1.5" TC Elements

[sandyeggoxj]

Why don't you call 'em and lemme know what they say!

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

I'd walk away from that phone down a few grand... I'm an easy sell.

Get those adapters done? I'm stuck at a local brewery, there's an open house at my condo I'm trying to sell. Half of the listing photos include my brewery


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[BadWolfBrewing]

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/300-Hamilton-St-APT-104-Plymouth-MI-48170/88760160_zpid/

I should have specified, the brewery is negotiable in the sale. Building is half the fun, and it would be fun to do it again.


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[sandyeggoxj]

Ha! I'm brewing at a friends house! Tasty's APA! About 20 min into the boil.

 

[iijakii]

Nice place. I agree about the fun building it. I'm building a rig right now and already have decided once I have a pipeline I'll throw it up on Craigslist for around twice what I spent and just hope. I'm a dirty addicted whore when it comes to project planning.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I'd walk away from that phone down a few grand... I'm an easy sell.

Get those adapters done? I'm stuck at a local brewery, there's an open house at my condo I'm trying to sell. Half of the listing photos include my brewery


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If you are an easy sell then I will pm you my address and I can beta test some of those products...

Still need to go to Lowes and get those jboxes to drill them out tonight.

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

Yeah,I get excited when there is a new project. Swmbo says no new projects until we sell the place, so I'm living vicariously through the hbt community.

I don't think she'll notice a few new heating element adapters though...

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[sandyeggoxj]

Well I am honored to help you survive another day.

On my way yo the hardware store right now...

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Yeah,I get excited when there is a new project. Swmbo says no new projects until we sell the place, so I'm living vicariously through the hbt community.

I don't think she'll notice a few new heating element adapters though...

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So I made a little progress. I don't have a drill press so I went to a friends house and used his. We drilled 4 holes and then all of a sudden were drinking beer and... Well, I didn't get as far as I would have liked. Kal says to use the little punch tool to put the 1.25" hole is the thin cover plate. I just used a hole saw. It worked great. I would recommend that method. Definitely use a drill press and be smart. If you are a ******* then you will f@#$ it up for sure.

I wasn't paying attention and had to put a ton of jbweld in to fill the gap. It is good and watertight, but there is a bow in the backing plate that I don't like. I might have a set of junction boxes for heating elements up for sale in the market soon...

Tomorrow morning they go to paint and then I am gone for the weekend. So I will have to resume on Monday after the paint has time to cure. Monday will be busy though. I am supposed to be welding in some couplers for a keggle.

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

I don't have a drill press yet (yet, hence the move to a larger home), but have had good luck with a high powered hand drill. I'll probably just clamp the plate to a board, use cutting fluid, and go slow.

Might have some punches at work though, so I'll try that first. There's a draconian 'no personal projects in the shop' policy, but I think that is more of a suggestion.

I did the whole 'kal' panel with a hand drill, that came out nice except for the square holes which I dremmelled.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Got a picture of your panel?

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

Here is a few shots I had on my phone

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[BadWolfBrewing]

Basically a kal panel, with minor changes. I still need labels, as I frequently turn on the wrong pump

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[BadWolfBrewing]

Went to HD, got the parts I need, and got ready to drill the holes...

It was at that point that I realized where I was drilling on the box already had a hole in the center. As such, the hole saw had nothing to bite into. I still don't have a drill press, and my company has some strict policies about using the tools here. I might sneak some time in the shop anyways, or I might try and clamp a scrap piece of wood to the top of the box. That will give me something for the center bit to bite into, and then the hole will be a guide for the hole saw once it gets to the metal.

The things we do for beer...

 

[iijakii]

That's what I recall doing, clamping it to a piece of wood. Worked fine.

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

glad to hear that worked... i was planning a heist to break into the shop at work at 2AM. The plan wasn't coming together very well, and I couldn't find a getaway driver

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Went to HD, got the parts I need, and got ready to drill the holes...

It was at that point that I realized where I was drilling on the box already had a hole in the center. As such, the hole saw had nothing to bite into. I still don't have a drill press, and my company has some strict policies about using the tools here. I might sneak some time in the shop anyways, or I might try and clamp a scrap piece of wood to the top of the box. That will give me something for the center bit to bite into, and then the hole will be a guide for the hole saw once it gets to the metal.

The things we do for beer...

You could probably sacrifice a plug for that back hole. Then the saw could drill it to center it. I borrowed a drill press because of those issues. Also, my boxes were aluminum and nice and soft.

Here is where I am at:

I have silicone on the inside that is drying. Plan to get some wiring today and finish it. The rest of my panel goodies should be in today!

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

Wow, looks great. I have some of that same paint leftover from the panel, I might do that as well.

Got the holes drilled, the wood clamped to the face worked well, so I'm all set to assemble one of these days

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[sandyeggoxj]

I have taking my time with them. Gave them the weekend for the paint to dry. Gave it 24 hours for the jb weld to cure. And now the silicone is drying on the inside. I think tomorrow I will button them up and be done!

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

I just fit mine together, and ran into something I'm not crazy about. Once I thread the heating element onto the TC coupler supplied by stout-tanks (with the cover plate in between), there is A LOT of thread unused in the coupler. It creates a little threaded cup, where the bottom is the face of the heating element. That is going to absolutely fill up with hop / break material during the boil, so I'd like fill it up with some silicone caulk / RTV.

Think this would work alright?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Did I mention that was a nice panel?

Here is a picture of how much mine cups into the threads. It isn't ideal that is for sure. I will end up with Bobby's enclosures after a while. I think I will upgrade when I go to 4-elements. I am building the panel for 50-amp and 4-elements since the kettles hold 30+ gallons. Heating 25 gallons to a boil with one 5500watt elements is going to be a bitch.

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

The panel looks a little bare, hopefully the panel tags from canada come soon. I've used it without tags for a few months, and more than once have turned on the wrong pump...

I have a 10 oz tube of RTV108 I'm going to fill the cup in with. JB weld is drying, hopefully it warms up enough outside to spray paint soon and I can get them finished.

It if works out, I'll have a couple of bobby_m's adapters for sale if you are interested. They work great, but don't fit well in my brewspace.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Lemme know. Maybe a trade?

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

I'll keep you posted. My pipe-line is near bursting (i need more friends to drink my beer... any takers?) and so I won't have a chance to test them out for a few weeks.

I'm open to trading, there's always stuff I don't own but want to...

 

[sandyeggoxj]

What is the freight on a few kegs of beer? I can send good empties back in return.

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

so, finally got the two adapters done, had to redo one that didn't have a good ground connection between the box and the TC adapter, lots of work.

I go to install, and notice that the HLT heating element port is only an inch or so off the bottom of the kettle. So the adapter doesn't fit unless I put the kettle up on something. Probably should have checked that before doing all the darn work.

Put the heating element back in the Bobby_m adapter. Might try to squeeze everything into a single gang box when I have some free time...

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Here is what you need: http://brewmation.com/Heating_Elements.html

What did you do to make sure that you had a good ground? I didn't think about that much. I'll need to go throw a meter on my jbox's and see what they read, if they do!

I have seen people use the single gang boxes, it is just a little bit tighter. It definitely looks cleaner.

 

[KPSquared]

$60 for an element? WTF is Brewmation smoking?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

All stainless? Never worry about rust?

 

[KPSquared]

Totally missed the stainless part. Silly phone. Tiny pictures...



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