My Hops Spider

[Brewn4life]

Made from 6061-T6, I put a groove about .06" deep for the clamp, it's about 4.8"-4.9" dia. OD and about an 1" short of that on the ID. I figured it would be easier to make the legs a slip fit instead of threading for simplicity. Not to shabby for proto type, but ill make a couple changes next time. I still might anodize it and engrave our brew name and logo.

 

[Rivenin]

make me one! lol

 

[Brewn4life]

Thanks,
I definitely did this the hard way, but its going to work great. Im not sure if were going to brew this weekend but next time we brew Ill take a pic. of it in action. A couple questions though. If the nylon paint bag is touching the bottom of the kettle when boiling would it burn or melt and does any one pour there wort in to the kettle through the hops bag to catch some of the grain and stuff that comes out of the mash ton?

 

[Brewn4life]

Ok just thought I would post finished project for now

 

[day_trippr]

Thanks,
I definitely did this the hard way, but its going to work great. Im not sure if were going to brew this weekend but next time we brew Ill take a pic. of it in action. A couple questions though. If the nylon paint bag is touching the bottom of the kettle when boiling would it burn or melt and does any one pour there wort in to the kettle through the hops bag to catch some of the grain and stuff that comes out of the mash ton?

I suppose it's possible, but once you have a boil going there's so much bubbling "up lift" that I'd think that possibility is remote. I typically use pellets in free swimming nylon bags and it's pretty rare that they aren't bobbing near the surface, and I've never had a bag show any signs of heat damage.

As for the other question, many folks with recirculating pumps will stick the return in their spiders to help catch random floaties so they don't later plug up their chillers...

Cheers!

 

[lincoln]

you sir, look to be in desperate need of an indexer. other that that looks great.

 

[Bornmean]

I don't know Lincoln, maybe the brewing4life is an engineer of some sort and picked those angles for a purpose.... And I mean with the amount of kids toys in the background shot... he's lucky enough to have some time to actually brew let alone come up with time to make a hops spider on his own. I've got 2 young'ns myself and brewing has taken a backseat to them and to my creative ways. :-(

It does look to be working, nice job on the machining too and it started an idea in my head about how to use a couple of those nylon bags I have access to at work to make beer with.

 

[lincoln]

maybe the brewing4life is an engineer ....

then he should be commended for not wrapping himself up in the spindle

thees are all faint criticisms, between brewn4life and the other guy that was on here has inspired me to build one this weekend.

and what? you mean to tell me you don't ride to the beer fridge on a pink scooter?


link

 

[Brewn4life]

LOL, actually I'm a machinist. Had I had an indexer that would've accommodated I would've used it. I suppose I could've built a jig to hold the spider but I didn't feel like going through all of that. The turning of it turned out so so. My CNC could not accommodate the diam. so I had to use the old manual and it has seen better days. My sciatica is more of a culprit than any thing though. My patience runs thin so it was just get it done and build a nicer one another day. Actually I was going to thread the 5/16-14 wholes and then I thought f..it slip fit will work...oh I need to sit damn damn damn.. LOL I don't consider my self an engineer but I like to design and build things. Yes I do have a little girl going on 3 and she is right there with me when I brew/distill. My wort chiller is next.

 

[Huaco]

I just assumed the one arm was skewed to accommodate stirring. It does give a much larger area to stir to keep boil-overs at bay...

 

[paparker21]

I just assumed the one arm was skewed to accommodate stirring. It does give a much larger area to stir to keep boil-overs at bay...

You know, i've sort of always wondered why no one makes their hop spider with the intent of it sitting off to one side... i mean, your hop bag is still going to free float and move around plenty- why not set the coupling to one side so you've got lots of working room?

 

[Brewn4life]

Excellent yah that was my intent....stirring yah!! I think anodize with our logo engraved will be nice aesthetically. But i mostly wanted it to have a large opening to put hops in 4.5" should be big enough.