Brew Stand - Build yourself or get someone else to build?

[kal]

Covert to 100% electric so that you can built it out of wood instead!

Kal

 

[BrewBeemer]

+1

I was in a similar position and decided to go the DIY route. I spent a little more than $750, but I got a really nice welder out of the deal (Hobart Handler 187) as well as a new skill, which I've already planned on using to save some dough on a few other projects. Learning to MIG weld well enough to make a brewstand or similar projects really isn't that hard, and there are a lot of good resources on the web. It was a fun project even though it was a lot of work, and it's a great feeling to build something like that pretty much from scratch. Plus, you get to make a lot of noise, sparks, fire, etc...and what kind of guy doesn't dig that

Good little welder that Hobart 187 vs the 180 it replaced. You have a 7 position voltage control switch vs 4 of the older 180 model. 24 gauge to 5/16" with 25 to 185 amps output range. Just stay within the duty cycle of that welder which is 30% at 130 amps. You'll enjoy that 230 volt welder over a 120 volt unit. Get a large owner owned bottle as over time it will be cheaper than a small lease bottle needing to be refilled more often. At www.cyberweld.com Welding Supplies have Miller and Hobart, they have the 187 for $698. The bottle is extra. I use C-25 vs straight Co2, less splatter.
If you get hooked with welding a lot check into a auto dark hood, Speedglas is one manufacture that has a large lens window as an example. No matter what your welding clean the metal to a bright iron finish plus tight fit up joints before welding. Don't be afraid to use some heat as a cold weld is a useless low strength joint without good penetration. A Mikita 14" chop saw is a good investment tool that will last you many years, check for used on ebay. Keep the gearbox full of grease for a longer life. Get a 4 1/2" angle grinder with grinding wheels plus a flat sanding flap wheel. This will give a smoother finish after grinding down welds if they need to. On ebay check into a used Milwaukee portable band saws. It's fun spending your money. Should you expand on welders look into mig machines that have infinite voltage and wire speed controls allowing for better fine tuning of your welding. Millers are my only brand after owning many different welders over the years. Tig is a whole different animal besides the high cost of the machine and the learning curve. Squares, clamps, levels and good accurate measurements and cuts result in great project rewards. Congrats on your welder purchase, why pay when you can build your own brew stand to your design plus other future welding projects.

 

[xiang]

My shop orders steel tubing from Buy Small Quantity Metals Online | Steel, Aluminum, Stainless, and Brass | Allmetalsinc.com every so often. They can cut tubing to spec. Might be the way to go if you don't have the tooling to cut your metal. Maybe a search can produce a similiar metal suplier in your area?

 

[Dustin_J]

Good little welder that Hobart 187 vs the 180 it replaced. You have a 7 position voltage control switch vs 4 of the older 180 model. 24 gauge to 5/16" with 25 to 185 amps output range. Just stay within the duty cycle of that welder which is 30% at 130 amps. You'll enjoy that 230 volt welder over a 120 volt unit. Get a large owner owned bottle as over time it will be cheaper than a small lease bottle needing to be refilled more often. At Cyberweld.com - Welding Supplies - Miller, Hobart & More Welding Supplies have Miller and Hobart, they have the 187 for $698. The bottle is extra. I use C-25 vs straight Co2, less splatter.
If you get hooked with welding a lot check into a auto dark hood, Speedglas is one manufacture that has a large lens window as an example. No matter what your welding clean the metal to a bright iron finish plus tight fit up joints before welding. Don't be afraid to use some heat as a cold weld is a useless low strength joint without good penetration. A Mikita 14" chop saw is a good investment tool that will last you many years, check for used on ebay. Keep the gearbox full of grease for a longer life. Get a 4 1/2" angle grinder with grinding wheels plus a flat sanding flap wheel. This will give a smoother finish after grinding down welds if they need to. On ebay check into a used Milwaukee portable band saws. It's fun spending your money. Should you expand on welders look into mig machines that have infinite voltage and wire speed controls allowing for better fine tuning of your welding. Millers are my only brand after owning many different welders over the years. Tig is a whole different animal besides the high cost of the machine and the learning curve. Squares, clamps, levels and good accurate measurements and cuts result in great project rewards. Congrats on your welder purchase, why pay when you can build your own brew stand to your design plus other future welding projects.

