Sam's Brew Box

I'm ready for a new project! I've found myself spending more and more time reading threads about electric brewing and have been inspired by the builds here. Time to pull the trigger and convert my old single-tier direct fired mash system. I brew in fits and starts and I'm hoping that converting over to electric and bringing it inside will allow me to brew more regularly.

I purchased Kal's guide a while ago and have been sourcing the parts myself; planning on a 50A back-to-back setup with an extra pump. One thing I wasn't too keen on was the look of the panel tags. I came across ponoko.com and decided to have a piece of acrylic cut and engraved. Below is layout I came up with.

I used Inkscape to design the layout and posted the file here in case anyone wants to use it.

The ponoko formatted files can be found here and can also be used freely.

Looks good. I went a similar route not because I thought Kals looked bad but I know I wouldn't be able to get them all straight. I ended up printing in clear vinyl and placing it over my panel. Worked great. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1461811084.882418.jpg

@Deece - I've come across your panel a few times; very nice!

Here's the stand I'm working with... built it about 7 years ago. I'll strip off the burners and other unnecessary items; will have to drill a few new holes in the kettles.



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Just a patina of rust...



Stripped off 71 lbs (32 kg)... yes, I weighed it.



Angle grinder with wire brush to clean it up...

Made some progress on the element holes for the HLT and boil kettle. I couldn't find the $60 step bit I bought 7 years ago so I used the step bit kit from harbor freight. I wasn't too sure they would be able to do the job but I was wrong... I used a little 3-in-one oil for lubricant and the HF bits cut beautifully.



I soldered on one of Bobby's radius-faced 1.5" tri-clover flanges following his how-to video. I didn't realize I was a little light on the solder in one section until I cleaned it up; ended up with a pin-hole sized leak. It was easily fixed by adding a tad more flux and re-flowing the solder.

These are pictures of the HLT...







Fixed the leak indicated below; a little more flux and solder did the job.




Besides a couple of scratches, the inside looks pretty good too...

BrewHardware.com HotPod kettle element enclosure with 12' of 10/3 SJEOOW cord.

Ponoko.com acrylic panel delivered...



I popped in a few components; they all fit perfectly.

One mistake on my part...

I had been printing out my design at full size using tiled pdfs to make sure things fit properly on the front of the enclosure. Right before submitting my design to Ponoko, I decided to move everything 7mm to the left and 2mm up; it looked a little more balanced that way. Because I didn't bother printing it out and checking the fit one last time, I didn't realize I had accidentally moved the cut-out for the enclosure's latch hole. You can see the mistake in the picture below.





It's not too big a problem... The bezel will cover most of the mistake and I'll glue a piece back in to fill the remaining gap.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have even bothered laser-cutting a hole for the latch. I discovered that the acrylic sands nice and clean using a dremel with a little drum sander bit (I tested on a scrap piece). So, after mounting the acrylic panel to the enclosure, I could have drilled a hole from the back of the enclosure door through the latch hole and used the dremel to clean it up.

Any reason you didn't use a combo push button/LED light on the bottom row?

Looking good can't wait to see it done.

Beernip said:

Any reason you didn't use a combo push button/LED light on the bottom row?

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Actually, I did consider the button/led combos when I was laying things out but I decided I liked the look of Kal's design so I stuck with the separate switches and pilot lights.

Used the panel as a template for the holes in the enclosure; tried to keep the drill bit in the center of the circles (even used a punch) but had a hard time as you can see below. Gotta love the 22mm punch!

I was anxious to see how the color fill would look and whether or not it would bleed under the paper and onto the matte surface. I'd guess paint on the matte surface would be harder to clean up than on glossy acrylic.

So far, so good.

Your doing a great job! Good luck with the rest of the build!

John

Picking this project up again after summer got in the way... engraving and color fill turned out better than I'd hoped.

That turned out amazing! Good luck with the rest of it. I may have questions for you once I start putting my panel together.

Thank you for posting the files for free!!!! It looks awesome and I love the layout. I hope to get one made with your layout soon. I was wanting one very similiar to yours after seeing the Black Heart Brewery thread, I just don't know how to use the software to create the drawing. Thanks for your hard work in the awesome design!!!!

Just need to figure out how to get my brew logo in there!

Great job, looks great. Keep us posted please!!!!

mxstar21 said:

Thank you for posting the files for free!!!! It looks awesome and I love the layout. I hope to get one made with your layout soon. I was wanting one very similiar to yours after seeing the Black Heart Brewery thread, I just don't know how to use the software to create the drawing. Thanks for your hard work in the awesome design!!!!

