inr brewing - basement brewery build
- Thread starter itsnotrequired
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Help Support Homebrew Talk:
Your doing great on the photos. I would start working and not stop until I was done for the evening. Wouldn't even think about taking pictures of every step.
OP
OP
i hear ya, i get in the zone and have to remind myself to take a break. sometimes i'll work late on something and once i start dropping stuff, hurting myself, etc., i know it is time to stop.
and now to a new topic: spade lugs, yea or nay? i see almost everyone uses them in their builds but in my profession, almost every industrial control panel i come across does not use them. it seems more common with equipment from overseas. my thoughts are the lug is just one more spot for a potential failure. if the screw terminal is not properly torqued, it won't matter much if there is a lug or not. note that this applies to terminals with pressure plates. if there was simply a screw terminal (like on a wall receptacle), i would be going the lug route, especially with stranded wire. all my terminals have pressure plates so i'm leaning toward skipping the terminals, unless convinced otherwise.
I know what you mean, like when you wire the receptacle plugs, you would never use a lug, it has a pressure plate attached to the screw. Maybe cause it's stranded wire and not solid......
John
John
paledragon
Well-Known Member
I've always just put stranded wire into anything with a pressure plate. Anytime you daisy chain stuff together, I can see a benefit to spades over trying to secure two wires into a single terminal. It can be a PITA if you've got a lot of them. I've just always preferred skipping spades unless completely necessary. I ran my original control panel for 7-8 years without a single issue. Plus if you skip spades, you avoid having to match wire gauge with spade size, which gets annoying, at least to me.
OP
OP
2/4/2016 update
nothing fancy tonight, just pulling off the paper/tape masking on the panel. paper pulled off the back:
and all the paper out:
tape removed from bottom openings:
from the outside:
goal was to get a nice sharp edge on the 'lip' of the enclosure:
and sitting next to the door:
nothing fancy tonight, just pulling off the paper/tape masking on the panel. paper pulled off the back:
and all the paper out:
tape removed from bottom openings:
from the outside:
goal was to get a nice sharp edge on the 'lip' of the enclosure:
and sitting next to the door:
OP
OP
2/6/2016 update - part 1
today i decided to tackle wiring the panel, or at least a decent chunk of it. got rolling about 8:30 in the morning. shot of first wire landed:
i opted to skip the lugs. it is more work and one more source of potential failure. first circuit complete:
above circuit is the reset for the alarm. the ebrewsupply kits use a lot of different colored wire for different types of circuits. the tan wires are for the reset. as i went along, i highlighted the circuits i wired in:
starting to wire up the neutral circuits, starting with the power to the pids:
neutral circuit continued on to lights/switches. i kept the pid wiring 'up high' (i.e. not down to the door surface) but ran the lights/switch wiring against the back of the door, with the plan of using adhesive cable anchors to make everything nice and clean:
wire lengths were carefully measured, accounting for bends up and down to reach the door surface:
for stacked contact blocks, i removed the top block to wire up the bottom block. the screw terminals are accessible even with an additional contact block on top of it but the screwdriver needs to be at an angle. to get a better grab on the screw, i wanted the screwdriver in the best position possible. the black conductor is a 'jumper' on the illuminated pump on-off switch, to illuminate the switch when it is in the 'on' position. there is still neutral work to do but i wanted to take care of these lower blocks right away:
and with the top contact block re-installed:
i finished up all the neutral wiring on the door and then moved on to the safe-start interlock. a good chunk of this circuit uses pink wires. below is the selector switch for the hlt or boil element. like on the pump switches, top level of blocks removed for better torquing:
and the top block reinstalled:
wires are bent into shape before terminating:
there is one pink jumper on the safe-start relay on the back panel and since i had the pink wire out, i quick threw that one on:
on to some 110v wiring. i started with a jumper at the e-stop pushbutton and its associated indicating light:
