Another BrewSteel: BadAss Brewstands

[horric29]

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.

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!

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...

 

[SpikeBrewing]

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....

 

[horric29]

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....

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!

 

[OMJ]

I know there is a guy on this forum that builds stands and does welding in York. I will see if I can find his username.


edit: Heres a link to his profile https://www.homebrewtalk.com/members/funkatollah

 

[SpikeBrewing]

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.

 

[Barnesie]

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...

 

[Markd27]

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!

So is the vendor not helping you out here?

 

[BeerguyNC61]

Were the kettles damaged too in shipping? Sounds like the shipper had fun with that crate!

 

[igotsand]

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...

 

[horric29]

I know there is a guy on this forum that builds stands and does welding in York. I will see if I can find his username.


edit: Heres a link to his profile https://www.homebrewtalk.com/members/funkatollah

Thanks for the info... I actually found a really great machine shop here that does a ton of stainless work... Ryan Kelly at Kelly Machine Works... www.kellymachineworks.com

He's actually going to fix two kettles up for me...

 

[horric29]

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.

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...

 

[horric29]

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...

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!

 

[SpikeBrewing]

Bring them in some homebrew!!

 

[horric29]

So is the vendor not helping you out here?

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"

 

[horric29]

Were the kettles damaged too in shipping? Sounds like the shipper had fun with that crate!

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...

 

[Barnesie]

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"

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.

 

[OMJ]

Did you ever get this all fixed up?

 

[stevea1210]

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.

 

[horric29]

Did you ever get this all fixed up?

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...

 

[stevea1210]

Light at the end of the tunnel!!!