Just need to figure out how to get my brew logo in there!

Great job, looks great. Keep us posted please!!!!

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I can certainly help you with the file... the one mistake I made was to try to match up the latch hole with the drawing... definitely no need to do that (I'll post a picture of the fix later). I should probably create a generic file that matches up with Kal's design. The engraved acrylic was much cheaper than buying all of those panel tags.

Thank you! It really looks good!

My cable tray was not flat (like the one shown on Kal's site) and the heat sink that I got from Auber wouldn't sit correctly. I can't find the thread now but I copied what someone did here by flattening the ridge of the cover plate with a hammer and grinding off some high spots on the enclosure so the top laid flat. Then, I used JB Weld to secure it and get everything smooth. It took two applications of JB Weld... I didn't get a pic but I put the first bead of JB Weld down and screwed on the cover. After it hardened, I ground off the screw heads and used the second application of JB Weld like spackle.





Smooth now with cut-out for SSRs and holes for mounting heatsink...


That white spot is some marine epoxy... I ran out of JB Weld and had to fill a low area.

I really hate cutting holes in this thing; it's a big pain in the arse!









Finally! I think I'm ready for painting.

Forgot to post this earlier... I had to move the ground post on the door and this is what I came up with...







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Oooh, what do we have here?

Some flat black...



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I am jealous. looks good man!

looks pretty sweet man.

jjeffers09 said:

I am jealous. looks good man!

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augiedoggy said:

looks pretty sweet man.

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Thanks guys! I should be able to post some more pictures with all the external components mounted tonight.

That will leave the guts... Do I actually need a wiring diagram? I understand (for the most part) how to wire this thing up... I started laying out a diagram in Visio but I'm not familiar with the program. It seems like I'll spend more time wrestling with Visio than actually building.

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sam said:

Thanks guys! I should be able to post some more pictures with all the external components mounted tonight.

That will leave the guts... Do I actually need a wiring diagram? I understand (for the most part) how to wire this thing up... I started laying out a diagram in Visio but I'm not familiar with the program. It seems like I'll spend more time wrestling with Visio than actually building.

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Good luck... I didnt even draw up a diagram for mine. Just wired it up paying attention to what does what as I went... I will say the next panel I build will have color coded wires as mine is a confusing mess when ever I open it up to upgrade or add something.

sam said:

Thanks guys! I should be able to post some more pictures with all the external components mounted tonight.

That will leave the guts... Do I actually need a wiring diagram? I understand (for the most part) how to wire this thing up... I started laying out a diagram in Visio but I'm not familiar with the program. It seems like I'll spend more time wrestling with Visio than actually building.

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Click to expand...

OK, well, I got the hang of Visio and posted a diagram here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7716187#post7716187

Looking for some feedback.

Thanks!

OK, here's how I patched my laser cutting mistake... just glued the scrap piece in and used a dremel sanding drum to grind it down to the same size as the hole in the enclosure.






Needs a little more sanding here...


Finished and cleaned up with some acetone...

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Looking good! Do you have a wiring schematic you're using? A 50A 3-wire setup?

Beernip said:

Looking good! Do you have a wiring schematic you're using? A 50A 3-wire setup?

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Yep, but the diagram is evolving as I build. It's a 50A 4-wire setup. Here's the diagram (also attached as a PDF).



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View attachment sams-brew-box-wiring-draft_v4.pdf

What receptacle are you using on your incoming power to your control panel? It looked like a three prong input. Then using a 50amp stove receptacle on the wall?

Beernip said:

What receptacle are you using on your incoming power to your control panel? It looked like a three prong input. Then using a 50amp stove receptacle on the wall?

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These are twist lock connectors. It's hard to see the ground in my previous pictures. The ground is on the outside of the connector and lines up with the ground on the flanged inlet when they're twisted together.

Here's how I go from wall to panel:
-> -> ->


Inside panel wire connections:


Links:

• Leviton 279 50 Amp Flush Mounting Receptacle
• Camco 55255 50 Amp Plug
• Marinco CS6364N 50 Amp Connector
• Marinco CS6375 50 Amp Flanged

Great! That is what I've been looking for. Thanks.

Beernip said:

Great! That is what I've been looking for. Thanks.

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No problem. Also, here's the link to the cable I used to make the cord:

• 6-4 600-Volt Black Stranded CU SOOW Cord