Anyone Interested in a Brutus Stand?

[Oskaar]

Why should we give you a reward? Look at Brad, we don't give him anything to be good!

Why can't you just be like Brad and be good for nothing!

[backyard brewer]

Brutus stands for everyone!!!!! Awesome.

Do I get some sort of award or something? I mean, there is precedence for a president to get an award for doing nothing.

We would have needed to have decided to give you the Noble Hop Award in your first 4 weeks of office before you even had a chance to do anything. It's too late now.

[JonW]

Hey guys, I'm looking for some feedback on the stand drawings. Specifically, I'm interested in what you think regarding the widths for the kettles/keggles. I am personally using two keggles and a 20 gal kettle (for the boil). The kettle is 18" wide and the keggles are the standard 15.5-16"" wide. I'm worried that if I go 12" inside width between supports that the kettle will be quite fat and overhang a bit and not optimize the heating area. The other drawing has it at 14" inside. Maybe I should split the difference and have it done at 13" inside? I'm also trying to think down the road that I may drop the keggles and go with all kettles at some point. Thoughts??

[backyard brewer]

Go with the 14" internal bays, especially since you are thinking of upgrading all kettles in the future. Youcan always add blocking to hold the keggles or small pots but you can't make the stand bigger (well, not without a lot of cutting, welding and grinding )

[kevinham]

I'm likely getting my stand made the exact same way, so I am interested in some feedback as well. I will be using 3 keggles.

[backyard brewer]

The original Brutus design is with 12" bays and 16" deep and across bays. That fits a keg really well with lots of stability and support. The newer B3 HD kettles, NB Mega Pots and Brewers Hardware TC Pots are 18" in diameter, so 14" bays with 18" depth works better. If you're using those pots and stick with the 2" between bays you'll need to arrange your pots at an angle so the handles don't hit.

If anyone is interested, I also have 12" diameter X 4" tall stainless burner mount heat shields being made. They're designed to drop into a 12" bay and be riveted, screwed or welded to the stand. They have holes drilled @ 90* to mount a Banjo or Hurricane style burner or it's easy enough to fab a stem mount stirrup for a ring burner. They're $24 each in 18 Gauge 304 stainless. ETA is 9 days ago I haven't been in a hurry since I'm not ready for mine and I had to have 30 of them made.

[lars]

Go with the 14". Mine was welded with the 12" bays, and I wish I had gone wider. The kegs can be supported with additional bracing, but if I ever want to go with new kettles and leave the kegs behind, I'll have to rebuild my stand or have a new one built...

[JonW]

Here's another revision of the 14" cutout version (total stand dimensions 18" x 60").
This has corner gussets with a slot and movable bolt w/ spacer that can be used as an adjustable kettle keeper. I have billet spacers (think of a stack of washers 3/4" high, but all one piece) and the bolts. I'll just need to source the corner gussets. Dan said that Industrial Supply should have them. We might need to machine the slot into it though. We could always just drill a singe hole where needed as well.

[dhempy]

Interesting Jon ... you're really working this. Nice.

One thing, we don't have a mill (but we may have access to one). I'll check with Joe and see what we can do to get mill time.

Dan

[JonW]

Dan - I thought you were out of town this week?

I have a Bridgeport mill. I could do the slots in the corner gussets. I don't know if it's absolutely necessary to do the adjustable keg keepers, but it would be cool. I'm sure just drilling them at a set distance for kegs would be fine also.

[dhempy]

Nah .. just gone for the weekend .. was our anniversary and the wife swept me away.

On my current stand, I have two pieces (for each pot) of stainless angle that are attached to the top of the stand parallel to one another such that it forms a channel for the pot to sit in. It is rock solid. One thing though, once the pots are full of water, grain, wort, they are not going anywhere. So for me, the big thing is keeping the pots in place while I'm rolling the stand around (going over bumps etc). With big enough wheels, that probably isn't an issue either.

The other way to accomplish "slots" is to get two gussets for each corner and weld them in such that they form a slot. The inner most edge of the slot would be open but any pot / keggle would prevent things from sliding out. Just another thought (fewer handoffs etc.!)

Dan

[backyard brewer]

They finally finished my order and I picked up a pallet of heat shield/burner mounts today at lunch. They are 12" OD (+/- about .125) X 4" tall 304 18 gauge stainless. They're are spot welded closed and quite stout. They have holes drilled every 90* to mount to the stand and also to mount a Hurricane or Banjo burner at 3 different heights. You would need about 1/2" of spacer for each mounting bolt for the burner as the across lugs dimension of those is 11". You could also bend a strip to mount a center screw ring-type burner and attach it to the mount holes.



$24 each or $22 each for BrewCommune Club members.

[JonW]

Derrin - can I (and others) make arrangements to pay you for the wheels and have you ship them to Dan?

Dan - can you find out who wants wheels to go with their stands and we can all pay Derrin and he can ship as one package?

If anyone wants the billet kettle keepers for their stand, I can provide them at $10 per set of 12 (plus shipping or maybe I can just get them to Dan and he can deliver with the stands). I would say you should do your own drilling and mounting of them after you take delivery of your stand to make sure you get them exactly where you want them. On my current stand, I have them hold the keggles in place from the inside edge, but for the new Brutus style build, I'll be placing them on the outside of the keggle lip. Attached is a picture of my current stand during construction with the billet keepers on it.

[backyard brewer]

Sure, PM me for PayPal info. Dan if you want to post a cut-off date, I'll mail them up on that date.

[dhempy]

Hello Everyone:

Just wanted to post an update. Joe is still working on the removal of the racks .. there were a couple of days where he couldn't get into the warehouse and a couple of days where he had to finish up a preexisting obligation. He told me last night that he expects to be done by this Saturday (and he asked me to help him haul the material to the fab location). He and I will revisit everyone's dimensions, customizations etc. and we will contact each of you. Eric, you still have time to get us your dimensions ... we can do your stand last.

Since we have the dimensions of the wheels, we don't particularly need them, and you may wish to have them off for painting anyway. But let us know and we can certainly insert them into the legs.


Let me see if I can list everyone (BY their BC ID)

JonW
Oskaar
Kevinham
(Kevinham's co-worker ... don't know the handle)
Floyd
Carbon

OC Eric (gravity stand)

PM me if I have something wrong.
Dan