Finally...Wooden Single Tier Underway

[CollinsBrew]

Finally, after six months and slowly ordering parts, I got a start on my Wooden, Single Tier, Brutus like system. It all got started tonight with the serendipitous cutting of the keggles....I even used a jig.

Perfect Cirlces:

The Jig:

The Parts:

The Honeywells:

The Temp Controllers:

The Temperature Probes:

The Pumps:

The Chiller:

More to come tomorrow as I build the stand and drill the the keggles for Bargain Fittings weldless fittings and BobbyM's sight valves with therms.

 

[Hockyplr]

Nice! Subscribed! Look forward to seeing the future posts.

 

[CollinsBrew]

Some progress today...

I got the holes for the weldless bulkheads and the sightglasses drilled.

All Three kegs: The middle is a Guiness keg (13.2 gal) and will have a through wall thermometer added. I have the thermometer but I need to get a couple of silicone gaskets to seal it.

After I got all of the sticker residue off of the kegs with some BKF, I started on the wood stand. 66"x24"x30"(w/o casters)

Mitered corners with the lug bolts:

I'm still trying to decide how I want to do the supports for the keggles. I have 1 1/2" square steel tubing I'm going to use but I'm trying to decide the best way to put them in. My original plan was to notch out a 2x4 for the tubing and bolt it on the inside upper rim of the stand. Then I thought, why add the extra weight when I could notch out the existing upper rim 2x6 about an inch on each side. Any thoughts?

 

[Dukeman9988]

I'm very interested in the plans and how this is going to turn out. Are you going electric? Or propane or natural gas?

 

[diS]

I like the stand and I am going to build something similar too..
What is the stability since you put single bars in corner?

 

[CollinsBrew]

I'm doing a low pressure propane set up. I have a picture of my burners that I'll post later. I'm currently typing this from my iPhone (HomeBrewTalk app). For the BK and the Sparge water tank I'm using the larger BG14's and for the Mash Tun I have the smaller 6" version of that burner.

As far as stability, I have no worries that it will hold up. The bottom and top of each leg has two 1/2" lug boots as you can see in the pictures and the sides are secured to the 2x4 legs with 3/8" lag screws. I originally was going to use some 4" casters but it just added too much height to the stand so I picked up some 2" casters from Harbor Freight today. They're rated for 75lbs each and should hold up just fine.

 

[horseinmay]

Don't add the extra weight. Those 2x6's are overkill already. You can notch them to hold the base for the burners. I recently built a wooden brewstand out of 2x4's and was very conscious of the weight and bulk of the timber. It's stronger than you think, so take advantage of its versatility and cut into it.

 

[chuckjaxfl]

I'll be watching, especially since you're here in town!

Did you source your kegs locally?

 

[CollinsBrew]

I have two of the shorter Guiness kegs but the other has a welded bottom draining fitting. Both of those were Craigslist finds when I lived in Tennessee. A guy up there was selling his whole setup for $350 so I took it. I got another 4 off of Craigslist last year for $50. I checked the Orlando listings and just happened to find them. Drove down that day and picked them up. I've gotten pretty lucky finding stuff on the C'list.

I'm not trying to advertise for either site but SearchTempest is the site I use to check multiple Craigslist cities at one time. I normally don't use it for small stuff but if I'm looking for something very specific or that I could save some money on by driving a little farther.
I still have one of the kegs and I'll be trying to find a new home for it and the bottom drain one at our next brewclub meeting.

 

[CollinsBrew]

Hopefully, I'll get some more work done on the stand this week. Spent the last few days at the hospital and I'm happy to announce, A NEW LITTLE BREWER HAS BEEN BORN!! Totally STOKED!!:rockin:

 

[PJM]

Gongratulations on both the baby and the build.

 

[stratslinger]

Congrats on the new brewer!

And I had such hopes to see how someone's wood structure would work out too, so I could get some ideas before I possibly attempt one in the spring. But I suspect any free time (hah!) you have between now and then will likely be spent catching up on sleep!

 

[chuckjaxfl]

Congratulations! Kid? Grandkid?

 

[CollinsBrew]

First child actually. I hate to disappoint but she's the most spectacular kid ever born.

I'm probably going to be upsetting the neighbors in the next couple of weeks since the only time I'm able to get anything done with the stand is at night. The cold garage is calling my name!

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

nice looking build, but dont wake the baby!

 

[SPONCIL]

Congratulations on the baby! The next little HBT brewer is coming shortly as they started inducing my wife at 6AM. She's currently sleeping so I'm on the iPad. I spent the holiday break cleaning the garage and polishing my kegs to start on a wooden brew stand as well. I definitely subscribed so let us know how you find time to get out in the garage.

