My Weldless Build Using Strut

[bennettna04]

What kind of burners are you using? I've been considering this for awhile and after seeing yours I am definitely going to try this out.

 

[lschiavo]

Looks great! Strut is awesome stuff. I have built many projects with it including my brewstand. I made a tippy dump mlt with a few strut angles and nuts and bolts. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/sanke-tippy-dump-mlt-309713/

Strut is solid as a rock and easy to modify if you decide to change anything on your stand.

Look at an electrical supply as suggested or a Fastenal if you have one local.

 

[gifty74]

Agreed, the strut is better than I thought for building something like this. Overkill as far as strength goes.

I'm using the 10 tip 6" natural gas wok/jet burners. They are found at several online restaurant supply houses, as well as at Bayou Classic. Hope that helps you out. I had a turkey fryer burner running off a propane bottle and I always felt that did a pretty good job heating up wort/water. These jet burners take it to a whole new level. Big improvement, and time savings actually.

 

[FTG-05]

Hey gifty and lsch, dumb question for the week:

On the open side of the strut, can you slide the strut nuts and bolts up and down the strut? For example, mount a motor to a baseplate, mount the baseplate to the strut using strut nuts and bolts, then move it as needed to tighten a pulley belt.

Thanks!

 

[gifty74]

Hey gifty and lsch, dumb question for the week:

On the open side of the strut, can you slide the strut nuts and bolts up and down the strut? For example, mount a motor to a baseplate, mount the baseplate to the strut using strut nuts and bolts, then move it as needed to tighten a pulley belt.

Thanks!

Yes. That is the beauty of it. The other cool thing is that you don't have to hold the nut either. It is designed so that when you turn to tighten it bites into the side wall of the strut on the inside of the channel. Then you just use your socket wrench to tighten down. Once the nut bites into the strut it is not going anywhere. But yes, they slide in the channel and are fully adjustable into any position

 

[FTG-05]

Thanks!

 

[Old_mil_guy]

Anyone finding stainless unistrut anywhere?

 

[gifty74]

They had it at my local electrical supply store. Just called them and it's $92 for SS and $14 for galvanized. Pretty big diff, but they do have both.

 

[Thomsen1287]

Can you paint high temp paint over the galvanized steel? Or do you have to take the galvanization off first?

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Can you paint high temp paint over the galvanized steel? Or do you have to take the galvanization off first?

Short answer. No.
Long answer. http://diynovice.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/spray-painting-galvanized-metal/

 

[gifty74]

Can you paint high temp paint over the galvanized steel? Or do you have to take the galvanization off first?

Good question. I thought about high temp paint too, but if you use the same or similar burners that I do I'm guessing it won't stand a chance for more than an hour. I've heard a lot of the high temp paint that is in close contact with the flame burns off and gets pretty crappy looking too. I'll try and post a pic in daylight of what the stand looks like where the galvanized coating has cooked off. I'm probably just going to let it as is.

On another note I just uncovered a 6"x6" control box here at work that's free for the taking. It's old, with some big holes in the side, but it's aluminum so I think I will be able to polish it up to look pretty sweet. That'll give me some more room to put an LED indicator to show when the Auber is calling for heat and the flame should be on. The controller has a small light built in, but I want a larger more noticeable one. Hope to get the Honeywell valve and pilot burner hooked up here soon.

 

[lschiavo]

Here's a link to the Uni-Strut catalog: http://www.unistrutohio.com/unistrut-catalog.html

They make a fitting for just about any connection.

Here is a shot of my stand made with galvanized. Not a spot of rust after about 3 years use. I never fired under the stand though and it's all electric now.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

Looks great! Strut is awesome stuff. I have built many projects with it including my brewstand. I made a tippy dump mlt with a few strut angles and nuts and bolts. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/sanke-tippy-dump-mlt-309713/

Strut is solid as a rock and easy to modify if you decide to change anything on your stand.

Look at an electrical supply as suggested or a Fastenal if you have one local.

Have you shopped for it at Fastenal? Their online catalog shows the corner brackets at $25 and change. I may be missing something but it looks like that is for a single one.

 

[lschiavo]

I always get my strut accessories from fastenal. That must be a misprint or some crazy "list" pricing.

 

[jeepinjeepin]

I always get my strut accessories from fastenal. That must be a misprint or some crazy "list" pricing.

Awesome! Thanks. I couldn't believe it, but since I haven't shopped Fastenal or looked at Strut before I didn't know.

