planning to mount them using a hinged pipe hanger and mount. No force can be applied to the box, so the weight myst be on the pipe or flanges. Going to weld a SS threaded mount to support the MFMs. Need to order it in SS as this one is zinc...

Ok, kettles are done. Let's plumb. First thing is to get the Micro Motion Mass Flow Meters into position. As I talked about in an earlier post, they came with flang connections. All my plumbing will be TC, so we need to go from industrial flange to TC. Welding can solve this problem.Fit up...

Had to mix things up a bit. Bought a chronical fermenter and needed a glycol chiller. Had this 12000 BTU window AC in my garage from a few years ago, and since I now have central air, lets do a chiller build. It's a beast.Mounted it to a piece of heavy plywood on some small castors. new...

Ok so up until this point I actually didn't have my castors installed. This is trickier than it sounds. I wanted to be able to move the rig, but also height adjust each leg level. I ordered some thick SS plate to fabricate the wheel mounts to the bottom of the legs.Plates prepped for welding...

Finished BK.Finished MT. MT close up. HLT also has a tangetial installed just as the BK does. Another MT shot. All 3. BK with tangential. Bottom plumbing configuration. Top view. Close up to on HLT.

Bit of the polish process. I am using a 6 inch sisal wheel from caswell plating and a few of their buffing compounds. Seconds with the wheel turns years of faded metal into a shine. BTW this stuff is horridly nasty. Respirator is a must and a full face shield. Parts are flying at you the...

Mocking up the BK trub damn on the bottom of another cut up keg. Red sharpie hole is the BK clean beer out. I cut the damn from some spare steel I had from one of the keg rims. Damn in BK getting fit up. You can see the main trub out port before grinding as well.Trub damn installed. I welded a...

Couple pics showing the installation of an inside/outside port. Useful in connecting things like HERMS coils or CIP balls, sparge arms, etc. The mash tun had 4 and every kettle has a few. This if the weld where I first welded the inside flange.More weld porn. even more...And now the outside...

Been busy. Kettles are finished. Couple shots of the build...this is the hole for the tangential whirlpool return on the BK.You can see nothing on the BK as really done yet. I used a die grinder to cut this. Drilled the bottom ports also. Trub dump main drain in center, and a port as far to...

I know his posts well. His posts inspired me to start this project about 6 months ago once i saw what was possible. This is a near total clone of his rig, down to the same part numbers on all the electronics / pieces of equipment. Main difference is I'm building the kettles from scratch. His...

On my 3rd tank now. Should have enough left to finish the last kettle (the BK, mash tun and hlt pretty much completed) and will need probably one more for the pipe work. I also ate a tank of helium tri-mix for the mig work but have some left.

Not a lot. I don't use any oxygen scavenging chemicals so technically probably none. This kind of build not needing any additives to be lodo is what convinced me to build it. I was already going to build a cool automated rig, really not that much further to make it lodo (pressure tops, gas...