110v power for the pids:
more wiring on the door. this area was becoming my main 'highway' for wires:
note that nothing is cable-tied or anchored down yet. i want to get all the wires in place first and then start fine-tuning. below is more color-coded wires, this for the element indicating lights. orange is associated with the hlt, yellow with the boil:
one spot where i needed a lug. the red wire is power for the alarm circuit and is #18 awg. it doesn't 'play nice' under the same terminal as a #14 (power for the pid). so i threw a lug on the #18:
more alarm circuit wiring:
and a shot of the door as far as i can take it, before i need to start running wires to the back panel:
with the door complete, time to move to the back panel, starting with some neutral wiring:
and now one leg of the 220v circuits (#10 red):
some of the other leg (#10 black):
some #10 jumpers on the leg of the hater element circuits that do not pass through the ssr:
still marking off progress:
wires for the heating element contactors. again, orange for hlt and yellow for boil. the coil of conductors in the background are for the boil/htl indicating lights:
today i decided to tackle wiring the panel, or at least a decent chunk of it. got rolling about 8:30 in the morning. shot of first wire landed:
i opted to skip the lugs. it is more work and one more source of potential failure. first circuit complete:
above circuit is the reset for the alarm. the ebrewsupply kits use a lot of different colored wire for different types of circuits. the tan wires are for the reset. as i went along, i highlighted the circuits i wired in:
starting to wire up the neutral circuits, starting with the power to the pids:
neutral circuit continued on to lights/switches. i kept the pid wiring 'up high' (i.e. not down to the door surface) but ran the lights/switch wiring against the back of the door, with the plan of using adhesive cable anchors to make everything nice and clean:
wire lengths were carefully measured, accounting for bends up and down to reach the door surface:
for stacked contact blocks, i removed the top block to wire up the bottom block. the screw terminals are accessible even with an additional contact block on top of it but the screwdriver needs to be at an angle. to get a better grab on the screw, i wanted the screwdriver in the best position possible. the black conductor is a 'jumper' on the illuminated pump on-off switch, to illuminate the switch when it is in the 'on' position. there is still neutral work to do but i wanted to take care of these lower blocks right away:
and with the top contact block re-installed:
i finished up all the neutral wiring on the door and then moved on to the safe-start interlock. a good chunk of this circuit uses pink wires. below is the selector switch for the hlt or boil element. like on the pump switches, top level of blocks removed for better torquing:
and the top block reinstalled:
wires are bent into shape before terminating:
there is one pink jumper on the safe-start relay on the back panel and since i had the pink wire out, i quick threw that one on:
on to some 110v wiring. i started with a jumper at the e-stop pushbutton and its associated indicating light:
110v power for the pids:
more wiring on the door. this area was becoming my main 'highway' for wires:
note that nothing is cable-tied or anchored down yet. i want to get all the wires in place first and then start fine-tuning. below is more color-coded wires, this for the element indicating lights. orange is associated with the hlt, yellow with the boil:
one spot where i needed a lug. the red wire is power for the alarm circuit and is #18 awg. it doesn't 'play nice' under the same terminal as a #14 (power for the pid). so i threw a lug on the #18:
more alarm circuit wiring:
and a shot of the door as far as i can take it, before i need to start running wires to the back panel:
with the door complete, time to move to the back panel, starting with some neutral wiring:
and now one leg of the 220v circuits (#10 red):
some of the other leg (#10 black):
some #10 jumpers on the leg of the hater element circuits that do not pass through the ssr:
still marking off progress:
wires for the heating element contactors. again, orange for hlt and yellow for boil. the coil of conductors in the background are for the boil/htl indicating lights:
Nice work. Lots or work documenting/posting. Certainly will help someone.
Definitely like the idea of highlighting the diagram. I'll keep that one in mind.
