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MikeSkril

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Check out my control panel project. Detailed build instructions can be found on my webpage. I'm happy to answer any questions.

E-HERMS Brewery Build

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After building my own control panel, I have to ask, why all the plugs and recepticles? Seems like everyone loves carving out square holes in their electrical boxes for outlets to plug into. What a PITA. Why not knock out a standard hole and use strain reliefs and just hard wire your cords in the box? Yes. You'll have cords coming from the box, but man so much less work and your box will retain more of it's watertightness.

This isn't a reflection on your build, just something I've been meaning to ask as I see almost every build done this way and it doesn't make sense to me. All it does is cost more money with more parts needed, take more time fabricating, create another opportunity to make the panel look shabby with jagged holes depending on the skill level, cause unnecessary wiring terminations and therefore more failure points, decrease interior panel space, and create more opportunities for water/debris to enter the panel. All just so you can have cords to roll up and put somewhere else?
 
After building my own control panel, I have to ask, why all the plugs and recepticles? Seems like everyone loves carving out square holes in their electrical boxes for outlets to plug into. What a PITA. Why not knock out a standard hole and use strain reliefs and just hard wire your cords in the box? Yes. You'll have cords coming from the box, but man so much less work and your box will retain more of it's watertightness.

This isn't a reflection on your build, just something I've been meaning to ask as I see almost every build done this way and it doesn't make sense to me. All it does is cost more money with more parts needed, take more time fabricating, create another opportunity to make the panel look shabby with jagged holes depending on the skill level, cause unnecessary wiring terminations and therefore more failure points, decrease interior panel space, and create more opportunities for water/debris to enter the panel. All just so you can have cords to roll up and put somewhere else?
I have receptacles because I need to unplug stuff at times, especially for cleaning. What did you build? Show us...
 
I build panels all the time using engineers prints at work, but this was my first panel I designed and built on my own. I have access to used parts and that's what drove my design. Most people don't need a 24V circuit, but because I had contactors I wanted to use to be able to create safer circuits and they had 24V coils I went that direction. If I were to buy everything I'd make it a lot less complicated. I need to sit down and re-draw my schematic since I made a few critical changes as I went along. I don't think I will keep it built into this wire baker's rack. It's just convenient for now. I'll weld up a stainless rack. I think I can make it more compact than it is. As you can see, I don't have a lot of room in my brew room. The room doubles as my art room where I airbrush. I made it stand-alone because I may want to take it outside in the summer to brew.
I0RzXdULyZ8aBiV86R7a7K_vlH7cj7I0K7t2SQjQf4LjPbKaqYi8M6iFDWpgzpESTqRfhLNZpWgEXx_0bgNLfGqJFzjVxpvBEj4hwJhvzDXnv86M_ZO0UPa-SdO7n4Mf9_yH8605KE0=w2400

3FbNJ6uDkaCt6E5xLZaPa55mnOwNKCI_1p9xmUNzMQdg4P1BWmFOcgK8YD47uliRIi-o5X3WxPjXaCC31bWRkVRhVpP1s1_K5D4LJjgny9R4UjJzlNrP0rk4dm01PaEJ4MQ0QlMnPak=w2400
 
I plug it into a 30A outlet I have on the wall in the closet in the background. The main breaker panel is directly above that so I don't use a separate disconnect. I just flip the breaker when I want to use it.
 
I build panels all the time using engineers prints at work, but this was my first panel I designed and built on my own. I have access to used parts and that's what drove my design. Most people don't need a 24V circuit, but because I had contactors I wanted to use to be able to create safer circuits and they had 24V coils I went that direction. If I were to buy everything I'd make it a lot less complicated. I need to sit down and re-draw my schematic since I made a few critical changes as I went along. I don't think I will keep it built into this wire baker's rack. It's just convenient for now. I'll weld up a stainless rack. I think I can make it more compact than it is. As you can see, I don't have a lot of room in my brew room. The room doubles as my art room where I airbrush. I made it stand-alone because I may want to take it outside in the summer to brew.
I0RzXdULyZ8aBiV86R7a7K_vlH7cj7I0K7t2SQjQf4LjPbKaqYi8M6iFDWpgzpESTqRfhLNZpWgEXx_0bgNLfGqJFzjVxpvBEj4hwJhvzDXnv86M_ZO0UPa-SdO7n4Mf9_yH8605KE0=w2400

3FbNJ6uDkaCt6E5xLZaPa55mnOwNKCI_1p9xmUNzMQdg4P1BWmFOcgK8YD47uliRIi-o5X3WxPjXaCC31bWRkVRhVpP1s1_K5D4LJjgny9R4UjJzlNrP0rk4dm01PaEJ4MQ0QlMnPak=w2400

Looks great!
 
After building my own control panel, I have to ask, why all the plugs and recepticles? Seems like everyone loves carving out square holes in their electrical boxes for outlets to plug into. What a PITA. Why not knock out a standard hole and use strain reliefs and just hard wire your cords in the box? Yes. You'll have cords coming from the box, but man so much less work and your box will retain more of it's watertightness.

This isn't a reflection on your build, just something I've been meaning to ask as I see almost every build done this way and it doesn't make sense to me. All it does is cost more money with more parts needed, take more time fabricating, create another opportunity to make the panel look shabby with jagged holes depending on the skill level, cause unnecessary wiring terminations and therefore more failure points, decrease interior panel space, and create more opportunities for water/debris to enter the panel. All just so you can have cords to roll up and put somewhere else?

I had a PID go out in the middle of a brew. I was happy to have the receptacles to move the element to a working PID :)
 
I have receptacles because I need to unplug stuff at times, especially for cleaning. What did you build? Show us...
I did what he mentioned above on a 120a 3bbl brucontrol control panel I built.. it actually made for a cleaner install inside the control panel.
 

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