I've been reading this forum for a while soaking up some knowledge on brewing sculptures. I think i'm heading in the Brutus 10 direction of brewing, and am working through how I want to build my stand. I've seen a lot of warnings about using steel wire brushes on stainless and was wondering if using regular steel in the stand would cause rusting problems on stainless kettles/converted kegs? Any issues or am I paranoid?


Mike

I did the brutus 10 build with mild steel (regular). And to answer your question, since stainless doesnt rust, the rust on the mild steel may get on your SS kettles, but wont make them rust due to their lower iron content and higher carbon content. Just a thought, have you thought about coating your steel to prevent it from rusting? Like engine block paint, powder coating, or any other high temp sealer...

First off I would like to say stainless steel will rust if introduced to mild steel. That is why I seperate, and have two sets of tig equipment for mild steel and stainless steel. Also the reason stainless steel doesnt rust is due to the high chromium and nickel content, as well as the low carbon content. If you that concerned about it then just store your kegs somewhere else than on top of your mild steel sculpture, or just keep them on the sculpture and hit it with a little BKF every once in a while. IMHO I think your being a little paranoid!

Touche! i did mean lower carbon content, but while mulit tasking i blew it. I however, did not know of the Chormium being the main rust preventer. Thanks!

Just store you SS vessels not touching the mild steel when in storage. That is the pathway for rust to migrate.

The limited time they do touch when you brew won't matter if you store them somewhere else when not in use or even put some plastic spacers in between them when you are not brewing.

thanks for the replies.

+1

The susceptibility of different base metals to corrosion while in contact, depends upon the difference between the contact potentials, or the electromotive voltages of the metals involved. The greater the potential difference is, the greater is the tendency for corrosion. The metal with the higher potential forms the anode and is corroded. In other words, the larger the separation distance in the electromotive chart between the two metals in contact, the higher the contact potential and chances for corrosion. On our charts, Stainless is at the end of the Cathodic (-) chart while Steel is at the other end, Anodic (+).

As a general guideline, if the metals are half the length of the chart or more apart, the combination should be avoided. Also, it is not a good idea to combine an anodic metal part with thin
cross section, such as thin wall tubing, with a cathodic or less anodic metal part of a heavy cross section, such as a fitting. With that said, the pot to structure interface, does not have the contact surface area that fittings, tubing, etc. have. Go at it.

Sorry - Long winded - I love fittings..........

Just so I understand correctly, the angle iron steel that I used to construct my brew stand is mild steel, right?