Not sure if this helps on determining wire lengths (or it's worth it in your case), but FWIW I saw on another post someone used pipe cleaners to lay out their wiring before cutting cables and connecting the dots
Not sure if this helps on determining wire lengths (or it's worth it in your case), but FWIW I saw on another post someone used pipe cleaners to lay out their wiring before cutting cables and connecting the dots
OP
OP
2/6/2016 update - part 2
so the more i looked at it, the more i realized how difficult it was going to be to get some nice, neat, straight wiring installation. and i noticed how i was running wires down some 'highways' anyway. i had snagged some wire duct from work with the thoughts of using it in my build but after taking a look at it, i thought it would look weird and didn't have a great way to attach the duct to the door/back panel. i made a game-time decision to start using it. first step was how to attach the duct so i wandered down to menards to see what might be available. and then i saw it:
this stuff would work perfectly. i don't have to hold any weight but i want something that was tough and wouldn't fall out. i decided to start with the back panel and cut some duct to length:
unfortunately, i was going to have to undo some wiring. a 'before' shot, with some wires disconnected:
tape applied to the back of the duct:
a progress shot:
all the wires in:
and with the cover on:
looks great! so i moved on to the door. i used a different type of duct for the door:
this stuff was a little annoying in that none of the ribs were cut so i had to bust out the scissors:
same as before, disconnecting some wiring to accommodate the wire duct:
duct installed, some wire in place:
all wires in place:
and with the lid on. even for this small bit of wiring, the look is much cleaner:
next place for duct was the other 'highway' on the door:
some of the wiring in place:
cover on, plus some duct in place for the temp probes and ssr wires:
with the back panel wired up, time to mount it in the enclosure. studs re-installed for mounting the back panel:
back panel installed, time to move on to the outlets at the bottom of the enclosure. started with one for the pump, noticed a problem when i lined up the holes on the receptacle with the taps on the enclosure:
d'oh, the receptacle body hits the mounting posts for the back panel:
a little trimming with a utility knife and i was back in business. i also terminated the wires in the receptacle before mounting it, no way to get to all the terminal screws otherwise. green is ground, white is neutral and the purple is the line conductor for the wort pump (more color coding):
wiring from the receptacles to terminal blocks (water and wort pump):
temp probe connector mounted. mounting holes were tapped, just had to thread a screw in (included), no need for a nut:
all three mounted. each connector comes with about six feet of cable and has lug terminals on the end for each wire, very easy to hook up to the pids:
wiring up an element receptacle. it was easier to wire it without mounting and eyeball the connections to the terminal blocks through the hole in the bottom of the enclosure:
finished shot from the inside:
all the receptacles in place:
i also threw the hinges on:
had some breaks here and there but all told, a good eight hours of work today. i'm very glad i decided to wire this myself, have a much greater understanding of what everything is and how it is put together.
so the more i looked at it, the more i realized how difficult it was going to be to get some nice, neat, straight wiring installation. and i noticed how i was running wires down some 'highways' anyway. i had snagged some wire duct from work with the thoughts of using it in my build but after taking a look at it, i thought it would look weird and didn't have a great way to attach the duct to the door/back panel. i made a game-time decision to start using it. first step was how to attach the duct so i wandered down to menards to see what might be available. and then i saw it:
this stuff would work perfectly. i don't have to hold any weight but i want something that was tough and wouldn't fall out. i decided to start with the back panel and cut some duct to length:
unfortunately, i was going to have to undo some wiring. a 'before' shot, with some wires disconnected:
tape applied to the back of the duct:
a progress shot:
all the wires in:
and with the cover on:
looks great! so i moved on to the door. i used a different type of duct for the door:
this stuff was a little annoying in that none of the ribs were cut so i had to bust out the scissors:
same as before, disconnecting some wiring to accommodate the wire duct:
duct installed, some wire in place:
all wires in place:
and with the lid on. even for this small bit of wiring, the look is much cleaner:
next place for duct was the other 'highway' on the door:
some of the wiring in place:
cover on, plus some duct in place for the temp probes and ssr wires:
with the back panel wired up, time to mount it in the enclosure. studs re-installed for mounting the back panel:
back panel installed, time to move on to the outlets at the bottom of the enclosure. started with one for the pump, noticed a problem when i lined up the holes on the receptacle with the taps on the enclosure:
d'oh, the receptacle body hits the mounting posts for the back panel:
a little trimming with a utility knife and i was back in business. i also terminated the wires in the receptacle before mounting it, no way to get to all the terminal screws otherwise. green is ground, white is neutral and the purple is the line conductor for the wort pump (more color coding):
wiring from the receptacles to terminal blocks (water and wort pump):
temp probe connector mounted. mounting holes were tapped, just had to thread a screw in (included), no need for a nut:
all three mounted. each connector comes with about six feet of cable and has lug terminals on the end for each wire, very easy to hook up to the pids:
wiring up an element receptacle. it was easier to wire it without mounting and eyeball the connections to the terminal blocks through the hole in the bottom of the enclosure:
finished shot from the inside:
all the receptacles in place:
i also threw the hinges on:
had some breaks here and there but all told, a good eight hours of work today. i'm very glad i decided to wire this myself, have a much greater understanding of what everything is and how it is put together.
