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IWH Build
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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 6:35 pm    Post subject: IWH Build Reply with quote


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Well, so far I've completed the stand, which is doubling as my workbench for the rest of the build. I just put my first coat of primer/paint on the controller enclosure. I'm still waiting on a few odds and ends to arrive and then "some assembly required" Smile



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Enclosure body
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Enclosure front
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Future brew stand, current workbench!
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow! You're even building the brew stand I built! Cool!

Kal

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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 9:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your design was simple and well thought out. No need to reinvent the wheel. I modified your design a bit, and adjusted the dimentions to fit my space, but otherwise I followed your plans.
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 10:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks! I always thought it was pretty simple... Works for me!

Kal

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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, it looks good...


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Castermmt




Joined: 03 Jan 2011
Posts: 863
Location: Lowell, In

Drinking: Steelhead Porter, Alt-Toids, Hefty-Weizen, Terry's Kolsch, African Amber, Pumpkin Ale, Double Dog Ale

Working on: Janet's Brown Ale, Terry's Kolsch, Pilsner


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kal wrote:
Wow! You're even building the brew stand I built! Cool!

Kal


Dude, I feel your Brew Stand is what tops off the Electric Brewery. I plan on building the same type but 12' long with a center support and locking wheels, so I can move it around my 900sf attached garage/man cave. Caster Mug
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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 12:13 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A few more for those that are interested...


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silverspoons




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 555
Location: Webster NY


PostLink    Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:38 pm    Post subject: wire your recepticles first Reply with quote

you might want to remove your recepticles from the bottom and wire them with the appropiate lengths of wire then reinstall them.. the less work you can do in the box the better
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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yup, that is the plan. This was just a dry fit to make sure everything fit and there was no interference. I may not have a lot of experience designing these types of controllers, but I've been fixing them for 20 years. As much as can be done out of the enclosure will be.
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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Update: So far I've completed everything but wiring up the controller and modifying the kettles. I'm still working up the courage to drill into them! I'm still waiting on a few misc parts. The double gang boxes for the heating elements (apparently nobody likes to use the ones with 3/4" holes, or everyone does), the plugs for the pumps and the male QDs.

To date, the hardest thing I've had to do was try and put 2 layers of the expandable braid on the RTD wires! I found (after starting over about 4 times) that if you use electrical tape to hold the SS rope and the cut edges of the braid, it makes it much easier. For some reason my blue braid wouldn't go on top of the black, but is seemed to work the other way around. After I got them all together, I did continuity check and all but one of them are G2G. I think the problem might be in the QD plug on the RTD side. I'm really not thrilled about tearing it all apart and starting over, but I've got nothing else to do until the rest of the parts show up, and it gives me an excuse to hold off drilling into those beautiful kettles!
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milldoggy




Joined: 23 Dec 2010
Posts: 569
Location: Pottstown, PA


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 1:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

my braid went on smooth. You have to keep bunched up the edge and then slide your hand down the whole length to push the bunch down. I used scotch tape to hold the lose end together. Solder was a pain for me until I got my clamp.
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 2:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rosenjm wrote:
To date, the hardest thing I've had to do was try and put 2 layers of the expandable braid on the RTD wires! I found (after starting over about 4 times) that if you use electrical tape to hold the SS rope and the cut edges of the braid, it makes it much easier.

Yes, much easier. I added a note about this in the instructions. I've been surprised at the number of people that have had problems doing this as this was about a 2 minute job for me. Maybe it's because I taped up the ends as you said (?).

Quote:
I've got nothing else to do until the rest of the parts show up, and it gives me an excuse to hold off drilling into those beautiful kettles!

I had many sleepless nights about doing that. Even after I had everything planned out and had all the parts I think I needed, I still waited 2 months before punching holes in the kettles! I wanted to be 100% sure that my design would work as I was going into uncharted territory here with my weldless element boxes.

Kal

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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Kal,

Knowing now that your wledless design works, would you still have had sleepless nights? I guess what I'm asking is do you have any last minute advice before i fire up the drill?

Did you drill the pilot holes for the punch on a drill press or with a hand drill? It seem like trying to fit them under the drill press, hold everything in place, aim and not drill too deep might be more that I can handle. How many pilot holes did you drill before moving up to the step bit, or did you start off with it?
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:16 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

rosenjm wrote:
Kal,

Knowing now that your wledless design works, would you still have had sleepless nights? I guess what I'm asking is do you have any last minute advice before i fire up the drill?

No, had someone else shown me pictures of it working and told me 2 years later after 2-3 dozen brews that it still worked perfectly, I would have had less worries.

Quote:
Did you drill the pilot holes for the punch on a drill press or with a hand drill?

Hand drill. No need for pilot holes to be precise. See the main site for pictures of me doing this before installing the elements.

Quote:
How many pilot holes did you drill before moving up to the step bit, or did you start off with it?

I started off with it.

Lots of pictures and hints here: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/heating-elements?page=6

Kal

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We ship worldwide and support our products and customers for life.
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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2011 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Started wiring up the controller today. No surprises yet, but of course, nothing is energized! Trying to go slow and triple check the wiring. Without wire tags, it would be darn near impossible to re-trace the wiring after it is all in there.


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crush




Joined: 28 Dec 2010
Posts: 706
Location: Telemark, Norway


PostLink    Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 1:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
[...] I still waited 2 months before punching holes in the kettles! I wanted to be 100% sure that my design would work as I was going into uncharted territory here with my weldless element boxes.


Kal is the Roald Amundsen of Electric Brewing! Hopefully I won't be Capt. Scott and die following his steps! Smile

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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 4:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

For people that are at all knowledgeable with electrical stuff, I'd recommend testing every part as you get it and firing up the control panel as you add parts. In other words, test it systematicaly. That's what I did. I installed all the components and then tested things as I wired them up one at a time.

Unfortunately I can't write how to do that. That would be a nightmare/nearly impossible.

Kal

_________________
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crush




Joined: 28 Dec 2010
Posts: 706
Location: Telemark, Norway


PostLink    Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kal wrote:
For people that are at all knowledgeable with electrical stuff, I'd recommend testing every part as you get it and firing up the control panel as you add parts. In other words, test it systematicaly. That's what I did. I installed all the components and then tested things as I wired them up one at a time.

Unfortunately I can't write how to do that. That would be a nightmare/nearly impossible.

Kal


I was going to write the same thing. There are a lot of fairly independent circuits, since most of the box is parallel wired, so we can test as we go, but it means not following the instructions strictly as written. Any problems will hopefully show up earlier rather than at the end, giving an idea of which circuit is causing trouble. But I couldn't think of an easy way to explain now to not follow the instructions given to put it together, so I didn't Very Happy

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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2011 8:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well for sure don't fire it up until you have all the ground wires installed, and don't forget to unplug it while you are working in there, the hot terminals of the main power contactor will be hot even when the power switch is off. I have to agree with the above, if you aren't electrician savy, don't make it up. Don't stick your fingers in there while it is plugged in! I've been working on controllers and electrical distribution systems for a long time and I've seen people get seriously injured on systems with less voltage(current) than this controller is using.

Never take resistance on an energized circuit and always check you ground first!
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rosenjm




Joined: 21 Dec 2010
Posts: 249
Location: Ballston Spa, NY


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, the controller is all wired up! Now all I have to do is get the power cord and a 240V receptacle and I'm ready to smoke test it!


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