Brew Rig Design

[leiothrix]

Looks good. One thing I'd do (err, and I did ) is put a S/S nut/bolt through the box and into the pot at the end away from the element.

It will stop the box from twisting and potentially wrecking the seal. As long as the hole is close in size to the bolt it doesn't need a gasket or anything either.

Rob.

 

[cdbrown]

I've quickly come to realise that silver soldering the sockets to the keg is not a strength of mine. Will give it another crack sometime this week and if it doesn't work I'll have to suck up the pride and take it to someone to weld, maybe a local exhaust place.

Began welding the frame and I'm fairly bad at it, but managing to get some runs. Have to grind out a couple of welds as the cross members weren't square (uneven ground) and the second main beam needs to be redone.

Did a test wire of the PID and calibrated it in boiling and ice water. At first it was coming up with very wierd temps, but soon realised I'd connected the PT100 wrong. Soldered and heatshrunk wires to the male plugs and mounted them to the element enclosures.

 

[cdbrown]

Did some research for an enclosure. After seeing that the PIDs are quite deep and then remembering how huge the heatsinks are for the SSRs I needed a workable depth of at least 150mm. Ensuring there's plenty of space in the cabinet for the bits and bobs plus a few switches and lights on the panel I've come across an enclosure 400x300x200 http://www.brenclosures.com.au/nizs.htm. Still looking around for other options to see if I can get a smaller enclosure with the same depth. Quoted price is $231 if anyone is interested.

 

[raven19]

Local electrical wholesaler had units for similar size for aroud $50 - albeit poly/plastic not metal.

Those do look the beez kneez though.

 

[hockadays]

yeah the ramp soak pid has quite a bit of depth. I looked at these enclosures as well but ended up grapping the biggest I could find from a electrical wholesaler in brisbane for around 60$

 

[Doogiechap]

Did some research for an enclosure. After seeing that the PIDs are quite deep and then remembering how huge the heatsinks are for the SSRs I needed a workable depth of at least 150mm. Ensuring there's plenty of space in the cabinet for the bits and bobs plus a few switches and lights on the panel I've come across an enclosure 400x300x200 http://www.brenclosures.com.au/nizs.htm. Still looking around for other options to see if I can get a smaller enclosure with the same depth. Quoted price is $231 if anyone is interested.

Bloke, Uniquip do knockoffs of Clipsal switchgear and have some small enclosures online but a phonecall might get you in the right direction as well. Their prices on the electrical bits are ridiculously cheap.
Looks like you are enjoying the process
Cheers
Doug

 

[leiothrix]

I used the heatsink from an old socket-A AMD CPU for my SSR. With the fan running on it it doesn't get above ambient temperature. Without the fan it was too hot to touch.

It's nowhere near 150mm deep. Including the fan it would be maybe 70mm deep.

Of course it means that you have to worry about the fan, but it's another option anyway.

Rob.

 

[cdbrown]

Made some progress of the frame during the week, even has the castors on, and hope to have it all welded and cleaned up tonight with just some remedial work (pump, HERMS, burner mounts) to follow. Probably could have had it all done in a day as once you get on a roll the welds get layed fairly easily, but only doing a couple of hours each night has meant it's taken a bit longer. Got a tin of kettle black paint which will get applied once all the bits are done - probably during the day when the weather is warmer.

Also picked up a new HERMS pot and drilled out the holes for that, just need to clean up the holes, install the element/enclosure and hook up the coil to the outside world.

Have been most unsuccessful in silver soldering a socket to the keg so picked up a pack of S/S rods and will weld the fittings instead. Not too many to do which is handy. Once that's done then I can make up the pick up tubes for the keggle and MLT and the pipe for the false bottom.

Have been trying to plan the control panel and have come up with the following-
Power is supplied by two 15A power cords
I'd like to have some sort of light to indicate power to the panel (don't really need a main switch as that's what the double wall socket provides but if it makes it easier then I'd go for that)
One 15A cable is used for the MLT PID, SSR and element, the other for the HERMS PID, SSR and element and also the pump.
For MLT - a switch to energise the PID which is connected to a selector switch - Auto (PID controls SSR and element), HOLD (no power to SSR and element), Manual (power to element)
Same for HERMS
Also need a switch to turn the pump on and off.

Are there switches and selector switches which can handle the 15A (would like them to be illuminated) and if not what do I need to do to?

Cheers
-cdbrown

 

[markws]

nice work - good progress!

 

[raven19]

Are there switches and selector switches which can handle the 15A (would like them to be illuminated) and if not what do I need to do to?

Yeah I am sure they come in amps higher than 10A - Electrical Wholesales, Jaycar or similar, or have a squiz on Evilbay.

