Fabricated Kettle/mash Tun Advice

[husky]

Im looking to have a couple of stainless steel pots made up as I slowly get more and more hooked on brewing. Im using BIAB at the minute but at some stage will progress to a different system. I was going to make a kettle/mashtun using 3mm 316 S/S for the base and either 1.6mm or 2mm 316 S/S for the sides.
Can anyone make comment on this as an idea?
Also Im not sure on the volume. Im thinking around the 70liter mark which should allow a comfortable 40 litre batch down the track. At the minute im happy with 10 litre batches but want to build in some future proofing. Should also note that it wont cost any extra to increase the size however precticality is an issue and it may be used in the kitchen for a while.
Also what provisions should be made while Im at it? valves, holes etc,
Any comments appreciated

 

[praxis178]

Im looking to have a couple of stainless steel pots made up as I slowly get more and more hooked on brewing. Im using BIAB at the minute but at some stage will progress to a different system. I was going to make a kettle/mashtun using 3mm 316 S/S for the base and either 1.6mm or 2mm 316 S/S for the sides.
Can anyone make comment on this as an idea?
Also Im not sure on the volume. Im thinking around the 70liter mark which should allow a comfortable 40 litre batch down the track. At the minute im happy with 10 litre batches but want to build in some future proofing. Should also note that it wont cost any extra to increase the size however precticality is an issue and it may be used in the kitchen for a while.
Also what provisions should be made while Im at it? valves, holes etc,
Any comments appreciated

Unless you work in SS fabrication shop, fabricating a 70L pot is going to work out more expensive than buying a 70L stock-pot and having the fitting welded in place. Just my experience with things so far.

 

[browndog]

Husky that is a very hard question to answer. What you need to do is decide what kind of system you want to build the take a look at as many rigs as you can to get an idea on how other people have reached their goals for their brew rigs. There is a lot to consider, do you want single tier, gravity or pump, gas or electric or gas + electric. You really need to do your homework and decide what you want before anyone can really help you out. As for the materials for the pots though, it sounds good.

cheers

Browndog

 

[husky]

Yes we have S/S fabrication facilities at work
I realise I need to decide on a system first however I was hoping that some fittings etc are common between systems. I was thinking a two tierd system but not decided on gas or electric.
The main benifit of fabricating one is the choice of material size. A 2/3mm pot will also make future drilling and welding easier too I hope.
I have spent the past month or so looking at different rig designs but unfortunatly it seems there are 1001 different ways of doing everything!

 

[kevin_smevin]

Yes we have S/S fabrication facilities at work
I realise I need to decide on a system first however I was hoping that some fittings etc are common between systems. I was thinking a two tierd system but not decided on gas or electric.
The main benifit of fabricating one is the choice of material size. A 2/3mm pot will also make future drilling and welding easier too I hope.
I have spent the past month or so looking at different rig designs but unfortunatly it seems there are 1001 different ways of doing everything!

I'm designing a system at the moment. Mostly my vessels will have 1/2inch BSP sockets welded into the walls. ball valves attached via 1/2inch hex nipple. Most of the stuff you'd use will have 1/2inch BSP thread from what i've been looking at. Most heating elements tend to be 1inch however.

 

[roller997]

Husky,
I suspect that buying a stainless pot that is 70 liters might be cheaper than getting one custom made. At that size you have lots of commercial options, while cutting, rolling, bending and welding the stainless professionally often is close to the price of the pot already before you buy the materials.
I am toying with the idea myself, however I am looking at a pot more than twice that size which is not commercially available at a reasonable price.
The rolls royce of pots is a Blichmann which www.ibrew.com.au have on offer. A better option are the locally sold pots via www.beerbelly.com.au with all the trimmings which end up being cheaper while also having a better quality pot (sandwich base) than the Blichmann pot. A plain pot without trimmings from Beerbelly is about $327 and from www.allquip.com.au it is about $330 inc GST. The sized pot I am after is only available from iBrew and it is $1195 so manufacturing something that size is definately a feasible option since labour wouldn't be proportionally more than for a pot 1/2 that size.

I have been told that a 2400x1200x3mm sheet of 304 is $500. 2mm would be cheaper, however I am assuming it won't be 2/3 of that price. This sized sheet would make 2 * 150 liter pots without lids with height of 599mm and a diameter of 570mm. The work involved would be to plasma cut the sheet & base, to roll the steel and then to weld it all together and polish it all which would take some time. With 70 liters, you could do with a 1800x1200x2mm sheet which would give you one lid as well. I was told that the shaping of a lid is quite cost prohibitive so keeping the lid in place with little placers welded in is about as good as it would get with a custom job.


They do have very cheap units in Richmond but the walls are paper thin and even when using Electric elements, I am not willing to chance it with such a cheap pot and it would be more challenging to get anything welded to such a vessel I suspect.

Keep us up to date on how you go.


Cheers

Roller