 

[CollinsBrew]

Cut the steel, notched out the 2x6's for the cross beams, drilled holes for all-thread for burner mounts and drilled holes in the angle iron that the burners will be mounted to. Next, I'm hoping to get the burners and pumps mounted. I'm also planning on putting a lip around the top that will cover the steel where it's notched into the wood. This should keep anyone (me) from accidently resting their hand where they could potentially get burned.

The beams...

The notches...

The angle iron for the burners and the hole drilled through the 2x6 for the all-thread...

 

[Huaco]

I'm not trying to advertise for either site but SearchTempest is the site I use to check multiple Craigslist cities at one time.

Man... Do you realize what a WONDERFUL thing you have just introduced me to?!!! WOW! I used to manually go to all the different CL "city" sites within the radius I was willing to drive to. This is going to save me SO much time!

THANK YOU!

 

[weirdboy]

Where did you get those temperature probes?

 

[CollinsBrew]

No prob on the SearchTempest thing. I'm surprised that not a lot of people have heard of it. I've pretty much stopped using eBay but it does do eBay searches for you too.

The temp probes I made from parts that I got from both bargainfittings.com and mcmaster carr. The probe itself I got from Auberins.com and this is the same one I purchased.

 

[barrooze]

Looks like it's going to be great!

 

[CollinsBrew]

If you notice, the last beam on there is different than the first five. Overall, I was about 4 inches short so I had to buy something to supplement. The bix box stores don't sell 1.5" square tubing but they do sell 1.5" zinc plated steel shelving frame so I got that instead. I'm coating the steel and the inside of the upper rim in black BBQ paint anyway. I'm thinking the rails will fit in the oven. Now I have to wait for SWMBO to take a nap so I can cure the paint in there.

 

[CollinsBrew]

The burners are mounted. I have some aluminum flashing that I'm going to make some wind screens out of for the larger burners. This should also contain the heat enough to keep the wood from scorching.

Mounted burners:

You can sort of see that the middle burner is sitting lower than the other two due to the way I have them mounted. It's held on by a bold right in the canter on the underside of the burner. I'll probably end up getting a longer bolt with a spacer or two to sit it up a little higher.

Here you can see how I mounted the burners and made them adjustable with some 5/16" all-thread. The spacers are 1/2" to give a little more play in burner adjustment.

 

[stratslinger]

Looking awesome so far... A couple quick questions:

1) You mentioned that the spacers are 1/2" to give more play - can you explain more clearly what you mean there? I'm not sure what I'm looking for in that picture.

2) Also, you mentioned the all-thread that you're using for height adjustment on the burners. How is that actually attached to the wood frame, and do you have any wingnuts or similar to hold the burner support at the right height? Are the holes on the burner support tapped and threaded for the all-thread?

3) You might have already addressed this, but do you have any plans to add casters to this thing? How heavy would you say it is? Looks super solidly built!

 

[mightynintendo]

Are you going to put wheels on that thing?

(subscribed)

 

[CollinsBrew]

Yes on the wheels. I'm putting six 2" 75lb load casters on this thing. A little overkill but casters from Harbor Freight are pretty cheap and haven't let me down. I'm a castering fool when it comes to the stuff in my garage. If it's heavy, I build a base that fits around the bottom with 2x4's and throw some casters on it. Makes my life a whole lot easier when needing to move workspaces around in my garage.

For the burner mounts, here's a better picture of the underside of the angle iron they're mounted to:

The burners are held on with some simple 5" shelving brackets a 1/4" hex bolt through the bracket then a 1/2" spacer, the angle iron and a 1/4" nut. It's attached to the frame with 5/16" all-thread. You can see the all-thread going through the front beam and back beam of the 2x6 frame. I used a 3/8" drill bit to go all the way through the 2x6 vertically. On one end of the all-thread I screwed on a locknut and fed it throught the top after I had used a 5/8's countersink at the top of each of the drilled holes. This allowed me to sink everything, including the beams so I could put the border around the top. The play I was talking about with the spacers was the clearance I get from the angle iron and the frame. I wasn't sure beforehand with my measurements if I would be able to move the burner all the way up to the kettle if I wanted to so I used the spacers. Turns out, I didn't really need them but I like them so I'll keep them. Clear as mud?

 

[stratslinger]

Makes a ton of sense, thanks!

I'm still curious though how you're adjusting the height, I guess... The way you've mounted the all-thread to the wood frame makes perfect sense (I kinda suspected you were doing something like that), but I still don't see how you keep the burner support, well, supported where it attaches to the all thread. The one picture you have above seems to show the all-thread going through that bit of angle iron with no nuts or anything to hold it there - but looking at the last picture, that just might be because we're looking at it from the wrong side of said angle iron for it to be visible...

 

[mightynintendo]

Where is a good place to buy small quantities of angle iron?

 

[Huaco]

Where is a good place to buy small quantities of angle iron?

Garage sales... CraigsList...

Look for Bed Frames. Can pick them up real cheap...

 

[Dukeman9988]

Where is a good place to buy small quantities of angle iron?

Mcmaster.com