So happy you have the same control panel as I do. I'm stuck in Afghanistan for another 3 months so I'm unable to work on mine. Your step by step pictures are greatly appreciated! Don't be surprised if you get a PM from me in May when I start wiring again...in case I run into a snag. Great job! Keep the pictures coming!
Scott
Scott
OP
OP
2/7/2016 update
more wiring action, started by prepping the heat sink:
there is an extra set of mouting holes tapped in the sink, guessing someone screwed up when they set the spacing. or perhaps they are extra holes depending on the spacing desired for the ssrs, based on different setups? i'm guessing the latter, there are enough screws to mount seven sets of ssrs. wiring up the first ssr:
like the receptacles, working through the top of the enclosure made things easy:
took me a couple minutes to realize the protective plastic covers on the ssrs pop right off:
second ssr wired up, also added the on/off signal wiring. orange/white for the hlt element, yellow/while for the boil element:
ssrs pushed into place, heat sink attached. while wiring was easier with the heat sink off, i couldn't reach the one mounting screw in the middle of the sink, at the rear of the panel. all other five screws are firmly mounted (each corner plus the middle-front), it isn't going anywhere.
adding the heat paste to the back of the ssrs:
everything wired up. similar to the heat sink, mounting the ssrs to the heat sink before inserting the back panel allows full access to the mounting screws for the ssrs. i lucked out with the position of my components on the top din rail and was able to snake a screwdriver in between everything:
view of the sink on the outside:
and the door re-installed:
wire duct covers removed, installing the wires that run between the door and the main enclosure:
cover closed, sealed up for the day:
i still have about four or five wires to install and then it is ready for some testing. i want to make sure everything works before i start adding wire ties, anchoring stuff down, etc.
more wiring action, started by prepping the heat sink:
there is an extra set of mouting holes tapped in the sink, guessing someone screwed up when they set the spacing. or perhaps they are extra holes depending on the spacing desired for the ssrs, based on different setups? i'm guessing the latter, there are enough screws to mount seven sets of ssrs. wiring up the first ssr:
like the receptacles, working through the top of the enclosure made things easy:
took me a couple minutes to realize the protective plastic covers on the ssrs pop right off:
second ssr wired up, also added the on/off signal wiring. orange/white for the hlt element, yellow/while for the boil element:
ssrs pushed into place, heat sink attached. while wiring was easier with the heat sink off, i couldn't reach the one mounting screw in the middle of the sink, at the rear of the panel. all other five screws are firmly mounted (each corner plus the middle-front), it isn't going anywhere.
adding the heat paste to the back of the ssrs:
everything wired up. similar to the heat sink, mounting the ssrs to the heat sink before inserting the back panel allows full access to the mounting screws for the ssrs. i lucked out with the position of my components on the top din rail and was able to snake a screwdriver in between everything:
view of the sink on the outside:
and the door re-installed:
wire duct covers removed, installing the wires that run between the door and the main enclosure:
cover closed, sealed up for the day:
i still have about four or five wires to install and then it is ready for some testing. i want to make sure everything works before i start adding wire ties, anchoring stuff down, etc.
Good progress! Let's spark up that bad boy soon.
Coming out awesome! Yea can't wait to see you spark her up!
