My New Biab Rig

[kjparker]

Hi,

Just about finished my BIAB rig. It's taken a few months to buy all the bits and put it together (on a shoestring budget right now), but I'm just about there!

I bought a malley's boler from a fellow forum member, who told me that the unit took quite a while to reach the boil. Being the impatient type I am, I decided to add one of the craftbrewer weldless elements. Given I have three circuits in my shed, this isnt a problem. I guestimate the buiilt in element to be around 1500w, with the 220w element it gives me a good boil, and can bring 27l of cold tap water to the boil in under an hour. Happy with that. Got mum to make me the bag to fit the boiler, I think she made it a tad long though. What do you guys think? Also replaced the tap with a 3/4" ball valve, with brass tap fittings on it for wort transfer. Will be no-chilling at first.

Also just about got my grain mill sorted. Waiting for a few bits to arrive, got an oatley mtor coming across from china, and am in the process of building my mill stand. Hopper is an old coffee can that a I cut the bottom out of from a cafe near my work (the barista is a brewer as well!).

Just need to find a few more hours to spend down the shed on the weekend to be able to finish it!

Still need to cut the hole in the top of the mill stand for the monster mill, fit and wire the motor, fit the floor in the stand to hold the handypail, and fit the door to enclose as much dust as possible!

Very happy with how things are progressing!

 

[kjparker]

Got the door fitted to my mill stand, and the mount made for the hopper to the mill.

Can anyone tell me the length of the shaft of one of the oatley motors? I need to work out the placement of the hole in the top of my mill stand, and want to make sure the shaft on the monster mill is placed the right distance from the edge.

 

[DU99]

The bag's HUGE..that's my next buy is a kettle ..got my grinder today..

 

[kjparker]

The bag's HUGE..that's my next buy is a kettle ..got my grinder today..

yep, mum got carried away with making it. Could have made two bags from the pice of fabric I had! I'm going to get her to cut it down for me, but for now I'll just roll it up

 

[real_beer]

Got the door fitted to my mill stand, and the mount made for the hopper to the mill.

Can anyone tell me the length of the shaft of one of the oatley motors? I need to work out the placement of the hole in the top of my mill stand, and want to make sure the shaft on the monster mill is placed the right distance from the edge.

Clueless I'd advise you to play it safe & wait until the motor arrives so you can align the mill & motor at the same time. It pays to get them set up as straight & true as possible from the start, and having the parts in your hands when you do it is the safest way.

Cheers

 

[kjparker]

Clueless I'd advise you to play it safe & wait until the motor arrives so you can align the mill & motor at the same time. It pays to get them set up as straight & true as possible from the start, and having the parts in your hands when you do it is the safest way.

Cheers

Your probably right, I was just hoping to get my stand finished this weekend! I wanted to give my equipment (and me) it's maiden AG voyage!

 

[QldKev]

Looks great so far. Bet you can't wait to get it happening. A bit of insulation around the pot and your laughing.

I would also wait for the motor before trying to fit it all up, otherwise you will only make it hard for yourself. Have you got the coupler? cause you will need to allow extra gap for it to fit in.


QldKev

 

[kjparker]

Looks great so far. Bet you can't wait to get it happening. A bit of insulation around the pot and your laughing.

I would also wait for the motor before trying to fit it all up, otherwise you will only make it hard for yourself. Have you got the coupler? cause you will need to allow extra gap for it to fit in.


QldKev

Nope, no coupler yet. Was going to get the jaycar one.

On looking at the underside pics of your mill, it looks like you had to embed the motor slightly into the base to get it to lign up. Is that the case?

 

[QldKev]

Nope, no coupler yet. Was going to get the jaycar one.

On looking at the underside pics of your mill, it looks like you had to embed the motor slightly into the base to get it to lign up. Is that the case?

Yep I need to recess it to make it fit. The other choice would be to mount it on the end of the board, but I liked the idea of keeping it completely under the bottom of the mill.

To recess it I did not measure it, I just hit it with the grinder and kept grinding it until it fit. I didn't even have a cut-of disk to suit timber, just used a normal metal cut-of wheel and took it easy. A bit of smoke but it did the job and a lot easier than expected. Also you will notice the recess is a lot wider than needed. Someone didn't check what way the motor turned and I had to remount the mill upside down, hence had to move the motor over. I wasn't sure of the motor would have liked being run in reverse, otherwise I would have just swapped over the wires.


QldKev

 

[kjparker]

Yep I need to recess it to make it fit. The other choice would be to mount it on the end of the board, but I liked the idea of keeping it completely under the bottom of the mill.

