My Brew Rig build

[Newbrew12]

I know there are about a million of these threads on here but I needed some place to track my build for my sake as well as ask questions if they arise. I was in the process of designing my single tier brew stand and got to talking with a buddy about if he knew anyone that could weld stainless steel. Well, it turns out that he had a bunch of 2" square tubing lying around and as he's a crane operator and there's not much operating to be done up here in South Dakota right now he generously offered to build my stand for me.

After a couple of home brews and a rough sketch up on some graph paper, he took my design and welded it all up. The next week, I had my brew stand! Well... the frame of it anyway. Free of charge, welded and delivered. Any home brewer knows this cannot be passed up so my plans to build this thing have been accelerated as I now have a beautiful frame sitting in my garage just waiting to be tinkered with. The picture isn't great but here's what it looks like:

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The next step is to get it all painted. I will be using the high tempurature black paint from Rustoleum for the top and then a regular flat black for the areas that won't be near the heat.

The current idea is that this will be a direct fire RIMS system as I don't have 220 in my garage and really don't want to have an electrician come out and run it. Anyway... we'll see how this goes. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome!

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Here's a suggestion: don't paint your stand...

Cheers!

 

[Newbrew12]

Why? I prefer the look of it painted over bare metal.

 

[Facebrewing]

That stand looks awesome nice design. What size kettles are you putting on that thing. Day tripper I'm just curious on why not to paint the stand, I only ask because I am about to paint my stand?

 

[MaverickBrew]

I think why he said not to paint is due to the heat of the flames. 99% of the ones that I have seen that are painted are missing the paint around the burners and top rail. I would paint the lower parts and use an anti rust coating for the burner area. Also I recommend that you add heat shields to direct the heat up.


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[Newbrew12]

I'm using 60 quart aluminum. Each square has an ID of 21". The angled pieces measure 16" square. The kettles have a 17" bottom. I built the design with the intention that I will one day go with 1/2 bbl pots and don't want to upgrade the frame.

 

[Newbrew12]

I am going to do heat shields just haven't got them on there yet. This was a kind of spur of the moment build. (Didn't expect someone to say they'd do it for you and deliver just because they're bored). I was going to use the Rustoleum that's rated up to 2000 degrees. I've read on a few posts that people have been successful as long as you follow the curing process correctly.

 

[Cyclman]

Very nice, despite having a million builds posted, I love to seem them all.

 

[day_trippr]

Why? I prefer the look of it painted over bare metal.

Did you not state that the stand was built using stainless steel?

Paint - especially VHT and the like - isn't cheap, requires exotic temperature curing to achieve rated performance (how do you cure a 5' long stand at 600°F anyway?) and by most accounts will still fail and be a maintenance chore forever.

With the gift of foresight, I would have built my (still in progress) next stand using stainless and skipped every aspect of painting completely and never looked back...

Cheers!

 

[Newbrew12]

Did you not state that the stand was built using stainless steel?

Paint - especially VHT and the like - isn't cheap, requires exotic temperature curing to achieve rated performance (how do you cure a 5' long stand at 600°F anyway?) and by most accounts will still fail and be a maintenance chore forever.

With the gift of foresight, I would have built my (still in progress) next stand using stainless and skipped every aspect of painting completely and never looked back...

Cheers!

Ah I see. I think I didn't communicate it very well. I was asking him if he knew anyone that could weld stainless steel and he didn't. He did however have 2" steel tubing lying around (not stainless) and that is what he used. My reasoning for painting it was to hide the spots that were he had to grind down, mis colored areas, etc... I also was hoping the paint would act as a mild rust protector. The curing would be a PITA and more than likely not fully accurate but it's worth the try to me.

The 2000 degree paint is less than $8 a can. Says it covers ten square feet, (I'm not naieve enough to believe that) but I'm sure will get decent amount of the heated areas covered with one can. I figure 3 can's of paint will for sure do for the top areas plus a couple of primer. Probably get it all painted for between $50-$75 at most. Maybe I'm wrong IDK? If it fails, it fails but I'd rather try and see unless I'm missing something.

I agree though, if I was building this and had had to pay for all of the steel I would have gone stainless and taken it to a weld shop and been done. As the metal and labor was free, I decided to be less picky and see how it went. :fro:

 

[day_trippr]

Right then, you're doomed like the rest of us
To be honest it didn't look like stainless but cell phone shots suck at detail.

I'm hoping the stainless steel wind/heat shields on my stand will preserve the VHT on the frame but confidence is not very high...

Cheers!

 

[Newbrew12]

Ya I'll post a better shot tomorrow. Gonna drill and mount the casters so I can stop having to lug this thing around. If only I could get a day over 0 degrees I'd be more motivated to get something done...

 

[Newbrew12]

I want to order the burners today. I'm thinking LP BG-14's for the HLT and the BK. Any other suggestions before I do? Will the BG-14 converted to LP be enough to get a good boil on a 10 gallon batch? Also... Decided to skip the RIMS and go HERMS which should only require two burners the way I'm going to do it. One for HLT and one for BK using two pumps. Let me know what you think on the burners before I pull the trigger.

 

[johnholzer]

The high temp paint works fine, but the top of the stand will get marred over time, simply due to moving the kettles on and off. The paint on the top will cure after a brew session, or just heating some water in a kettle to get the paint up to 600°. It will get that hot, by the way, so tell people to be careful not to touch it while your brewing.

I've had no paint chip off my stand, only wear a bit where the kettles sit. After I cured the top of my frame, I added a few more coats of paint and heated the same way. I even sprayed some on while it was hot. Worked fine for me.

 

[rekoob]

or just make heat shields that will also protect the stand. this is what I did and havne't had any paint even discolor, and the high temp paint on the heat sheilds still hasn't burnt off. I say go ahead and paint it if that's what you want to do.

 

[Stealthcruiser]

Nothing wrong with "patina".............

 

[Newbrew12]

Got the casters put on and the underside sanded, primed, and painted. After this picture was taken I got the rest of it sanded, primed, and painted as well. All except the top where the heat will be.



This weekend I'll paint the top with high temperature paint and will do a "cure" by putting my burner on low and letting it heat up to cure.