[Pawtucket Patriot]

Well, in the title you started out as a "Non-Mechanical Brewer". Guess you decided to take it up a notch. Now you've added electricity, pumps and hoses, not to mention $$$$'s. Should keep you entertained.

True.   

[dcbc]

I was in this same boat.  I have some mechanical abilities, but welding isn't one of them.  When you compare the price of prebuilt stands (shipped) to the price of labor for a professional welder plus materials, you'd be surprised how reasonable the professional welder begins to sound.  Add to that that both of my stands have been ready to go within a week of my dropping off the drawings with the welder. 

Don't get me wrong.  I wish I could weld.  But if that were the case, I'd probably still be welding my stand rather than brewing on it. 

[Pawtucket Patriot]

A little more detail...

I plan on connecting the gas on/off valves to the burners via flexible gas pipe (too hard for me to draw in Sketchup!).

Also, I'll be chilling with a Therminator, not a Shirron chiller.  But since there was already a Shirron component model, I just scaled it to the Therminator dimensions.

[bluesman]

Looks good Matt.  Much like the Brutus 10 design. Do you have a copy of the Brutus plans?

[Pawtucket Patriot]

I don't, Ron. Any chance you know where I could find them?  You built a Brutus, right!

[bluesman]

I don't, Ron. Any chance you know where I could find them?  You built a Brutus, right!

BYO sells the plans. I built one using the original plan with a few modifications. Check it out!

http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?PHPSESSIONID=e568126bf7d40a4898f27573d3d83277&topic=1077.0

You can also go here for more eye candy.

http://www.alenuts.com/brutus_clones/index.htm

[dcbc]

If you already have the kettles, lay it out on the floor and be sure the Brutus plans will work.  Masking tape works great for this.  The overall structure is pretty simple.  Big rectangle that holds 3 vessels.  Set your tallest vessel on a table.  At that height, can you easily look in to it, see it, stir its contents?  If not, go lower.  Consider the height casters will add.

The welder that did my stand didn't want anything to do with ensuring the air tightness of a gas beam like the one used on the Brutus design.  Hence, my iron pipe plumbing. 

If you are going with flexible plumbing, make sure there is a good way to support your burners.  Some people use the black iron pipe to hold the burners up.  My burners actually support my plumbing, although it would be easy enough to secure it to the stand.

[Pawtucket Patriot]

After measuring all my equipment, I made a few slight design modifications.  Also, I found a local welder who is willing to build my design for a reasonable price.  Here are a few of the drawings I am sending to the welder tomorrow.

[bluesman]

Looks real good so far Matt!

[Pawtucket Patriot]

Looks real good so far Matt!

Thanks!  The welder is going to get started on it on Monday.   

[Pawtucket Patriot]

Off to the races!

[dbeechum]

Here's the skeleton for mine in progress.

[Pawtucket Patriot]

Here's the skeleton for mine in progress.

Awesome, Drew. Looks great so far!  It looks like you're going weldless?

[dbeechum]

It looks like you're going weldless?

Yup - all being built with unistrut. For the basic frame and like what you see there is about $250 on the nose from the Despot. Spent an afternoon putting everything together in a test run, now just need to trim a few parts and re-assemble the frame and that's your basic stand. Everything else if just gravy.

[Pawtucket Patriot]

Welding is finished.  The welder did a fantastic job.  I've applied one coat of high heat paint.