Stainless Steel Single Tier Stand Build

[ghart999]

Looking good. Will you be taking the heat shields all the way up to close the gap as suggested above? Also how will you be mounting it and will it be a single circular piece or a series of flat stock welded at angles? Also what will be the depth of the screens?

Also what did you pay per 20' piece for the SS stock? Just curious compared to Denver prices.

Sorry for all the questions but I am basically doing the identical SS stand as you but using the BG-12 6" ring burners and will be doing heat shields from a cutup corney keg which is 8.375" in diameter. I am trying to determine how I will mount them to the underside of the top of the stand. I am actually considering bringing the angle braces further out so the diagonal distance between them is 8" instead of 12.5" like yours and spot welding the heat shields from underneath. But I am wondering if that will look like crap.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Looking good. Will you be taking the heat shields all the way up to close the gap as suggested above? Also how will you be mounting it and will it be a single circular piece or a series of flat stock welded at angles? Also what will be the depth of the screens?

I am planning on using a series of flat stock welded on the angles, and plan to take the shields all the way to the top frame. I am a little concerned about the burners getting enough oxygen being fully enclosed, with nowhere for hot gasses to vent upward. Any advice anyone?

Also what did you pay per 20' piece for the SS stock? Just curious compared to Denver prices.

I paid just over $500 for 60 ft of 11ga 2" stainless tube. I think it was $7.90/ft. I shopped it around a few local places and they had the best price by far.

Sorry for all the questions but I am basically doing the identical SS stand as you but using the BG-12 6" ring burners and will be doing heat shields from a cutup corney keg which is 8.375" in diameter. I am trying to determine how I will mount them to the underside of the top of the stand. I am actually considering bringing the angle braces further out so the diagonal distance between them is 8" instead of 12.5" like yours and spot welding the heat shields from underneath. But I am wondering if that will look like crap.

I think you'd be ok to move the braces either direction. I set mine the way they are because I was originally planning on mounting the burners at an angle, but I condensed the overall size of the stand and they wouldnt fit anymore.

 

[ghart999]

Thanks for the answers. Yeah the 11ga is so much more expensive. I am doing 1.5" 16ga and it's $4.80/foot or under $300 for 60 feet. I just can't afford the better stuff.

 

[Caboose]

Great build! Im starting my own soon and you're design is right on what I want! Hope you post some updates soon!

 

[doctorsbro]

i think you missed your marks a little bit lol just kidding

 

[dmfa200]

i think you missed your marks a little bit lol just kidding

Center drills work great for a pilot. It looks like a short double ended drill bit.

They don't walk like drill bits do.

It pretty much spots a hole exactly where you place the center drill.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

i think you missed your marks a little bit lol just kidding

yeah yeah...like I said...not an experienced metal worker here. This is actually my first metal-working project ever, so I'm learning as I go. Even if I HAD hit all the marks perfectly, the f****** banjo burner mounting holes aren't perfectly square (or even close for that matter), and I still would have ended up having to go back and re-drill like I did.

I finally had time to get my pump mounts, windscreen panels, caster inserts, casters, and bottom shelf measured and ordered last night, and I'll be assembling my propane manifold this evening. Should have some more progress pics up this weekend, and I should be finished with construction (minus polish and the automation) by next weekend barring any un-forseen real-life/job stuff.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

got my propane manifold put together for the most part tonight. I have a bottom shelf for the stand on the way, should be here on Monday. I am planning on mounting the manifold on the underside of the shelf, and drilling holes in the shelf for the vertical posts that the ball valves will attach to, so all you see above the shelf is the valve itself and the flex line to the burner. More photos to follow on Monday after my metal order gets here.

 

[ghart999]

Why not build a gas bar right into the brew stand itself. In other words make a piece of the frame air tight and weld NPT nipples into it. You seem to know what you're doing well enough to pull this off.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

I FINALLY made some progress this weekend!!

At this point, the stand is 90% complete in "manual mode". I got my lower shelf/splash shield mounted, pump mounts cut, drilled and mounted, gas manifold and shutoff valves mounted...

I rigged my pump switch box to the left side of the frame to give me some control until I get the BCS controller...that isn't permanent.

All I have left to do is polish the frame, and mount the burner wind screens (you can see them sitting on the bottom shelf in the photos).

Once that is done, I will begin collecting parts to begin the automation process. Thats going to be a lot of $$, so it may take awhile...but at this point I am ready to rock in full manual mode. I will still be using a cooler mash tun until I have computer control of the burners and pumps (which is why the center burner isnt connected yet), but I thought I would put my shiny new Blichmann mash tun on the stand just for the photos.

 

[BigLuke]

Looks great! This may just inspire me to try my hand at stainless welding. Any progress on the stand? I would love to see how it comes out when polished.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Looks great! This may just inspire me to try my hand at stainless welding. Any progress on the stand? I would love to see how it comes out when polished.

Thank you, the stainless welding was really no more difficult than regular steel. You should give it a try.

As far as progress, once I got the stand functional I started brewing on it every weekend with the intention of polishing it after a few batches were in the fermenters...then summer hit and it's been over 100 in Oklahoma every day since the second week of June. As soon as the heat breaks and my garage is below 105 I am going to get to polishing!!

 

[crazyirishman34]

What size boilermakers are you using?

 

[day_trippr]

What size boilermakers are you using?

They look like twenties...

Cheers!

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

What size boilermakers are you using?

They're 15's. And yes, I brew 10 gallon batches all the time...no boilovers.