Iirc, the IEC connector plugs were actually rated for 15A (the ones I use in my temp controllers) - however the cords are not.

My SSR is rated for 20A so surely there are a plethora of switches and lights that can also handle similar loads.

 

[cdbrown]

The plugs are rated to 16A and I made sure to get the equivalent female plug and cable to suite (there were the 10A ones with the secure connector as well). But this is definitely rated as it has the larger ground plug.

Reason for asking about the switches is that the ones on Jaycar has 6A generally for the illuminated kind. They do have some toggle switches which are rated to 20A.

 

[schooey]

This may be what you are looking for...





These have already been posted in my rig build thread here

I chose to use a contactor to isolate the high load for the 3600W element in my HLT. The contactor is the white gadget circled there mounted on the DIN rail in the second pic. The contactor is switched by the switch that the arrow is pointing to on the panel door. It's the one with HLT under it on the first pic. The yellow light is connected across the circuit of the element to indicate when the element is working.

Contactors are designed to switch high loads regularly, and your hand is nowhere near high load if something goes pear shaped. The smaller switch on the panel door only draws enough load to switch the coil in the contactor, which is bugger all.

 

[cdbrown]

Cheers mate - exactly the info I needed. For my own benefit - top is the RCD with test trip button then - left is SSR for the element, next just some terminal blocks, then the contactor, then a little black thing - is that the SSR for the HERMS element? Below that a stip for earth wires.

I've gone for 20A SSRs for both the 3.6kw HLT element and 2.4kw HERMS element. For me I'd need two contactors (one for each circuit).

Just called a local elect wholesaler for a price on a metal enclosure 400x400x210 = $210 +GST. Might keep looking around.

 

[schooey]

The 'black thing' to the right is a DPDT change over relay. I use one PID and a SSR for the HLT element, and another PID with the changeover relay to control two solenoid valves. The valves control the flow of liquid through the HERMS coil which is in the HLT.

 

[cdbrown]

More progress over the weekend. Frame all welded, castors on and support for the pump in place. Tried my hand at stick welding the s/s fittings and after a number of leak tests got a nice strong and sealed connection. Since the pics were taken I've also got the water filter and pump mounted. Decided to do away with the underletting option of the MLT for the time being so makes the valve arrangment around the pump a lot nicer.

Put the element and coil into the new pot and have done the outlet side connected to a t-piece which will house the pt100 probe. Need to cut some of the inlet part of the coil and get that connected to the barb. All the pick up tubes in the kegs as well as the mash return needs to be made up. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to test the system out with water.

 

[cdbrown]

Little more progress but no pics this time. Water filter is connected up to the HLT (need to get a nut to hold the fitting in place in the HLT wall), element and enclosure installed (just need to wire it up), temp gauge for HLT and mash tun also installed. The copper pick ups and connection between falsey and valve have been made up and installed. Realised last night that I still have to drill, install and weld the fitting for the pt100 on the hlt so that is tomorrow night's job. Getting some flat bar from Mark on Thursday so will make up some end caps and weld.

Struggling to work out how to mount the HERMS and burner. For the HERMS I was thinking of hanging it from the underside of the top frame by some hook arrangement using the handles of the pot so that it's above the pump outlet. I'd like the 3-ring burner to be adjustable in height - any suggestions on how to get this done?

 

[unrealeous]

I'd like the 3-ring burner to be adjustable in height - any suggestions on how to get this done?

I bought some threaded rods from Bunnings - and mounted the burners off these. Here is a really dodgy photo - but you get the idea... may not look pretty, but adjustable they are...

 

[cdbrown]

So threaded rod welded to the top and bottom frames at the front and back. What is supporting the burner between the threaded rod? Is there a clamp or maybe a U-bolt holding it onto the support?

Cheers for the dodgy photo

 

[unrealeous]

So threaded rod welded to the top and bottom frames at the front and back. What is supporting the burner between the threaded rod? Is there a clamp or maybe a U-bolt holding it onto the support?

Cheers for the dodgy photo

Threaded rod is welded top and bottom - and if you use the right sized drill bits for making the holes - they are really solid even before you apply the weld. The support is just a bit spare square bar, and I cut small sections of square bar off and welded these to the ends of the main support bar (you could probably improve on this . By accident rather than design, it sits tight - so I only needed one nut on the bottom to hold it there... I was planning to use a nut at the top and bottom of the support bar to really hold it there.

 

[malbur]

I'd like the 3-ring burner to be adjustable in height - any suggestions on how to get this done?

Hi cdbrown,

Heres a pic of my hight ajustable burner(not a 3 ring) but you should be able to get some ideas.
some SS threaded rod, angle and turned up some handles and drilled & tapped a thread in them.


cheers
malbur