Brewstand Ideas

[hennesse]

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Here's an idea for your brewstands - hardwood floor!

I'm a packrat - I save stuff knowing that someday I'll use it. We had hardwood floor installed in our house, and I saved all the extras/scraps - I planned to use them on the top of my garage workbench. I finished off some basement countertops in our old house with red oak, and I had a couple of 1x4x8's left over, and of course, they went in the barn at our new house.

When I started building my brewstand, I knew there would be some changes from Kal's design. My brewery has to live in the garage, where it will share space with my motorcycles. The cycles can roll around the garage, so the brewery will have to also. I bought 4 casters with wheel locks - they are 3" tall, so I subtracted 3" from the height of Kal's legs. (Kal's brewstand legs, not Kal's legs). Voila - mobile brewery.

Since the rolling stand would be more flexible than a stationary one, I doubled up on the 3/8 x 5"bolts. 24 bolts were $21, but a box of 50 was only $29. Actually, I had to trade 16 of them in for 5-1/2 inchers, but altogether, doubling up was only $10 more. I also drilled 1" holes in the 2x6's to countersink the bolt heads. Some surface splitting/chipping did occur, but heck, this isn't a kitchen cabinet. I used a 1" hole saw to cut the outlines, then used a 1" drill bit to finish the holes. Had I practiced on some scrap wood first, all the holes would have come out much better.

You enter Kal's brewery from the side of the brewstand. I made the long 2x6's 3" longer, and the short ones 3" shorter, so the rough ends would be visible from the side, not the front. I also turned the legs 90 degrees.

Once the frame was complete, I decided my brewstand was a more worthy project than my workbench, so the hardwood would go on it. I put a piece of 7/16 OSB on the top of the stand, screwing it down every 8". The OSB has a shiny coated side, and a rough side. For roofing, I think you put the shiny side down to keep out the moisture from the hot attic. For the brewstand, I turned it shiny side up.

I nailed the hardwood "floor" with a finish nailgun and 2" DA nails. By turning the nailgun upside-down, and setting it on maximum depth, I was able to get the nails in exactly the right place and exactly at the right depth. I only had to use a nailset on about 3 or 4 nails. No face nails either! On the bottom shelf, I'll have to face-nail in the corners.

It took a bit of practice nailing some short hardwood scraps to a 2x6 scrap to get the hang of nailing it. I nailed through the tongue. I definitely recommend practicing on scraps first!

To finish the edges, I used the 2 pieces of 1x4x8 red oak which I had saved. I cut them down to 1x2's, rounded the upper edge with a router, drilled and countersunk holes, and screwed them on with 2" deck screws. I should have just enough hardwood to do the bottom shelf the same way, but I'll have to go buy (bummer) some red oak boards to finish the shelf edges.

Looks great, but water getting in the cracks between the boards will eventually cause problems. Modern pre-finished hardwood is not square-cut - it has a little bevel on the edges. Makes it look better on a floor, but for a brew-stand, the bevels will funnel water into the cracks. I'll probably have to replace the top in 5 years - depending on just how sloppy a brewer I am.

I've only done the top, but I couldn't help but show off my shiny new BoilerMakers on the partially-completed stand. Yes I gave up the stupid keggle idea - decided do it right the first time.

Although I was able to "re-purpose" scrap, hardwood floor is really not that expensive when you consider the cost of all the stainless steel goodies. I think it's $3 to $4 a square foot at a home improvement store. Doing both the top and the shelf would require 2 boxes of 20 sq ft, so we're talking like $150 plus the 1x oak boards - maybe $200 total.

Dave

[Greg]

Looks great and I enjoyed the read! As for using OSB, it's fine for a project like this but it's not recommended for roofing or if installing hardwood flooring in a house as the nails/staples have the potential to become loose over time so you've just lost your product warranty as well. It's only used by contractors/home builders because it's a cheaper alternative.

Regarding the top, you have a few choices. Albeit potentially expensive, you could get a sheet of plexiglass to cover the wood. You'd probably need some sort of insulator from the pots as it may melt the surface, I'm not certain. I would say the wood and finish will burn due to exposed heat also. The second and perhaps best option is to apply an epoxy finish, which is what I thought you had originally. It would seal the micro-v grooves and prevent water damage, pretty certain it's heat resistant also.

[crush]

I was planning on insulating the bottom of the kettles using some circular pieces of reflectix. I know R values don't mean an awful lot, and need air space to make sense, but Cork has an R value of 3.1 and reflectix about 6. So hopefully a couple of sheets of reflectix should do the job nicely.

[silverspoons]

I put the kettles right on the wood surface. no cork or anything. My wood surface is pine with two coats of poly. at 212 degrees the boil kettle has little or no effect on the stand... when i get to the home center i might get a piece of cork but i not sure why..

silverspoons