What are you building right now?

[Ozwald]

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.

I built a ventilation system into the base mine sits on. It draws air from the top, down over the sides, into the base itself & out the bottom. Considering I wanted to put it on casters anyways, it cost me about $12 for a couple smallish fans & about $8 worth of parts from Radio Shack. I don't have the sides up yet since I had to shift the brewing fund to getting the stand back working, but you can really feel that air move by the ventilation holes.

[Hardcore]

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ve been building a Military foot locker Jockey box, for nhc, from scratch. What I did to do this is I built two boxes. The inner box I built with 1/8" plywood which I used fiberglass to seal the inner box. Then I built the outer box large enough to allow for an air gap of an inch or two. Then I layed some styrofoam insulation on the bottom of the big box. Then placed the order box on top. Then i used expanding foam for the air gap between the boxes. This is where I made some mistakes:
1. Make sure you have enough expanding foam to fill in the entire air gap
2. Put some wood spacers between the two boxes to maintain the same gap on all sides.
3. Cut some thicker plywood that is taller than the box and the same length then place something to press against the inside of the box to help keep its shape. Also place something on top of the plywood to keep it down.
After that cut off the excess foam and cut some of that 1/8" plywood to cover the gap. Mail one end to the outside box with finishing nails. Then fiberglass from the top piece to the inner box. For a drain I used 1 1/2" pvc. I fiberglassed it to the inner box and used a test plug as the plug. Be very careful to not get fiberglass on the part where the plug is going to touch because it won't seal. I ended up redoing it using some water weld instead of the fiberglass.
I am trying out using Pex instead of stainless steel do to being cheaper we will see how well it chills the beer, I am testing it this weekend. While Pex is cheaper it is also a pain in the but to work with. I had to drill a hole at the bottom of a fermenting bucket I used duct tape to secure it on two sides and coiled the Pex along the inside of the bucket, it's easier with 2 people.

[codewritinfool]

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.

...and the cost savings over propane or natural gas is HUGE.

[Effingbeer]

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.

...and the cost savings over propane or natural gas is HUGE.

If a person took this HLT and didn't cut the top off the keg, they could attach a long copper tube on the top with a tri-clover clamp. Jus sayin

[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.

...and the cost savings over propane or natural gas is HUGE.

I'm loving my electric HLT that I converted a few months ago. With some water brews to test it out, heating up rinse water for cleaning & a few batches, I didn't even notice a change in my electric bill. Pennies. I'll never switch over my boil kettle (for flavor reasons), but having the HLT & MLT running electric is great. And they're inside

[Ozwald]

A kennel. Not exactly brewing equipment, but my assistant brewer is going to love it. 10 by 12 & butted up against the house so he can use a window in the laundry room for an entry. Found a bunch of old fencing rolls in the back yard - not pretty but the price was perfect. Waiting on the 2nd yard of gravel right now, it should be useable by this afternoon. Then I'll add some ramps, platforms & maybe a vertical log to keep him busy.

[patterns]

I am trying out using Pex instead of stainless steel do to being cheaper we will see how well it chills the beer, I am testing it this weekend.

How did the test with PEX go? What length of coil did you use for each?

Pex is a better insulator than copper or stainless so did the beer get cold enough?
I'm thinking that even though it is cheaper you'd need more length (surface area) to get the beer cold enough, so for the same outcome the cost is the same. Plus then with the longer pex lengths you would need to overcome a higher pressure drop through the coil, or use larger tubing, which again drives the cost up.

Thanks for sharing the build. It looks great, and hope it worked out just as well.

[Ozwald]

A hop trellis. I got 2 beams up & a temporary cross beam quick-clamped on them. Unfortunately Big Sky country is just that today. Clear bluebird skies & hot as hell. The freshly transplanted hops weren't going to wait for me to finish & were getting extra, extra crispy. I got 6 mounds & only 3 strings running from 1 post with the bines loosely hanging on the strings. Hopefully I got the water on them soon enough. The other 3 might just have to soak it up laying on the ground until tomorrow morning. They're definitely not happy with me, but clear skies, this heat & this altitude are just not friendly today.