Some progress has been made this week on my brew system. I have been doing a lot of extra research much to Emma's annoyance (welding methods and systems, welding gas types, where to get gas, welding wire selection, ways to flare a coupler into the keg, distance of burners from keggles, etc etc etc). It is really fascinating how much information is out there and how complicated you could make it if you wanted! I think the important thing I need to remember is that I am not building a space station so I need to come up with realistic yet robust systems for the brew setup. Saying that however, I have decided to improve on a number of features that other systems have out there and effectively take the best from the rest! But doing it in a reasonably straightforward way!
Anyway the main progress this weekend has been the cutting of all of the framework stainless steel. I hired a big metal saw from "the neighbour" (Naboen.no) which is a really cool rental place which has heaps of cool manly tools! I picked it up on Friday arvo and today got all of the cutting done. It was a very cool tool and managed to slice through the stainless like butter without imparting too much heat into it (which can ruin some of the stainless qualities). One of the improvements over other systems has been to mitre the top corners. This will give me a nice smooth top surface for the kegs to sit on, and it looks cool also. I also cut all of the legs, the support beams, and the second shelf frame work which includes the gas beam. I haven't started to weld it up yet but most of the hard work is done and the metal saw gave some really nice clean cuts as well (which should help a lot with good joint fit up during the welding process). I also cut some scrap sections where I can practice my welding on before hitting the frame itself.
One other improvement over some systems will be the ability to change my burner height. From what I have been reading there are many different opinions regarding how far away the burner tips should be away from the bottom of the kegs. So I have included a shelf system for the burners which will allow them to be adjusted reasonably easily (I.e. no welding required to change height).
The other good stuff that arrived this week was the two Honeywell pilot lights (I only need these on the automated burners under the HLT and MLT (the boil kettle is best to be manually controlled to maintain a rolling boil). I will install these into the adjustable shelf for the burners when I get the burners. I also received my neat little temperature controller (STC 1000). This allows me to set the target temperature of the HLT or MLT and then the STC 1000 sensor will measure the actual temp and if this is lower than target it will then open the solenoid valve to the burner and presto - the heat will go up.
The hired metal saw from Naboen
Some of the legs and horizontal supports
How the top of the brew system will look with the nice mitred corners
The front section and how it roughly goes together (if you have a good 3D imagination)
Some rough preliminary thoughts on how to mount the control panel
Will need some plate I can attach the electrical enclosure onto (food for thought)
These will form the basis for the adjustable height burners
Quick 3D autocad sketchup for confirming all the lengths for the cuts today
The pilot burners
The fancy digital temperature controller and sensor (I need 2 of these to control both HLT and MLT temps)
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