I have finally, slowly, made some progress on polishing this beast. Stainless is a MF'er to polish... I''ll try to get some new photos going this weekend once I get everything knocked down to 220 grit. AFter that I'll take it to 400 grit before going to black compound thru the finer compounds. Hopefully it will look cool.

 

[jfrizzell]

Any issues with burner performance with your pots sitting directly on the top frame? Some have mentioned problems / concerns with the pot blocking the path for burner exhaust / airflow. Some have added 1/2" stand-offs to solve this. I'm in the process of designing my system and would prefer not to have to do this so I'm curious how you're finding your system to work.

Thanks!

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Any issues with burner performance with your pots sitting directly on the top frame? Some have mentioned problems / concerns with the pot blocking the path for burner exhaust / airflow. Some have added 1/2" stand-offs to solve this. I'm in the process of designing my system and would prefer not to have to do this so I'm curious how you're finding your system to work.

Thanks!

I havent had any problems with this. Banjo burners are insane, you can only turn them up part of the way before the flame on a 15g kettle is blasting up the sides anyway.....I can run them just as high as I could in the original Bayou Classic cooking stand that one of them came in.

I am planning on adding wind-shields around the burners and I'm wondering if that will restrict them too much...but I guess I'll just have to try it and see.

By the way, for anyone thinking about building a stand like this (or like any of the other cool designs on this site), just do it. It makes your brewday so much easier and your process so much more repeatable. My stand is taken apart in the garage right now while I polish the frame. I thought about brewing this weekend anyway with the old cooler, camp burner, etc......yeah screw that. I'll wait until I have this back together. SO much easier.

 

[2NobleDogs]

by the way, for anyone thinking about building a stand like this (or like any of the other cool designs on this site), just do it. It makes your brewday so much easier and your process so much more repeatable. My stand is taken apart in the garage right now while i polish the frame. I thought about brewing this weekend anyway with the old cooler, camp burner, etc......yeah screw that. I'll wait until i have this back together. So much easier.

+1

 

[cravej]

I have finally, slowly, made some progress on polishing this beast. Stainless is a MF'er to polish... I''ll try to get some new photos going this weekend once I get everything knocked down to 220 grit. AFter that I'll take it to 400 grit before going to black compound thru the finer compounds. Hopefully it will look cool.

Any progess on polishing? Was the 220 grit on a grinder?

 

[Shabazz]

Could you have used smaller ss stock? It looks really beefy. I like your design, but need to be frugal. I will be using three converted sankeys but would like to be able to use the same stand if I decide to increase my boiling volume to 1bbl.

I like the look of square tubes. Don't know much about ss yet...

 

[JonW]

Could you have used smaller ss stock? It looks really beefy. I like your design, but need to be frugal. I will be using three converted sankeys but would like to be able to use the same stand if I decide to increase my boiling volume to 1bbl.

I like the look of square tubes. Don't know much about ss yet...

You're not going to be able to use the same stand for 10 gallon batches and 1 barrel batches. The kettle differences are huge.

You can use smaller tubing, but the 2" tubing gives you a nice footprint for holding the kettles.

 

[joetownhound]

Nice build subscribed

 

[RocketBrewer]

Very Nice, subscribed!

 

[goingmad]

Great build man! It looks professional grade, such a wonderful job welding and grinding you did!

Soon I have to build a similar stand - just two banjo burners - and this thread is going among the bookmarked right now!
Can you please show some images of your pump mounts?

Thanks for sharing.

gm

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Could you have used smaller ss stock? It looks really beefy. I like your design, but need to be frugal. I will be using three converted sankeys but would like to be able to use the same stand if I decide to increase my boiling volume to 1bbl.

I like the look of square tubes. Don't know much about ss yet...

Yeah you could easily used smaller stock and be fine. I'm convinced that I could park my truck on top of my stand and it'd hold no problem...it's way over engineered using the 2" stainless.

Also, I gave up on polishing the stand. I'm brewing on it virtually every weekend and the amount of time, effort, and material it took to get even a small part of the frame polished was crazy. I like it rough looking now though, has character...looks like it gets used a lot, which it does.

 

[strat_thru_marshall]

Great build man! It looks professional grade, such a wonderful job welding and grinding you did!

Soon I have to build a similar stand - just two banjo burners - and this thread is going among the bookmarked right now!
Can you please show some images of your pump mounts?

Thanks for sharing.

gm

Here you go. Is just a square piece of stainless stock with holes drilled to line up with the mounting bracket of the pump, welded on to the bottom of the frame. Pump mounts with regular nut/bolt.

 

[mthompson]

Nice build Strat,

I am getting ready to start a stand and also will use 2" ss since it was free from some salvage stuff at work. I have to cut a lot of welds off and get the pieces broken down first. Your stand is exactly what I was thinking, except a bit taller to fit the kegs inside for storage and no automation except a pump switch (and another thing I have not seen anyone do... Shhhh)

I am wondering if you had dimensions of your stand? Also, will the width of a it fit sanke kegs? The pieces I have may be to short for the length of your stand, but I have enough I could weld ends together. Which wouldn't be all that bad, because my pieces are already angled on the corners.... Just cut out some depth, and add it to the length.... Hmmm... Just need to get it all out and start tinkering!

I was going to have a pro weld it, but now you got me thinking about diy welding. My brother has a good Miller welder and knowledge of cold steel, and my garage has power for one....just a bottle and wire and I'd be off running.

You got any tips for mig'ng ss, beginner to beginner? Still use the 98% argon? How about wire? Would you have done anything different for welding?

Thank you in advance,

MT