Anyone fabricate your own brew kettles?

[L0F]

So heres the deal a friend of mine fabricates suspensions for cars, basic hardened steel stuff, on the side. I'm a mechanic and have done some machining in the past figure it wouldn't be too hard to make a brew kettle. So if anyone on here has made one I got a few questions.

I know stainless isnt cheap, what gauge did you use? How much time did it take, material cost, and all else aside how does it stack up against the competition? Ie keggle or blingman

If I go this route it would be In a garage on our time off, basically just an idea until I take a look at material costs.

Any advice or insight would be greatly appriciated.

 

[Thundercougarfalconbird]

Make me a few 15g kettles and I'll be happy to test them for you

 

[Markd27]

Having never done it, I've always thought it wouldn't be that hard to spin a stainless pot granted you had acces to a big enough lathe, tooling, and the right materials.

I'm very interested to see what you come up with though.

 

[outside92129]

There is a thread somewhere on HBT about a guy DIY'ing a copper kettle.

 

[brewingmeister]

There is a thread somewhere on HBT about a guy DIY'ing a copper kettle.

I remember that thread but can't find it. Did that project ever get finished?

 

[dragonbreath11]

Maybe you can e-mail the guys at http://brewhemoth.com/

 

[StainlessBrewing]

Having never done it, I've always thought it wouldn't be that hard to spin a stainless pot granted you had acces to a big enough lathe, tooling, and the right materials.

I'm very interested to see what you come up with though.

Not too sure why you would need a lathe? These are not made from round stock. They use a piece of sheet metal, make it round, weld it, add a bottom, and a couple of handles. The tricky part is figuring out how to make the bottom. You essentially would want some sort of an eliptical edge but flat bottom.

 

[jdowling]

I'm by no means an expert. I've fabricated some copper vessels (mainly sculptural but they held water fine). Blichmann advertises that their pots are made of 18 gauge (which is, I believe, 1.27mm thick) 304 stainless.

Looking @ mcmaster you can get sheets of 304 stainless (unpolished) @ 0.048" thick (~1.2mm thick):
PN: 8983K47 - 36" x 48" = $99.11
PN: 8983K29 - 24" x 36" = $54.10

Rough math (unless I screwed up) says you could make 2 pots roughly 18" high, 48" around (just touch over 15 and a quarter inches across). Volume would be a touch over 14.25 gallons. These are rough numbers - the actual capacity would be a bit less I think. I'm ignoring sheet thickness in the calculations because I was just doing some back of the napkin math.

You could probably source the materials for less somewhere else - or at least find sizes that more closely match the volume you would be looking for (assuming about 14 gallons isn't ideal for your use).

You might want thicker bottoms; for water or wort I don't think it would matter because the fluids are not particularly viscous unlike, say, tomato sauce.

I don't know enough about materials science to know at what point you would need thicker walls for structural integrity.

As a fun thought - the largest sheet (36" x 96" - $183.03 - PN: 8983K14) formed into a cylinder with a bottom added would hold about 114 gallons .

Hopefully I didn't botch the math .
- volume = pi * r^2 * h
- v = pi * (15.28/2)^2 * 18
- v = pi * 7.64^2 * 18
- v = pi * 7.64^2 * 18
- v = 3300.72
- 231 cubic inches / gallon
- 3300.72 / 231 = ~14.29 gallons

Edit: so that is about as far as I went in my own personal analysis - $76 + S&H + other incidental materials + some tools + hassle of forming a pot to get about a 14 gallon vessel versus $120ish total for a 15.5 gallon container shipped to my door. I decided not to fabricate. I didn't dig too far for material sources though.

 

[outside92129]

Here's the thread on that guy's copper kettle project. He riveted it together, the thread is a bit stale and there's no info on how it turned out.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/copper-kettle-project-93246/

 

[OneHoppyGuy]

18 gauge 304 stainless. A lathe would be perfect.

 

[kevink]

18 gauge 304 stainless. A lathe would be perfect.

What can you do with a lathe and sheet metal?

 

[OneHoppyGuy]

the spin marks you seen on kettles are made by the tool rubbing against the steel while spinning on the lathe

is an example

 

[day_trippr]

the spin marks you seen on kettles are made by the tool rubbing against the steel while spinning on the lathe[...]

I had the same thoughts about how a lathe comes into play when constructing a pot. I mean, it's not like any sane person is going to carve a pot out of a humongous ss blank and considering the typical pot is either drawn or welded sheet, what role does a lathe play?

Cheers!

 

[brewingmeister]

Pots are typically formed on a hydraulic press.

 

[gunmetal]

Metal spinning has been around a long time. Basically a round disc is mounted on a special lathe. It is spun, and forced onto a form. The form can be any shape from an ashtray to a large pot. This is how Toledo metal spinning makes their conicals, hence their name.
Edit, watch the above video from OneHoppyGuy.

 

[kevink]

This is how Toledo metal spinning makes their conicals

But they make their brew kettle shaped vessels with a press. A metal forming lathe large enough to spin a brew kettle would be enormous. It's not something a home fabrication shop or most actual fabrication shops would even own. They're not your traditional metal lathe.

 

[OneHoppyGuy]

Many kettles are still made on lathes. The ones made by Update International are. I'm not sure about Blichmann but I've seen a photo of him next to a lathe that appears large enough.


beer cans are made on lathes...

 

[Bobby_M]

I could have sworn I saw aluminum cans done on a press.with 4 successive dies. The top is definitely rolled by spinning. It was probably on how its made.

 

[OneHoppyGuy]

The National Can plant in Fairfield CA was built in the 80's There are two rows of lathes for turning the cans. I know, I was an electrician on the construction of that plant. Budweiser has a brewery just a few miles down the road. Different plants, different methods?

 

[day_trippr]

Pots are typically formed on a hydraulic press.

Right - and that is referred to as "drawn"...

Cheers!

 

[L0F]

After investigating material sources, I've decided that it will simply be more economical to go the keggle route.

 

[AZOTH99]

Why doesn't anyone use an aluminium pot?

 

[StainlessBrewing]

If you search Stainless vs Aluminum kettle it will bring up several threads on this.

 

[jcaudill]

Why doesn't anyone use an aluminium pot?

Because they cannot be cleaned with caustic or oxygen based cleaners and that makes them a pain to sanitize and clean. That is why people use stainless with sandwiched bottoms - best of both worlds. Stainless by itself is an awful conductor.