I made a little progress last night on the brewery but there is some other news to share!
First, progress: I picked up a tubing bender from Harbor Freight and it made quick work of bending the other 90 degree bend in my HERMS coil. I measured everything out and chopped off a few inches of each end of the coil so everything lined up and the coil is now ready to be mounted. I’ve decided to hold off on mounting it till I finish drilling holes in that kettle. It will be way easier to clean out the swarf, cutting oil and nasties without a giant coil mounted in there. I still need to cut a 1.25″ heater element hole, a hole for the temperature probe and a hole for liquid return near the top. It’s getting late tonight so this will probably happen tomorrow.
Next, kits: I ordered and received all the parts to make 10 BrewTroller PID Display kits so tonight Courtney and I made up the kits and printed some nice labels for them. Now they are in a box just ready and waiting for you to buy them!
Finally, parts: I ordered the last of the expensive parts for the brewery. I ordered a bunch of control panel components along with the enclosure that will actually be the control panel. It’s a 14x14x8″ steel, hinged and locking enclosure. I’ll post of a picture of the control panel design soon but basically it holds:
- 1 key operated switch for main power with a large power light.
- 2 3 position selectors along with lights for setting heaters to On/Off/Auto.
- 2 3 position selectors along with lights for setting pumps to On/Off/Auto.
- 3 BrewTroller PID Displays.
- 1 BrewTroller LCD.
- 1 Giant aluminum encoder knob for controlling the BrewTroller.
- 11 (or more) small 3 position toggle switches + LEDs for setting valves to On/Off/Auto and for showing their status.
- 1 large PANIC switch that cuts all power.
Inside the control panel will be the BrewTroller, 16 port relay board, 2 very large contactors for controlling power to the heaters, 2 SSRs for controlling heat, a compact computer power supply for lots of 12v current and lots of other little odds and ends.
Anyway, I also ordered the last of the valves I will need. 10 more of the little bastards. That was expensive but it’s gonna be awesome. Unfortunately I decided at the last minute I needed 11 valves (which I now have coming) but I only planned my control panel for 10 so I need to move a few things around and I will be short one damn LED.
I think that’s it for tonight! Looking forward to the weekend when I hope to make some serious, serious progress. Hopefully by then the rest of my kettles will be here, too!