angle iron size for brew stand.

[chapesh]

called the angle iron guy and got a quote for 1'x1'x1/8 angle. the price is much better than i anticipated. however i don't know if this will give me the stability for 10 gal batches. my buddy who has the welder seems to think so. anybody got any comments thnx.

[corkybstewart]

Mine is 1.5". I still look at it when the HLT on top is full, the mash tun has 60 lbs of wet grain and 12 gallons in the kettle and wonder how the hell is it still standing.

[PsychoBrew]

Originally posted by corkybstewart
Mine is 1.5". I still look at it when the HLT on top is full, the mash tun has 60 lbs of wet grain and 12 gallons in the kettle and wonder how the hell is it still standing.

Corky - do you have a pic of your brewing stand that you could post fo us to look at?

[corkybstewart]

I emailed some to Decojuicer a while back so I must somewhere. I haven't had much luck posting pictures here but I'll give it a shot when I get home. My welding buddy based it on a brewing sculpture he saw on morebeer.com.

[Mad Scientist]

Whne you post it, be sure to post some measurements.

[Auslander]

On sizing the angle iron, design is the key. If you have lots of vertical load bearing elements you can run thinner narrower stock. Angle iron twists under load due to its asymmetric cross sectional shape. Go to a hardware store and pick up a wide thin piece of angle or an piece of L flashing. Hold it horizontally close to the middle so that one of the sides of the L is parallel to the ground and see how the ends twist.

If you are planning to have a long skinny horizontal rectangle for a top, you might want to add some stiffeners to keep the middle from “bowing” out. Make up the stiffeners from two pieces of angle tacked together to make a ‘T’ and use them to divide the long skinny rectangle into sections.

Look at square tube. Relatively think walled structural square tubing will carry more compressive load and when used as a horizontal element won’t ‘bow out’ like angle iron does.

Be sure to think over how you are going to finish off the ‘feet’ on the legs. Nothing like having your frame sink into the sod because they were just the cut-off ends of the stock.

[corkybstewart]

I couldn't find any pictures and my camera battery is dead. The "feet" of mine are 45" long pieces of angle iron with the flat side down, obviously, so it gives a firm foundation. At the narrow end it is about 24" and 48" on the wide end. The uprights, about 60" are 1.5" square tubing. The three shelves for the pots are angle iron. It is basically configured like these, with the HLT and boiling kettle on one side and the mash tun on the other.

http://morebeer.com/browse.html?category_id=1141&keyword=&x=1&y=1

[Auslander]

Thanks for the liink Corky!

I've been looking for plans and never noticed them on 'more beer'

[corkybstewart]

You can see them better on the paper catalogue but I think you can get the idea here. The guy who welded mine was a welding genius who looked at the picture for 5 minutes, sketched the foot on the garage floor and had it built and painted the next day. All he wanted as 1 case of stout/month indefinitely. Fortunately for me just a couple of months later he got divorced, thrown in jail and then he left town.

[hooky]

Wow, that was fortunate.

Sorry, just laughing like hell at that for some sick, twisted reason.
:D

[corkybstewart]

I had the same reaction years ago when it happened also. I felt bad for him but....He actually stopped by my office about a month ago, and he's cleaned his act up and quit drinking so I dodged another bullet.

[Carl Spakler]

Originally posted by corkybstewart
I had the same reaction years ago when it happened also. I felt bad for him but....He actually stopped by my office about a month ago, and he's cleaned his act up and quit drinking so I dodged another bullet.

To help your peace of mind, please feel free to send that case of beer to me every month. :p

[Auslander]

Now we know: Corky’s stout causes divorce, criminal behavior and alcoholism.


We all must get the recipe.

[HogieWan]

I can't weld and don't know anyone who can either. I have heard about people building these by drilling holes in the angle iron and bolting the pieces together. I am considering doing this eventually, but wanted to hear some feedback.

[Auslander]

Kill two birds with one stone. Learn to weld and get your rack.

Sign up for an "adult continuing education" class in welding and use this as your project.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Auslander
Kill two birds with one stone. Learn to weld and get your rack.

Sign up for an "adult continuing education" class in welding and use this as your project.

SWMBO won't allow any more hobbies

[hooky]

Drilling holes in that much angle iron will probably be an all encompassing hobby by itself. Do you have a drill press?

[corkybstewart]

My computer tech and his dad are both welders, and they both are learning to homebrew. I think I may hit them up for some training.

[MrNate]

Originally posted by hooky
Drilling holes in that much angle iron will probably be an all encompassing hobby by itself. Do you have a drill press?

No kidding on that. I had plans to do this and gave up after the first hole. Way too much time and effort for me.

[corkybstewart]

Not to mention the cost of all the bits you'll wear out. It'll take a lot of bolts to make the frame rigid enough for the weight of all that wort.

[Mill Rat]

Having lived both without and then with welding capabilities, I can't advocate getting those welding capabilities enough if you intend to do any sort of steel or aluminum construction. Drilling all those dang holes, trying to keep them only large enough to pass the bolts so it doesn't wobble, then trying to get all these tight-tolerance holes precisely placed, it just ain't worth the farting about. Clamp 'em together and even if you just blast away with 6011 farmer rod, it will be far better, stronger and more stable than anything you'd bolt up.