John
John
OP
OP
no worries, their diagrams can be confusing. be sure to check their website, they seem to update their wiring guide fairly often. the online version may be 'cleaned up' compared to whatever printed version you may have. i just looked at their online guide today and it already has corrected many of the small errors in my printed copy (and my printed copy is only a couple months old, as near as i can tell).
OP
OP
2/9/2016 update
a little more wiring. lots of wires getting in the way so i taped some out of the way while working:
wiring up the rtd wires. they came with lugs already crimped on:
all the wiring now complete between the door and enclosure:
and the wire way covers in place. i still have some cable tying and wire bending to do to clean it up:
one item missing from the ebrew wiring kit was a length of white #10, to connect the main power receptacle to the neutral bus. i could have used some leftover black or red #10 but i really wanted it to be white. i searched my scrap wire box to see if i had any #10 romex leftover but no dice. then i remembered i had a lot of extra #10 in my panelboard after i wired up the 30 amp receptacle. so i cut the power and disconnected the neutral from the gfci breaker:
i cut about a six inch piece and re-attched the neutral:
then mounted in the panel:
i still have to run the ground wires from the bus to the door and enclosure but there is still plenty of wire left over:
and cleaning up all the pieces of stripped insulation:
a little more wiring. lots of wires getting in the way so i taped some out of the way while working:
wiring up the rtd wires. they came with lugs already crimped on:
all the wiring now complete between the door and enclosure:
and the wire way covers in place. i still have some cable tying and wire bending to do to clean it up:
one item missing from the ebrew wiring kit was a length of white #10, to connect the main power receptacle to the neutral bus. i could have used some leftover black or red #10 but i really wanted it to be white. i searched my scrap wire box to see if i had any #10 romex leftover but no dice. then i remembered i had a lot of extra #10 in my panelboard after i wired up the 30 amp receptacle. so i cut the power and disconnected the neutral from the gfci breaker:
i cut about a six inch piece and re-attched the neutral:
then mounted in the panel:
i still have to run the ground wires from the bus to the door and enclosure but there is still plenty of wire left over:
and cleaning up all the pieces of stripped insulation:
awarner322
Well-Known Member
Looks awesome
This is impressive on so many fronts.
.
I am glad you are doing this yourself. This is real home brewing. All those people who buy their controllers and stuff already built, and brew in an already built kitchen are just posers and not really home brewing.
.
All fun aside. This is a wonderful thread to follow. That or talking the time to update us.
.
I am glad you are doing this yourself. This is real home brewing. All those people who buy their controllers and stuff already built, and brew in an already built kitchen are just posers and not really home brewing.
.
All fun aside. This is a wonderful thread to follow. That or talking the time to update us.
OP
OP
thanks for the support but i could not disagree with you more about people buying their control panel pre-built or brewing in a kitchen not being 'real' homebrewers. we all have different sets of skills, amounts of free time, etc. how do you know the guy buying an assembled panel didn't weld all his own fittings on his kettle? how do you know the guy/gal brewing with a picobrew isn't a single father/mother with essentially no free time?
for me, i have the skill set to work with wiring and understand control systems. it wasn't worth the extra $550 to get my panel pre-built. but my kettles are a hole other story, i had no intentions of even trying to weld/cut a $300 stainless kettle. does that make me a 'poser'?
I agree with INR. Brewing at home beer makes you a homebrewer. Whether it's a complex rig you built with your own hands or a 1 gallon extract kit on the stove - it's Homebrewing. And it's cool.