 

[lschiavo]

Awesome! Thanks. I couldn't believe it, but since I haven't shopped Fastenal or looked at Strut before I didn't know.

No problem. It's been a while since I stocked up but a standard short corner angle should be around $2 iirc.

 

[kitemanks]

I fire my 20 gallon boil kettle with a slightly larger jet burner. FYI the burner I have has to be 15 inches below the cooking surface for maximum efficiency and correct burn. A good way to tell is there should be no black soot on the kettle after use. 5 inches below your kettles may not be enough.

 

[gifty74]

I fire my 20 gallon boil kettle with a slightly larger jet burner. FYI the burner I have has to be 15 inches below the cooking surface for maximum efficiency and correct burn. A good way to tell is there should be no black soot on the kettle after use. 5 inches below your kettles may not be enough.

Good info! I'll have to play around with the height but 4" seemed about right. Not sure quite how to tell if lower is going to be better.

 

[naiek]

OK, here is mine. Not 100% finished but getting there

 

[LuiInIdaho]

OK, here is mine. Not 100% finished but getting there

That is nice looking. What are your overall dimensions. I have the materials to put this together. Just need some time to do it.
Mark

 

[naiek]

It's 44 x 33-1/4 x 15-1/4 overall. The main beams I cut to 44", 30", and 12" out of 1-5/8" strut

 

[gifty74]

OK, here is mine. Not 100% finished but getting there

Looking sweet. Nice way to get into a sturdy stand without welding!

 

[kitemanks]

I have mine shielded from the wind and I also fire in the garage. The boil kettle bottom should normally be quite aways from the tip of the blue flames this allows all of the little flames to make one huge plume of heat. You want to use this huge plume of heat instead of the small individual ones, or at least that is my understanding. More info here:
http://www.tejassmokers.com/newproducts_page6.htm

 

[kitemanks]

I also guess I need to thank you for the overall thread too. I switched to 10 gallon batches a while ago but still use my old 5 gallon home-made sculpture. I still only use a 10 gallon electrified cooler for my HLT because I'm afraid of any additional weight in my 2 tier system. After seeing this thread I'll finally be able to make something a little stronger. So thanks.

I see alot of these in outside pictures. Has anyone figured out a good way to put some heavy duty wheels on the struts using any of the stand bottoms available??

 

[skunker]

Anyone finding stainless unistrut anywhere?

I posted this in the weldless thread. I have been designing one using strut for a while and found this site which has stainless strut and fittings.
http://www.strutchannelfittings.com/ They also have standard fittings. Their prices on fittings seem decent but they cost of their strut is higher than HD/Lowes.

I have not purchased anything from them so I cannot vouch for the service.

 

[bottlebomber]

This looks like a good solution for a brew stand I've been planning. I will probably go with the zinc, and then have my buddy who owns a powder coating shop powder coat the pieces after I know what I want. That should keep it sealed and eliminate rust issues.

 

[Adacarda]

You can find it at most electrical supply houses. There are several close to me that carry it. It's main use is to support plumbing and conduit running in buildings or warehouses. Its shape makes it very strong. Across a 36" section (the width of my stand) one piece is safety rated at 1,130 lbs. It is heavy duty. Not quite what 2" square welded stainless is like, but well in excess of what is required for a stand holding kegs full of liquid.

Hey I am planning a build and am considering using strut for my stand. I am from Ephrata, PA. Where exactly did you get this stuff? I would like to check it out in person.

 

[gifty74]

Hey I am planning a build and am considering using strut for my stand. I am from Ephrata, PA. Where exactly did you get this stuff? I would like to check it out in person.

I got it at U E Electric down on the north side of Lancaster. It's just south of the Home Depot off Fruitville Pike, on the right. They had great prices on the strut, but I ordered my fittings online as they were way cheaper, and free shipping. My parts list is on the first page. Hope that helps.

 

[shoggoth]

This thread has been very inspiring! I never thought of using unistrut for a stand.

Wheels are available for unistrut - the .pdf linked below describes them as useful for making carts out of unistrut. There also seem to be angle brackets available that might be used to support tiers on a three-tier gravity fed version. Very cool.

http://www.unistrut.us/DB/PDF1/Caster.pdf

 

[shoggoth]

On another note, welding galvanized causes a phenomenon known as metal fume fever. It is a short-term issue that produces flu-like effects. I assume that burning the coating off with a burner might (if you are breathing the fumes) cause a similar effect. Might want to fire the burners for a bit while standing far away.

http://www.aws.org/technical/facts/FACT-25.pdf