As for strength, the things that will give you strength most quickly for the least amount of additional steel are triangles. Think about it. you can't flex a triangle. rectangles will slop all over the place. That's why gusseted corners do wonders for rigidity strength. When you move from, say 1" to 2" wide angle iron on your horizontals, you're really doubling the depth of the triangles where they meet the verticals.

When you weld up your beer sculpture, pay attention to where the hot gas from the burners will go. If you trap them with your structure, you may get the structure quite hot. This is a burn hazard, especially for those who take RDWAHAHB to heart, plus hot steel is significantly weaker than cold steel.

[Chubber]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I can't weld and don't know anyone who can either. I have heard about people building these by drilling holes in the angle iron and bolting the pieces together. I am considering doing this eventually, but wanted to hear some feedback.

Trust me, for the price the MoreBeer charges for their kits, you could buy a cheap arc welder, a grinder, a sawzall and enough old bed frames to build this. And you would get to keep the tools.

Do you think that a design like this would still be stable with wheels on it? That would be the only thing I could think of that would improve the design.

I still find it amazing that the MoreBeer design doesn't use any diagonals under the pot racks:
http://morebeer.com/product_images/1/5477.jpg
Just 1 foot of 1/2x1/2 would make that 10 times stronger. And you could use it to support the burner, which is supported by the gas tube only right now.

Oh, and asking $50 for the plans seems a little steep. Or is that just me?

[Mad Scientist]

Anyone seen gone_fishing? I think he built one from bed frames, and might have bolted it together....

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Anyone seen gone_fishing? I think he built one from bed frames, and might have bolted it together....

bed frames already have holes . . .


My wife is going to kill me

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by HogieWan


My wife is going to kill me

Hehe....just put the mattress on cinder blocks....she'll never notice

[Otis_The_Drunk]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Hehe....just put the mattress on cinder blocks....she'll never notice

Works for me :D

[Chubber]

Bed on ground just means less distance to fall out when you stagger to bed with the room spinning and can't seem to hold onto the bed tightly enough.

[Mill Rat]

One other option that I forgot about completely in my last reply: channel strut, usually referred to by the trade name of the 800-lb gorilla in the market, Unistrut. These are U-shaped channels with a plethora of various fittings that make for some very rigid connections, even without welding. Just add the usual www and com to that brand name to see what I'm talking about. It'll be more expensive than angle iron, but probably cheaper than buying a welding rig. It will also have the advantage of adjustability as you brewing system grows.

[Chubber]

I just like bed frames because you can't drive through a neighborhood without seeing one sitting on the curb waiting for trash day. It does help to have a drill press if you are going to be drilling many holes though.

My latest "sculpture" idea has been for using an 8 foot folding step ladder. It has a shelf for paint that can hold 3-4 gallons of hot liquor, and you could put boards from the steps across for the mash tun and the boil kettle goes on the ground next to it. And it all folds up when you are done. I am currently piling the HLT on a chair sitting on my table and the mash tun on the table and the boiler on the floor, but the levels still aren't high enough by about 4 inches.

[MrNate]

Wow, that UniStrut system seems like just the ticket. And there's a dealer 3 miles away from me. I might have to give them a call.

Thanks for the great tip!

[HogieWan]

This thread has gotten me thinking about a 3 tier stand and how bad I want one. I am brewing tomorrow and was playing in BeerSmith when I noticed a mention of the Brewtree (http://www.brewtree.com) with a web address and everything. So I checked it out.

The stand is SIMPLE. The kegs appear to be attached to the stand by a couple bolts each!

I started thinking about this and about the fact that I don't want more holes in my keg than necessary. I figured you could have a hook for the bottom of the keg to rest on securely and another smallish hook to grab the top and keep it stable.

How bad of an idea does this sound like?

[hooky]

Doesn't sound bad to me. Why not just a metal strap around the middle of the keg that goes around the center post?

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by hooky
Doesn't sound bad to me. Why not just a metal strap around the middle of the keg that goes around the center post?


I thought of that too, but I'd like to make it easy to break down for storage.

[corkybstewart]

My kegs aren't attached at all. It sure makes it easier to take the kegs off and clean them.

[Chubber]

Originally posted by HogieWan
This thread has gotten me thinking about a 3 tier stand and how bad I want one. I am brewing tomorrow and was playing in BeerSmith when I noticed a mention of the Brewtree (http://www.brewtree.com) with a web address and everything. So I checked it out.

The stand is SIMPLE. The kegs appear to be attached to the stand by a couple bolts each!


Sure is simple. It has given me some good ideas. I don't see how I would even have to cut any holes in my kegs. Just put a wide hook at the top to hold the handle of my converted kegs and a "V" of metal in the middle of each keg to give it something to nestle into and it would be quite stable. Some industrial casters and I could even roll it in and out of the garage. Without being the "compact" version, I wonder what the overall height would be. Would it roll through a garage door?

[hooky]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I thought of that too, but I'd like to make it easy to break down for storage.

If you had a stop on the post, you could lift the strap up and over the top of the keg. The stop would keep the strap from falling further down the post and off of the keg. You'd just have to adjust the strap to get the right amount of slack.

Actually, the right length of dog chain that's bolted or spot welded to the center post would probably work a lot easier.