steel for homebrew stand

[tarheels]

I'm going tomorrow to buy steel for my homebrew stand. single tier with extra room for another small pot for my copper tube for my herms. my question is what size steel did you use and how much. I think 1x1 14 gage would be okay. Let me know what you think.

 

[BigKahuna]

I'm going to build my rig mostly out of 1/4 Inch Thin Wall Just to prove a point, but you're on the right track. I think that 1x1 should hold up to even the most poorly designed setups. Properly designed, and it'll hold up cars.

 

[tarheels]

thats what i was thinking but i see all these guys using 2x2 and didn't know if thats what was needed. so now i just need to figure out how much i need.

 

[98EXL]

BK, I dunno about 1/4 inch, but I would say anywhere between 1" and 1/2" would do just fine

 

[seanhagerty]

Bed frames work well too. You can get them a lot cheaper from thrift stores, goodwill, etc...

 

[KiltLifter]

BEWARE BED FRAMES!

I don't know what's in them (besides other peoples cooties) but I destroyed a couple of uni-bits (and a few 1/8 pilot bits) trying to drill some holes in a re-purposed bed frame.

It wasn't an idiot "more pressure is more better" on the drill bits either. Unibits are expensive so I use cutting oil and let the bit do the work.

BTW, if you don't have a unibit, OMG, get one! I love them. Harbourfreight has some that are OK for light duty for pretty cheap. The real deal is better, but it's 3 for $15 at HFT or $30-$40 for 1 brandname.

 

[BigKahuna]

BEWARE BED FRAMES!

You should see what a bed frame will do to the teeth on a band saw. They are the hardest, crappiest things in town to try and cut.

 

[KiltLifter]

I bought this stuff called SuperStrut Super-Strut Electrical & Lighting from Home Depot (and Lowes) (and cheaper than in the link above). It's $12 for a 10 foot 1.5x1.75 piece and $15 for the 1.5x1.5 stuff.

It's c-channel, with the open ends hemmed. if you turn the c's toward each other like this: [ ] then you can slide in a cross piece of the .75" stuff, or a piece of wood. The spring-nuts are handy, but $3.50 for 5 of them.

It's made for hanging electrical above a suspended ceiling, so you find it next to the conduit in the electrical section of Home Depot.

It is nice having all the slots already there. But the price can add up if you try to bolt it all together instead of welding. Mine is a combo of welding and bolts, and therefore very modular.

 

[Reddog68]

I used 1" square tubing on my sculpture and it is WAY strong enough. Keep in mind you will probably want to drill holes to attach misc things, so i would stay away from the bedframe. Go to your local steel supplier and look through the remnant section, you will find everything you need, cheap. Good luck.

 

[tarheels]

just got my steel. $88 for 60 ft. cut up. I might a little more but they will work to start with. I went with 1x1

 

[BigKahuna]

Cool! I expect pictures soon!

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Bed frames are made with high carbon steel, and may be tempered, i.e. heat treated. Think knife blade steel. If you are good with a forge it makes a pretty good corner chisel.

The same thing that happens when you "burn" a blade on a grinder and it turns color and won't hold an edge can be your friend here. If you anneal it, even spot anneal it with a torch before you drill, you should be fine drilling. If you are welding it the tempering and steel type shouldn't really matter

 

[Anthony_Lopez]

+1 on Uni-strut... I use a ton of that stuff at work...

 

[Wables]

If you are buying light weight tube, make sure that you can weld it. I bought 1 1/2" and 1" 14 gauge square tube for mine. My Lincoln 110 would not weld it with flux core. With only 4 settings each for heat and speed, I could not get a good bead to save my life. I ended up borrowing a better Miller MIG welder to make the frame. If I didn't have access to the Miller, I don't know what I would have done. The Miller 175 that I have now would have had no problem.

 

[billtzk]

I used 2x2 by .125 inch thick square tube. It makes a rock-solid stand, but I don't really consider it overkill at all. And it looks nice too.

 

[lapaglia]

Ok for those that want their construction to last till after the next Zombie attack use UniStrut Welcome to Unistrut, The Original Metal Framing . This stuff is an erector set for adults. you can get channel with an without spaced holes. Plates, lock washers and nuts. Its just fun. Its the super version of the Super-strut shown above.

I miss not having that around to build with.