To recess it I did not measure it, I just hit it with the grinder and kept grinding it until it fit. I didn't even have a cut-of disk to suit timber, just used a normal metal cut-of wheel and took it easy. A bit of smoke but it did the job and a lot easier than expected. Also you will notice the recess is a lot wider than needed. Someone didn't check what way the motor turned and I had to remount the mill upside down, hence had to move the motor over. I wasn't sure of the motor would have liked being run in reverse, otherwise I would have just swapped over the wires.


QldKev

rightio then. I guess I'll just have to wait! I might make a second base, and just sit it on the bucket in the mean time and mill using a drill

 

[real_beer]

I would also wait for the motor before trying to fit it all up, otherwise you will only make it hard for yourself. Have you got the coupler? cause you will need to allow extra gap for it to fit in.

QldKev

Clueless, are you using a mill with a 3/8" shaft like Kev?
If you've got one with a 12mm or 1/2" shaft the Jaycar coupling is too small. I bought one and had to take it back.
You can buy blanks & drill out your own, or mix & match to couple shafts of different sizes, but they are much bigger than the Jaycar coupling, so get the coupling you need before you do any cutting to your stand.

Cheers

 

[kjparker]

Clueless, are you using a mill with a 3/8" shaft like Kev?
If you've got one with a 12mm or 1/2" shaft the Jaycar coupling is too small. I bought one and had to take it back.
You can buy blanks & drill out your own, or mix & match to couple shafts of different sizes, but they are much bigger than the Jaycar coupling, so get the coupling you need before you do any cutting to your stand.

Cheers

I got the standard sized shaft, with the stainless rollers.

I was going to walk down at lunchtime and get the coupler from Jaycar, I'm ok with drilling out the hole if need be, though I might wait untill the motor is here, just to make sure that the jaycar one will work.

 

[QldKev]

Good point about the coupling. I though there would have been enough meat on them for the 1/2" shaft, but never checked. I know the brand lovejoy (sounds kinky lol) makes ones where you get 2 ends as seperate parts. Then you can get the size to suit the motor, and the 1/2" for the mill that fit to each other perfectly.

Clueless, Don't worry about the install too much. It took me about an hour to mod the output shaft, drill out the coupler, gind the base and mount it all up. It seemed like it was going to be hard until you get there.

edit: If you got the standard size shaft it is 3/8" so heaps of meat on the Jaycar coupler for it. Also the coupler is a fairly soft alloy so it drills out very easily.

QldKev

 

[real_beer]

I got the standard sized shaft, with the stainless rollers.

I was going to walk down at lunchtime and get the coupler from Jaycar, I'm ok with drilling out the hole if need be, though I might wait untill the motor is here, just to make sure that the jaycar one will work.

If you have the new MillMaster MiniMill it has a 1/2" shaft so the Jaycar coupling definitely won't suit.

Cheers

 

[kjparker]

If you have the new MillMaster MiniMill it has a 1/2" shaft so the Jaycar coupling definitely won't suit.

Cheers

It's a monster mill, hopefully it should be fine.

 

[kjparker]

Ok. Baby Steps. Got some camping mat to insulate the kettle with. What do people use to attach it? I was thinking duct tape. Is that likely to hold?

 

[hbnath]

I used bungee cords or those cheap thin ratchet straps. Doesn't have to be too tight. I think the tape might make a bit of a mess :unsure:

 

[QldKev]

I used bungee cords or those cheap thin ratchet straps. Doesn't have to be too tight. I think the tape might make a bit of a mess :unsure:

+1 for the bungee cords / cheap catchet straps. Easy to remove at time of cleaning.

QldKev

 

[kjparker]

+1 for the bungee cords / cheap catchet straps. Easy to remove at time of cleaning.

QldKev

Ended up using an entire roll of duct tape. Worked a treat.

Popped the cherry on my setup today, the recipe I am using calls for a 90 minute boil. At the 60 minute mark my circuit breakers in the shed kept popping!

I only have a 2200w element, a I think 1500w element, both on what i thought were different circuits on the shed, hower they were not!

I just figured out that I have do have two circuits, but for the life of me I have no isea which are the two different circuits. Some serious debugging needs to happen I think!

Other than that I think I added too much water, so my gravity is quite low....

May need to add some dex to bump it up a bit....

 

[kjparker]

Motor just arrived. WOW that was quick!

Will do some measuring tonight if I get a chance!

Hmm, Broke the images in the first post somehow. Is there anyway I can go back and edit it now?