OP
OP
2/13/2016 update
today was the day to fire up the control panel and make sure everything worked. first step was getting the main power cord ready. the ebrew supply kit comes with a 6 foot dryer cord and a cordset plug:
taking the plug apart:
ring lugs cut off the dryer cord and stripped for termination in the plug:
be sure to slip the plug cover on before terminating the conductors on the plug body:
conductors terminated in the plug body:
sliding the cover on. the cover/body are keyed so you can't screw it up:
cover installed (sorry about the blurry photo):
attaching the cable clamp:
plug complete and plugged into the panel:
cord installed. it was a bit of a chore to snake the cord up to the receptacle above the hood. i always felt the 6 foot cord would be too short, will likely replace with some so cord. my hood rests tight against the rear wall and now sticks out with the cord. this is just a temporary installation anyway to test the panel:
and the moment of truth:
hooray, no smoke and no tripped breakers! not all news was good though, the panel was not performing as expected. the photo above is actually after some corrections. two issues were the power light would not illuminate and the safe-off circuit was not functioning properly. only took a couple of minutes to solve the issues. one was that i missed a whole wire in the safety circuit! sure enough, it wasn't highlighted in my diagrams. second issue (the light) was because i terminated a wire on the wrong normally closed contact on the e-stop. i moved it to the correct normally closed contact and all was well. got output on the pump receptacles:
everything worked like a charm. i don't have elements yet so i couldn't test the ssr output. also, i need to solder the rtd probes to check that but everything else worked. the lights, the safety circuit, the timer, the alarm, everything. next step was to ground the door and enclosure. first step, scuff up the paint to get a good bond to bare metal:
the ebrew kit didn't come with any nuts for the ground studs (?) and there was no indication of what size to use. i found a thread over at kal's site which indicated 8mm-1.25 nuts worked so i was off to menards. i checked out the 8mm-1.25 but they seemed to big. i grabbed them but also grabbed some 6mm-1.25, just to be safe. in either case, i wouldn't be able to thread a nut on the door stud because the water pump switch was in the way. pulled it off:
test fit the nut on there and teh switch reattached, all was well. the 8mm were too large but the 6mm fit perfectly. i opted for the nylon bushing to keep the connection from getting loose:
the ring tongue lugs that came with the kit didn't work with #10 wire. there were some spade bits that worked though. due to the welding of the stud, a 'gap' was created so i needed to add a spacer to ensure i had a tight connection. i didn't have any washers on hand that would fit so i used the ring tongue lug in its place:
repeat the process for the stud on the door:
with all the wires in place now, time for cable ties and cleaning everything up. first set of ties:
more ties:
ties cut and cable wrap applied:
time to start adding cable anchors:
not really necessary but i put some extra wrap on the cable bunch inside the panel:
anchors for the ssr firing signals. the wires were too long, disconnected to be trimmed later:
more ssr signal wiring:
done and covers installed:
everything closes nice and smooth, no pinching and no pulling. cutoff cable tie pieces, used a bunch:
today was the day to fire up the control panel and make sure everything worked. first step was getting the main power cord ready. the ebrew supply kit comes with a 6 foot dryer cord and a cordset plug:
taking the plug apart:
ring lugs cut off the dryer cord and stripped for termination in the plug:
be sure to slip the plug cover on before terminating the conductors on the plug body:
conductors terminated in the plug body:
sliding the cover on. the cover/body are keyed so you can't screw it up:
cover installed (sorry about the blurry photo):
attaching the cable clamp:
plug complete and plugged into the panel:
cord installed. it was a bit of a chore to snake the cord up to the receptacle above the hood. i always felt the 6 foot cord would be too short, will likely replace with some so cord. my hood rests tight against the rear wall and now sticks out with the cord. this is just a temporary installation anyway to test the panel:
and the moment of truth:
