Brew Rig Design

[unrealeous]

Looks good malbur - much prettier than mine

 

[cdbrown]

I picked up some threaded rods, nuts and washers last night and will be putting to good use the spare couple of metres of square hollow section I have to make up supports for the HERMS and burner. For the HERMS I plan to weld two pieces to the rear upright in the shape of a V leaving space betwen the steel for the herms element enclosure to sit. For the burner I'll do something similar to unrealous and malbur using the rods to move the support up and down. Hopefully I'll get it cut, cleaned and all installed tonight and pics tomorrow.

 

[cdbrown]

Not really had much progress of late due to cracking the sh1ts at the leaks due to my poor s/s welding skills but have done some things. The threaded rods have been used to good effect and now have an adjustable support for the burner. Supports have been welded to the frame for the pump and HERMS, although after putting the HERMS into place I've decided to add an extension to it to prevent it from toppling over, but not from being removed. Some flat bar from markws has been used to cover the open ends of all the hollow sections. Only a few welds to be ground back, add the new herms support and the frame is ready for painting.

I'll try to get some oversized washers tonight for use with the weldless temp gauges and then make more silicone washers. I grabbed a camping mat from crazy clarks which will be used to insulate the HLT, mash and HERMS. Just waiting on a flexible grinding disc so that I can grind back the fillet welds and reweld where the metals haven't fused.

Still no closer on the control panel side of things.

 

[cdbrown]

For the panel I'm planning on using two 15A leads from the new double GPO that was installed. Each cable will be wired to a DPST switch which energises the panel. I plan on using another DPST powered from one lead to turn the pump on/off. On this same lead will be the HERMS, the other lead for the HLT. The PIDs will turn on when the main power switches are switched on but I don't want them to automatically start trying to power up the elements so could I put a DPDT switch in between the element and the SSR so the position would be PID powers element, no power to element, manual power to element? Does this sound the right way to do it?

 

[cdbrown]

A few pics taken lately showing the burner, HERMS and pump support and a few of the bits with end caps. Last night I finished off the last of the frame welds so it's ready to be cleaned back and painted. Do I need to hit the whole frame with the flap disc or just the areas with surface rust before painting?

With the help of a new flap disc I ground flush all the keg welds and planning on doing leak test and repairs tonight so hopefully that will fix those issues. Picked up some size 10 o-rings from the plumbing section last night which are the exact same size found on the short threaded mashmaster temp gauge. Hopefully the o-rings along with the larger washers will provide a better seal. Jaycar were close (by only 10mins) when I went by last night so the switches will have to wait till tomorrow. Also going to replace the 3.6kw enclosure for something a little larger in order to get a spanner in to tighten the element into the socket.

Need to spend some time getting the HERMS finished off which might require cutting one turn of the inner coil and soldering some elbows on the in and out legs before connecting to the union. Everything needs a good clean out to remove all the grinding dust.

 

[raven19]

Do I need to hit the whole frame with the flap disc or just the areas with surface rust before painting?

For my current frame - I only grinded at weld locations.

I would just hit the areas the need it.

(coming together nicely now!)

 

[cdbrown]

Cheers - there's various bits of surface rust, mainly where I'd ground back for welds and then the leaking kegs have dripped on them. 60grit flap disc will sort that out in no time.

 

[mxd]

u might want to give the whole frame a quick hand sand jst to ensure the paint i'll stick ?

 

[cdbrown]

I've ironed out all noticable leaks so next step is to put 50L into the system and heat it up (taking note how long it takes to get up to temp). I've attached the wiring I've come up with. Note that the power on the elements is actually the other way around. HERMS and pump off one circuit, HLT off the other. I have a double 15A GPO off a 32A circuit so no problems with power supply. If you could take a look and let me know if there's a better way or things I should consider that would be great. All switches are rated 16A DPDT.

Managed to get the HERMS coil nearly sorted although there's a leak in one of the joints. I've not tried to repair a soldered joint before. Is it just as simple as heating it up and applying the solder or should it be heated, taken apart, cleaned and redone?

Cheers
-cdbrown

View attachment Wiring.pdf

 

[Greg Lawrence]

I've ironed out all noticable leaks so next step is to put 50L into the system and heat it up (taking note how long it takes to get up to temp). I've attached the wiring I've come up with. Note that the power on the elements is actually the other way around. HERMS and pump off one circuit, HLT off the other. I have a double 15A GPO off a 32A circuit so no problems with power supply. If you could take a look and let me know if there's a better way or things I should consider that would be great. All switches are rated 16A DPDT.

Managed to get the HERMS coil nearly sorted although there's a leak in one of the joints. I've not tried to repair a soldered joint before. Is it just as simple as heating it up and applying the solder or should it be heated, taken apart, cleaned and redone?

Cheers
-cdbrown

Hi cdbrown

Any reason for switching the neutrals? No real need to in my opinion, just making a bit more work for yourself. Tell me if Im missing something here.
I also think you could get rid of each of the switches directly after each RCD. I assume that the 15A outlets that each circuit is fed from would have isolators, so its a bit of a doubel up. Once again, you may have a reason. These are just my views from looking at the circuits, I dont really have any idea of your operational requirements.