Yeah, I really dig it so far. I got a great deal on a refurbished unit, ~$530 to my door and it was pristine. Add the spare 20lb CO2 tank that I had laying around for shielding gas (sometimes it's good to be a brewer ), and I was good to go. The brewstand is complete (no pics other than crappy cell phone ones, so I'll spare everyone), and I 2nd pretty much everything BrewBeemer says here about construction, tools, etc. There are some great welding forums (weldingweb and weldtalk come to mind) that can really help to get things going on the right foot for these types of projects. The only regret I have is that I didn't buy a chopsaw or bandsaw and do my own cuts. I paid about $15 for the folks at the metal supply place to make them for me, and they were less than consciencious. That made the project a bit more difficult, but I suppose that won't be an issue in the future since the $250 security deposit I just got back will most likely be invested in a nice chop saw.

 

[MajorWoody]

If you buy the MIG welder used, you likely will be able to resell it for what you paid, or close. Much cheaper than renting. Lincoln, Miller and Hobart are all reputable brands.

Another vote for not buying a cheap one. Avoid the Harbor Freight ones that use Flux Core only. That is not a good tool to learn on.

Spend the $50 for an auto-darkening welding helmet so you can see what you are doing. Sell it with the welder if you decide not to keep it.

Bedframes work great and are cheap or free.

I also used my 10" power miter saw with a 10" metal cutting wheel as a cutoff saw.

I would also recommend you buy a pair of inexpensive 4" electric angle grinders. The orange ones at Harbor Freight work fine. Keep a thin cutoff wheel on one and a flap disc on the other. The two tools will allow you to quickly cut and fabricate without having to stop and change wheels all the time. Trust me it is worth it. In the end, you will find other uses in life for these tools.

Try taking a hobby metalworking/welding class through your local community college. Here in Portland it is taught at a local high school's metal shop. I learned a lot and got exposure to a number of different tools. Even if you don't become proficient in five different kinds of welding and learn how to use a lathe, end mill, surface grinder etc, it is still beneficial to know how things are done and what tools are available for accomplishing different tasks.

 

[EndOfTheWorldBrewing]

I am a welder and I would reccomend Buying a 110 MIG welder for your self. Lincoln will sell a decent welder. If your a car this will also double as a decent welder for replacing floor pans or body work. Any local steel place will have mild steel. Right now steel is cheap so it should be fairly inexpensive to build. MIG is easy to learn. One of the best books out right now is MODERN WELDING. This had a wealth of information in it I use it alot when welding a way I haven't done in a while.

Happy Caps

 

[abracadabra]

Steve
I'm not trying to convince you not to learn welding it's a great skill to have or not to build your on sculpture, just offer a different point of view:

Here's what I did:

I got 2 folding metal scaffolds from Home Depot ($99 each). On the top rung
of the first scaffold sits a banjo burner with the HLT (Hot Liquid Tank). There's a bridge between the 2 scaffolds made of 2 each 1"x8"s at the mid level rung that holds the MLT (Mash Lauter Tun). On the lowest level of the
2nd scaffold sits the banjo burner and boil pot. Which is just high enough to allow gravity flow into the fermenter (4 level) which sits on the floor.

I use several drinking water quaility hoses to get the strike water into the HLT. I never have to lift anything until I take the fermenter to the basement.
I use a handtruck to move the fermenters to the basement.

Something that I thought about but have yet to try is moving to boiled wort to the basement in Corny kegs via handtruck then using compressed air to move the wort from the corny into fermenters that sit up on shelves. This would help aerate the wort in addition to moving it up high so I could start the gravity flow process again.

On the minus side this set up takes up more room than a dedicated brew stand when its in full operation. On the plus side the scaffolds fold up to store in a very small space and are easily portable, they have lockable wheels which also affords a great deal of portability and they are useful to me for a variety of other functions. Additionally there is also enough room to add another HLT, MLT and Boil Pot so I could double what I’m doing now if I wanted to. (which I do)

You could make a 3 level out of 1 scaffold by making a bottom shelf out of
2 each 1x8’s and count the floor as your 3rd level. 1 scaffold could easily hold 2 burners with 25 gallon pots on the top level and the same on a homemade bottom level.

Edit: Oh I forgot to mention Doug at Just Brew It in Fayetteville, Ga has brew stands for sale the last time I was in his shop. It's a pretty good hike from Alpharetta but it's not to bad if you don't go during rush hour which in Alpharetta is 6-10am and 2-8pm M-F.