hooray, no smoke and no tripped breakers! not all news was good though, the panel was not performing as expected. the photo above is actually after some corrections. two issues were the power light would not illuminate and the safe-off circuit was not functioning properly. only took a couple of minutes to solve the issues. one was that i missed a whole wire in the safety circuit! sure enough, it wasn't highlighted in my diagrams. second issue (the light) was because i terminated a wire on the wrong normally closed contact on the e-stop. i moved it to the correct normally closed contact and all was well. got output on the pump receptacles:
everything worked like a charm. i don't have elements yet so i couldn't test the ssr output. also, i need to solder the rtd probes to check that but everything else worked. the lights, the safety circuit, the timer, the alarm, everything. next step was to ground the door and enclosure. first step, scuff up the paint to get a good bond to bare metal:
the ebrew kit didn't come with any nuts for the ground studs (?) and there was no indication of what size to use. i found a thread over at kal's site which indicated 8mm-1.25 nuts worked so i was off to menards. i checked out the 8mm-1.25 but they seemed to big. i grabbed them but also grabbed some 6mm-1.25, just to be safe. in either case, i wouldn't be able to thread a nut on the door stud because the water pump switch was in the way. pulled it off:
test fit the nut on there and teh switch reattached, all was well. the 8mm were too large but the 6mm fit perfectly. i opted for the nylon bushing to keep the connection from getting loose:
the ring tongue lugs that came with the kit didn't work with #10 wire. there were some spade bits that worked though. due to the welding of the stud, a 'gap' was created so i needed to add a spacer to ensure i had a tight connection. i didn't have any washers on hand that would fit so i used the ring tongue lug in its place:
repeat the process for the stud on the door:
with all the wires in place now, time for cable ties and cleaning everything up. first set of ties:
more ties:
ties cut and cable wrap applied:
time to start adding cable anchors:
not really necessary but i put some extra wrap on the cable bunch inside the panel:
anchors for the ssr firing signals. the wires were too long, disconnected to be trimmed later:
more ssr signal wiring:
done and covers installed:
everything closes nice and smooth, no pinching and no pulling. cutoff cable tie pieces, used a bunch:
Awesome. Great job on the documentation. Minor FYI: adhesive tie downs are sometimes refrained from use in industrial applications because they do not hold well. Just make sure they don't have a lot of shear stress on them and you will be good.
OP
OP
thanks! and no worries on the anchors, i only ended up using 15 or so. bought a bag of a hundred, would have saved $7 buying the individually. oh well. they are only installed in straight runs, no stress on them. i deal with industrial panels in my line of work, most of them use wireway, hence the use of them on mine. looks much cleaner, faster to install, less anchors, etc. i wish i would have used another strip of wireway along the bottom of my panel for that big wad of wires. still a possibility in the future, no project is ever complete, right?
thanks for the support but i could not disagree with you more about people buying their control panel pre-built or brewing in a kitchen not being 'real' homebrewers. we all have different sets of skills, amounts of free time, etc. how do you know the guy buying an assembled panel didn't weld all his own fittings on his kettle? how do you know the guy/gal brewing with a picobrew isn't a single father/mother with essentially no free time?
for me, i have the skill set to work with wiring and understand control systems. it wasn't worth the extra $550 to get my panel pre-built. but my kettles are a hole other story, i had no intentions of even trying to weld/cut a $300 stainless kettle. does that make me a 'poser'?
Haha I was just kidding and being sarcastic. It refers to those who think that all- in-ones or automatics etc are not real home brewers. It was all in fun. I love what you are able to do. Keep up the postings of the process.
What a great step by step photo guide! Great documentation with the photos. Many will appreciate you taking the time to do this when they make their rigs. Plus it's fun to document your rig as you go. You can look back on it later and see how it came along and remember how excited you were to build it! Your doing an excellent job! I am glad you decided to paint that box!
