3. Framing
Measure twice many times, cut once
While I had designed the whole thing on Google Sketch-up and taken measurements from there, I ultimately redid every measurement by laying out the components on the floor, on stools or whatever else served. It is worth remembering that your N-tier system is actual a N+1 tier system, in that you will need to get wort from the boil kettle to the bucket, carboy or whatever is being used. I knew I had to get the gravity parts of the system right, since well, gravity doesn't flow up. The best way to do it was to start at the bottom and work up.
For me this meant the bottom of the boil kettle had to be about 20" above the floor minimum, to accommodate my buckets and carboys. I had some non-negotiable height built into the frame: ~5" for the casters and 3.5" for the frame. This meant that the burner would start on a 8.5" platform off the floor. The Camp Cooker Burner I was using for the boil kettle was ~17" high at the cooking platform for a total height of 25.5". Ok no problem there.
The 15 gallon brikman boil kettle was 18.9" high. This meant that the cooler bottom needed to be more than 44.4" off the ground. The coleman xtreme 52 quart cooler is 17.25 inches high for a total rig height of about 62". I am 5' 11" and this put the lip of the cooler when open about mouth height on me. It was workable without a step stool, but a little high for stirring the mash. I looked to see if there was a spot I could get it lower. The burner height was the obvious choice as it had five and a half extra inches to give. The legs were made of 1 inch steel pipe. I used a pipe cutter to cut 3" off the bottom of each of the 4 legs. I then used a 1" paddle drill to recess the legs into the frame about a half an inch. Pulling 3.5" inches from the burner legs put the final height of the cooler at 58.5" which put the lip of the cooler when open closer to shoulder height. 3.5" is not much but it makes it reasonably comfortable for reaching in a stirring the mash. The 1/2" recessed "socket" for the legs also make it very stable on the rig.
People that do this stuff for a living will role their eyes at this as pretty obvious, but propping all the components together at each step and measuring again was critical, as there is enough interaction in each of the parts as to have one change have an implication for a measurement for another.
Reference
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3. Framing
Measure twice many times, cut once
While I had designed the whole thing on Google Sketch-up and taken measurements from there, I ultimately redid every measurement by laying out the components on the floor, on stools or whatever else served. It is worth remembering that your N-tier system is actual a N+1 tier system, in that you will need to get wort from the boil kettle to the bucket, carboy or whatever is being used. I knew I had to get the gravity parts of the system right, since well, gravity doesn't flow up. The best way to do it was to start at the bottom and work up.
For me this meant the bottom of the boil kettle had to be about 20" above the floor minimum, to accommodate my buckets and carboys. I had some non-negotiable height built into the frame: ~5" for the casters and 3.5" for the frame. This meant that the burner would start on a 8.5" platform off the floor. The Camp Cooker Burner I was using for the boil kettle was ~17" high at the cooking platform for a total height of 25.5". Ok no problem there.
The 15 gallon brikman boil kettle was 18.9" high. This meant that the cooler bottom needed to be more than 44.4" off the ground. The coleman xtreme 52 quart cooler is 17.25 inches high for a total rig height of about 62". I am 5' 11" and this put the lip of the cooler when open about mouth height on me. It was workable without a step stool, but a little high for stirring the mash. I looked to see if there was a spot I could get it lower. The burner height was the obvious choice as it had five and a half extra inches to give. The legs were made of 1 inch steel pipe. I used a pipe cutter to cut 3" off the bottom of each of the 4 legs. I then used a 1" paddle drill to recess the legs into the frame about a half an inch. Pulling 3.5" inches from the burner legs put the final height of the cooler at 58.5" which put the lip of the cooler when open closer to shoulder height. 3.5" is not much but it makes it reasonably comfortable for reaching in a stirring the mash. The 1/2" recessed "socket" for the legs also make it very stable on the rig.
People that do this stuff for a living will role their eyes at this as pretty obvious, but propping all the components together at each step and measuring again was critical, as there is enough interaction in each of the parts as to have one change have an implication for a measurement for another.
Reference
Previous | Contents | Next