Gregor

 

[cdbrown]

I have read on a few places that isolating the live and neutral just provides that little bit more protection. The reason for the switches after the RCD's is that I don't want to have to run back to the wall with the plugs if I need to quickly switch something off. May have the rig 15m or so away from the wall outlet. A matter of convenience really (and a few more illuminated switches looks good).

Cheers for the response.

 

[browndog]

Hi cdbrown

Any reason for switching the neutrals? No real need to in my opinion, just making a bit more work for yourself. Tell me if Im missing something here.
I also think you could get rid of each of the switches directly after each RCD. I assume that the 15A outlets that each circuit is fed from would have isolators, so its a bit of a doubel up. Once again, you may have a reason. These are just my views from looking at the circuits, I dont really have any idea of your operational requirements.

Gregor

If you are going to use illuminated switches, you need a neutral. The wiring diagram looks good (and a bit familiar) Mr Brown.

cheers

Browndog

 

[cdbrown]

Mr Dog,

It may look familiar but clearly it's more colourful has more switches and shows RCDs. After searching back through your upgrade I found your sketch as I'd forgot all about it since I first asked you for info. It must have imprinted itself as I'm glad I got the wiring right. Been too long since you updated your thread.

Aiming to do the wiring this weekend now that I have a box for it to go into. Will be interesting to see the pid's in action running a water test.

 

[cdbrown]

Some progress over the weekend with pics to follow tomorrow. Wired up the control panel and thankfully it all seems to work. Cutting, stripping, twisting and soldering wires takes a bloody long time. It all fit nicely inside the tool box, just need to drill 2 holes to run the cabling for the temp probes. It's not fixed to the frame so all the cabling can be unplugged and the panel and wires can be packed away neatly. Tonight I hope to finish the enclosure for the HLT element, connect it to the PID and see if my wiring does actually work correctly.

I also attacked a metal shelving unit by cutting some holes in a shelf to mount the mill. Cut a larger hole in another shelf, modified the base of a swing top bin and mounted it to the top of the mill as a hopper. So when I need to mill grain it's a matter of attaching the drill and it's ready to go.

To do -
1. HLT - finish enclosure, test wiring and PID by heating the water, make measuring stick for volumes, insulate if no leaks are evident at temp
2. HERMS - test and repair solder leaks of coil, check for any leaks in pot, test wiring and PID by heating HERMS water, insulate if no leaks are evident
3. Mash - make mash return manifold, insulate
4. Keggle - hook up burner to new MP adjustable reg and hose
5. Frame - clean and paint (although I might brew on it before being painted)

So there's still a bit to do but I'm hopeful to be brewing by the end of this week

 

[raven19]

I would go the sightglass in the HLT personally mate if budget allows. Can alays add this later though.

When testing the PID dont get too worried with the results as long as it levels out, when you do your first grain run, just reset the autotune, and get it to ramp up to say a protein rest temp. Then next step should then result in no overshoot.

Can you please confirm what material and glue you are using for insultation? (Or is it in a previous post I have missed?)

(Sent a PM also on other items).

Photo of the control panel inside and out requested also please! :icon_cheers:

 

[cdbrown]

markws kindly donated a sight glass but I just haven't got around to getting the fight fittings for it. I also need to get another bush fitting for the temp probe, but it will have to wait till later.

Insulation will be clark rubber blue camping mat, secured by tape with the seal at the back of the keg so won't be seen. Not keen on using glue as i'm sure it will need to be replaced at some stage.

Photos will come tonight or tomorrow once I take them off the camera.
edit - here's some from my phone that I took in the early stages of the panel.

 

[cdbrown]

Some pics for those that are playing at home.

Filled the HLT last night, hung the probe into water, hooked up the power cable to the element and flicked the switch and amazingly it worked. However not without a hitch. The HLT PID was returning an error which I'd seen before when the probe is wired up wrong. After lots of checking, turning on the HERMS PID and seeing that it was measuring the temp I swapped out the probes and found the longer probe wasn't working properly. Got the HLT heating underway and managed to go from 16C up to 90ish in 90mins with about 45L odd in the keg which is about what I thought it would. Will wrap it in insulation which will help as I'm sure the 13c ambient temp was trying it's best to remove some of the heat generated.

Now the longer probe which wasn't working - I managed to pull the end cap off to discover two out of the three wires had broken away from the solder. Stripped, cleaned and resoldered Added some heat shrink and put it back together to get a working probe again. Tonight will test the HERMS coil for leaks (although I'm fairly confident there isn't any now), test the HERMS PID and element (and understand how to program the ramp/soak), make up the mash return manifold, wrap some insulation around the kegs and cut the silicone hose to length (I'm thinking I probably don't have enough). Brewing is definitely getting closer.....

 

[MeLoveBeer]

Looking good... love the mill/hopper setup

 

[raven19]

Looking good... love the mill/hopper setup

+1. Doubles as shelving too when not in use I dare say.

Are the green and red switches ebay jobbies or from Jaycar/similar?

I grabbed some red illuminated ones off ebay a while back. Planning on using some of them on my control panel also.

Loving the build thread fella.

 

[mxd]

looking great, not too sure but should you do a bit of earthing in the box (door and container) and then to the frame of the rig ?