John
John
OP
OP
2/15/2016 update
today was an observed holiday for my work, a chance to get a little work done: hanging the control panel. i picked up the hardware i needed yesterday so was able to jump at it right away. a 'test fit' of the panel, rigorously supported with a plastic bucket and a leaning piece of wood:
holes drilled for the lag screws that will support the panel. the blue tape marks the stud location:
screws and brackets partially installed:
i wanted some washers on the screw so i couldn't mount the bracket to the panel and simply hang it. from wall-to-enclosure, it goes fender washer, bracket, flat washer, screw head:
starting to hang the panel. a bolt goes through the lower hole in the bracket photo above (nut against the wall). i slipped the panel hole over the bolt and then quickly threw a washer and nut on the bolt, to keep the panel from falling down:
repeat on the other side:
i then tightened the upper bolts and installed the bottom brackets. for these, i slipped the bolt through the panel first and then installed the screws wherever they ended up. note how the brackets are slightly askew, this has to do with the location of the studs that the lag screws are installed in, they were spaced a touch narrower than the openings in the panel:
lag screws partially installed. the brackets have an offset in them which results in the back of the panel about a quarter inch or so off the wall. this is to accommodate the hex bolt which connects the bracket to the panel. good deal for me, note the frp joint piece that runs vertically behind the panel. i would have needed a spacer of some type anyway, the brackets took care of it for me:
the lower bolts were tougher to reach compared to the upper ones. i had to temporarily remove the pump receptacles to get the socket wrench in there. all i had to do was take out the screws for the receptacle bodies, no need to loosen any wires (nut is the one on the right, the one on the left is for attaching the enclosures back panel):
the other side was even tighter. i loosened up the main power inlet but couldn't pull it down very low due to wire wraps. the socket wrench juuust fit:
all mounted up:
today was an observed holiday for my work, a chance to get a little work done: hanging the control panel. i picked up the hardware i needed yesterday so was able to jump at it right away. a 'test fit' of the panel, rigorously supported with a plastic bucket and a leaning piece of wood:
holes drilled for the lag screws that will support the panel. the blue tape marks the stud location:
screws and brackets partially installed:
i wanted some washers on the screw so i couldn't mount the bracket to the panel and simply hang it. from wall-to-enclosure, it goes fender washer, bracket, flat washer, screw head:
starting to hang the panel. a bolt goes through the lower hole in the bracket photo above (nut against the wall). i slipped the panel hole over the bolt and then quickly threw a washer and nut on the bolt, to keep the panel from falling down:
repeat on the other side:
i then tightened the upper bolts and installed the bottom brackets. for these, i slipped the bolt through the panel first and then installed the screws wherever they ended up. note how the brackets are slightly askew, this has to do with the location of the studs that the lag screws are installed in, they were spaced a touch narrower than the openings in the panel:
lag screws partially installed. the brackets have an offset in them which results in the back of the panel about a quarter inch or so off the wall. this is to accommodate the hex bolt which connects the bracket to the panel. good deal for me, note the frp joint piece that runs vertically behind the panel. i would have needed a spacer of some type anyway, the brackets took care of it for me:
the lower bolts were tougher to reach compared to the upper ones. i had to temporarily remove the pump receptacles to get the socket wrench in there. all i had to do was take out the screws for the receptacle bodies, no need to loosen any wires (nut is the one on the right, the one on the left is for attaching the enclosures back panel):
the other side was even tighter. i loosened up the main power inlet but couldn't pull it down very low due to wire wraps. the socket wrench juuust fit:
all mounted up:
Looks sweet!
OP
OP
2/19/2016 update
no construction progress but i got some goodies in the mail, a package from bobby_m at brewhardware.com:
jersy-shipped products wrapped in jersey newspapers:
5500 watt stainless element (i got two of them):
pump boxes and other wrapped goodies:
hot pod heater kit, with tri-clamp connection (two total). the heating element threads into the left side, power cord comes out the right (large cylinder portion unscrews to access the terminations). this is for making the transition between the cable and heating element:
installation instructions for the hot pod:
2" tri-clamp with gasket (two total):
l6-30 plug (two toal) for connecting the heater cords to the brew panel:
chugger pump, well packaged for shipment:
and out of the box. i went with the stainless impeller housing, center inlet:
instructions included:
box included a business card and fridge magnet:
everything laid out:
i'm not ready to hook everything up yet but did a test fit of the elements and hot pods:
no construction progress but i got some goodies in the mail, a package from bobby_m at brewhardware.com:
jersy-shipped products wrapped in jersey newspapers:
5500 watt stainless element (i got two of them):
pump boxes and other wrapped goodies:
hot pod heater kit, with tri-clamp connection (two total). the heating element threads into the left side, power cord comes out the right (large cylinder portion unscrews to access the terminations). this is for making the transition between the cable and heating element:
installation instructions for the hot pod:
2" tri-clamp with gasket (two total):
l6-30 plug (two toal) for connecting the heater cords to the brew panel:
chugger pump, well packaged for shipment:
and out of the box. i went with the stainless impeller housing, center inlet:
instructions included:
box included a business card and fridge magnet:
everything laid out:
i'm not ready to hook everything up yet but did a test fit of the elements and hot pods:
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