What are you building right now?

[cornhole]

I am changing my brew system to use Arduino. In my all-electric brew system design, the main use of a micro-controller like Arduino is for temperature monitoring, boil control, timer and alarm. Not planning on any sort of automation.

[baltobrewer]

I figured out how to install my old car stereo in the final build, which led to a lot of thought about room for a small subwoofer. Yes, seriously. Right now I think I'm just going to stick with a pair of decent 6x9's which should be more than enough. Depending on how things go, I'm hoping to start on that stand by late summer/fall.

I'm using some scrap wood to modify my current stand, since I don't want to put too much more money into it - although it has a damn good retirement plan as shelving. For my control panel I put in a horizontal 1x4 as a mounting bar for the temp control & used some scrap oak plywood to make the face. Since the stand is pretty beat up (Yeah, I beat the hell out of my wood for the past 4 or 5 years) & the faceplace is semi-decent looking scrap, I took the smallest size Dremel drum sander to the inside giving the holes a more rustic look. It's actually a technique I was thinking about using on the final build, so it was a great excuse to try it out. I need more practice & a plan of attack before starting, but all in all, I like it.

I also took out the HLT burner & built a tabletop for the new electric HLT. Staying with the slightly beat up/rustic look, I hand-planed the top just a touch to even it up & sanded it to 100 grit. I got the faceplate stained to blend in with the rest of the stand & the tabletop is going to get done today. I just need to get the other 4 control switches & a main power switch to finish up the stand for electric - the rest of the parts to convert the HLT should be here by Monday. I'll get some pics uploaded sometime relatively soon.

This sounds quite hipster in a kind of drunk-ass hillbilly way. Post pics my man!

[JakeAndBake]

Just got my tax return and spent $200 on the last bit of kegging equipment I needed. Now I just need to finish my MOAFC box and get the temp control working, and I'll be in business.

Just wanted to share. I've been wanting to keg for so long. I've been so patient. And I'm getting it all at like half the price I would have if I'd just bought it outright. It feels so good to be this close.

I may need a change of pants when all this stuff comes in.

[Bugeater]

Nothing real exciting. Just stuck a water heater element into the side of a sanke keg to use as an electric HLT. Tired of working with the electric bucket heater. The bucket heater limits me to the depth (thus volume) of water I can heat at one time. The keg will let me heat much more at once. Obviously, it will take longer to heat up the bigger volume (same wattage of heaters) but I just have to start it up earlier. For early morning brewing, I will continue using an appliance timer to start it up before I get out of bed.

[Ozwald]

Nothing real exciting. Just stuck a water heater element into the side of a sanke keg to use as an electric HLT. Tired of working with the electric bucket heater. The bucket heater limits me to the depth (thus volume) of water I can heat at one time. The keg will let me heat much more at once. Obviously, it will take longer to heat up the bigger volume (same wattage of heaters) but I just have to start it up earlier. For early morning brewing, I will continue using an appliance timer to start it up before I get out of bed.

I just got my hole drilled on mine the day before yesterday. I ordered the 1" locknut kit from WeldlessFittings.com. Spent 3 hours trying to clean up the horrid, sloppy machining only to find out they messed up the threads so badly it's not salvageable what so ever. They did reply to my email after about a day saying that it must just be a bad batch, refunded the part/shipping & didn't even bother having me ship it back. Hopefully the new one from BargainFittings.com works out a little better. Should be here tomorrow. Hopefully yours went a little smoother.

[JakeAndBake]

Finished knocking up my keggerator/fermenter in SketchUp, figured I'd share what it looks like. Note that this doesn't really show the taps or the gas hardware that will be on the outside (and hopefully somewhat hidden once I figure out how).



Here's the SketchUp file, if you're interested. I went through construction step-by-step to make things easier on myself. I'd really recommend the program for any crazy projects you might be planning to build, it made my life super easy.

The outside and little bumper at the bottom will probably be poplar, stained with some cherry stain. So far, I've got the base of the box built, and I'll probably work on the frame this weekend. Once I get a spare hundred bucks, I'll apply the finishing wood, stain, and insulate. Won't be much longer after that and I'll be installing the electrics to keep the thing cool.

Still trying to figure out the guts of the fermenter, but I'm further than I was. That raspberry pi/prototyping stuff is harder than it looks. But I'm enjoying the learning experience.

[Bugeater]

One thing you need to consider in your design is how your system dissipates heat. Older freezers have an open vent in the back or side to allow fan driven air flow over the compressor coils. Many new ones place the compressor coils in the walls of the freezer making use of the outer metal shell of the freezer to dissipate the heat. If you insulate that outer shell too much you won't get proper cooling and the compressor will have to work harder to cool the contents of the kegerator. In extreme cases this can lead to premature failure of the compressor. Probably won't be as big a problem as a kegerator than as a straight freezer, but your energy costs will be higher.

[JakeAndBake]

Well, I know my freezer has a vent on the side, down on the bottom. Is that a pretty good indicator of where heat is disappated? The box won't envelop the whole freezer, either, just sit on top...but I guess heat rises.