 

[98EXL]

but what if you want to weld?

 

[billtzk]

Welding my stand was definitely a great part of the fun of building it.

 

[tarheels]

i'll be taking the steel to a friend of mine to weld it up for me. he is also welding the kegs. should have pics next week.

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm all about overkill (all my cars have had V8s in them) but I still look at the 2" square stands as gluttenous. They are easily twice the weight that they need to be.

 

[nyer]

Has anyone ever seen a stand thats lightweight and compact. Maybe even with wheels? I want to build a 2 or 3 tier stand nut I don't have alot of extra room to store it. I could put it in my basement when not in use but then it needs to fairly lightweight to carry it outside alone.

 

[Bobby_M]

My favorite outside the box design was the guy that bolted straight sections of unistrut vertically to the kegs at the top and bottom skirt as legs of various lengths. It makes each keg part of the stand and portable. Very cool.

 

[GearBeer]

Hoooray V8s! Especially Big Block V8s :rockin:

I dunno what BK is going to be mounting on his 1/4", but I think it'd be ok for my 36 qt SS pots. I'd worry about my keggles, though.

A couple guys in my homebrew club have light wooden stands with castors on all 4 corners. It's just that the wood and the propane and the fire together in one place kinda bother me.

My brewing coworker used unistrut and it turned out pretty durn resilient.

EDIT: The unistrut bolted to the kegs is a pretty neat idea!

 

[BigKahuna]

Here is a quick sketchup of what I'm thinking. There will be 2 burners, and one propane tank...right under the top burner. I will plumb the gas to both burners with steel pipe, and I may try and figure out how to incorporate that into the frame as well....maybe not.
It may not actually be built until next summer, as I'm directing my funds toward filling 5 more kegs, at least 2 more batches of mead, and 2 more taps on the Keeezer! I'm pretty well thinking it's a solid design, however probably not the final design. I may actually use 1/2" Thin wal Tubing so I have some more room to weld corners and such, but It'll be just as light as the 1/4' that I was planning on. I'm also considering making it modular so sections pin together and come apart for easy transport to brewing demonstrations. Wheels are likely, but not definite. We'll see how this progresses, I'm sure I'll have 100 design changes. I've only been thinking about this for a week. And I'm mostly building it just to see how minimalistic I can be with materials and still have a cool brew station when I'm done. I'll keep you all updated as it progresses!

This (as it stands today) will cost me $41.60

 

[KiltLifter]

The direct unistrut was GilaMinumBeer:

It's a work in progress. Here it is on the first day of the build. The burners mount on clips directly below the kegs. The project is nearly complete and is scheduled to brew on saturday.

 

[korndog]

I'm all about overkill (all my cars have had V8s in them) but I still look at the 2" square stands as gluttenous. They are easily twice the weight that they need to be.

I have a 2X2 stand and would use the same size tube next time. I would definitely use 1/16 wall instead of the 1/8" I used. There are some practical considerations that come into play, but it's mainly a visual preference. Extravagant, but not gluttonous IMO.

 

[WBC]

Strength of a brew sculpture depends on a lot of factors. For those with a 7 gallon system at ground level it would not require much strength. If you add up the weight of vessels and the liquid in them and you happen to be working with 20 gallon vessels it adds up quick. A 20 gallon vessel can weigh 20 LBS by itself plus the liquid at 8.33 lbs per gallon = 20 gallons x 8.333 = 166.66 lbs + 20 = 80.66 X 3 = 499.98 lbs. Also you have to think of side loading and being that most do not put in diagonal bracing, the cross section of the welds is all you have to take that side loading. Now if we go up in the air with this structure for a gravity system the side loading becomes way bigger. You can not just pick 1 size of thinwall tubing and say that fit's all types of construction regardless of design.

What I am trying to say above is that if you built things before then you should have a comfortable feel for what size tubing to use for a given design but for new builders, this type of thing should not be taken lightly because you or someone else can become severely burned if the assembly comes crashing down during it's first use. Be careful.

 

[Anthony_Lopez]

With the price of angle iron rising daily, bed frames are an awesome way to go. I'm in the process of collecting them right now to start our single tier build. I go and buy one march pump, and then find myself trying to justify a single tier build... Why not though, right? It's also an excuse for me to start learning to weld.