Well, with a 540 pto, you could get by with a 2.5 or 3 to 1 reduction. Probably with plenty of power to spare to run a conveyor straight from the mill to the mash tun…
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- Thread starter DanC
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Time for some youtube derails?I thought flames did that?
Waitaminnute.....flames and grain dust.....may be a bad idea...
That first video could be ANY town in South Australia. I don't remember going through one with a population greater than about 200 that didn't have a grain silo in it, and usually squarely in the middle of town.
I've worked in heavy industry for years, and one little static spark can ignite things that are otherwise non-combustible when they're present in large quantities as dust. It's basically igniting the air between the particles, which obviously expands VERY quickly. I've seen it with my own eyes in the finishing area of a paper mill where a mix of perfume and paper dust ignited. Lotta folks got hurt pretty bad in that one.
Obviously, I was being a little facetious about running a mill with the tractor. But I do like Tim's rig. That's sharper than a $2 tack.
60 is a little on the high side and will wipe out o-rings in newer blend valve style faucets. Will typically make toilet fill valves a little loud too. Probably not as bad if your house is newer and includes a pressurized accumulator tank. They'll smooth out some of the shocks of flow changes. Normally, they're installed on the hot side of the water heater. My house is old enough it doesn't have an accumulator, but adding one is becoming an attractive project. I've replaces a lot of sink fixtured and toilet flush valves since I've lived here. I'm also thinking my original regulator may be wonky too. Can't imagine the lime buildup in that.
I tied the line for the shed into the main water line coming from the meter because I didn't figure I'd ever be using the water for anything but washing the tractor and lawn equipment and watering the grass. But, I was smart enough to TEE the line above the spigot I put on the front of the shed so I could tie in some low-pressure stuff with a regulator AND put two shut-off valves on it for winter isolation and maintenance. One where it ties into the main out in the yard, and another inside the shed. That let me pressure test at 300PSI before I bothered putting water in it. I did plumbing and electrical on swimming pool construction to get through college, so have a pretty good idea what to expect despite all the ratings and claims. Most of that was pretty low pressure but high flow, so it could take a lot of hammering if it wasn't properly braced and plumbed.
Ben, as for trimming flow, yep, a ball valve will do it, but it really won't do anything about static pressure, which is what explodes hoses and wrecks valves. A gate valve or globe valve is actually better for regulating flow, but neither will they regulate static pressure. I've just gotta put a regulator out here. I planned for it, just haven't done it yet because I built the shed before I started brewing, and only recently started brewing out here, so there's been no real need for it until now.
House from the '70s, put in an accumulator meself. Easy to do as long as you know some basic plumbing. Our mix of old and new fixtures does fine at 60.
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Most memorable lesson from high school chemistry class was when the teacher squirted powered seaweed over a bunson burner. Huge flame! Impressed all of us kids. He explained the reason it ignited was all the surface area the dust particles exposed to the flame. So the small amount of heat from the bunson burner was enough to ignite enough dust particles to start a chain reaction. Of course I had to try this in the basement at home....proving teenagers (at least some) are stupid!
Not stupid, but inexperienced.....proving teenagers (at least some) are stupid!
I assume that once you'd had that experience once, you didn't do it too often again.
Our goal, as adults, is to prevent the teenagers from killing themselves (and others) while gaining experience.
Yeah, my house too, 1975. I think the water hardness here kills neoprene seals. I have to change out flush valves on the toilets every couple years, and shower blend valve rebuild every 5 or so. Last time I did the shower valve I used some stuff from my swimming pool days, called Aqualube. So far so good. I’m thinking I need a new regulator in the house, probably because of the lime too. The kitchen sink valve is at the end of both hot and cold lines, and hammers a bit. More like it’s getting air in the line, but that doesn’t make sense for a pressure line. I’ll do an accumulator at the same time I replace the regulator. My plumbing skills are a little better than average.
An unrewarding task, albeit sometimes entertaining. Sometimes I just have to shake my head and walk away. Darwin’s Theory of Selectivity usually kicks in when kids won’t listen, and I don’t want to get caught in the aftermath if someone needs rescuing.
I put up an electric fence to control our lab mix dog when my son was about 8 years old. Warned him many times about. One day I see him step over the wire and look back at it. He had on gloves because it was cold. He reached down and brushed the wire with the back of gloved hand, nothing. He then shucks the glove and reached to grab the wire. I laughed till I cried, but the funny part was when I asked if he’d do it again so I could watch. “You’re right it hurts, and NO, I will NOT touch it again.” Sometimes ya just gotta step back and let em learn.
we taught our kids the meaning of the word "hot" at a young age by placing a lit candle on the table telling them not to touch it because it was hot. You know the result.
And you NEVER giggled when they did it anyway, of course.
Some of the things they TRY to get away with is what gives fathers that look. You know, the one where you are wondering why they did what they did? Or better yet, how they survived it? Doesn't matter how many important lessons you teach and they actually learn, they're STILL gonna do something really stupid leaving you wondering why they didn't listen when you warned them. One would think that the logic of "Grampa was right when he warned me every time before, so I better not do that" would eventually soak in. It does not. EVER.Back on topic, though, good day with new gear. Got the sparging ring bent and drilled, now just gotta figure out some brackets and a little plumbing to connect it to the pump. I can see a new weldless bung for a large aluminum pot I have for heating sparge water and marking some graduations in it so I can tell how much I've pumped. Gonna need a false bottom in the kettle to prevent cookin my new bags, too.
I may be brewing a stout next weekend with a little more efficiency and better aeration before pitch. Let's see what that does.
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My CO2 recovery system 2.0. Just a 2 gallon ziplock bag with a barbed shank and a clamp on one end and a 1/4 inch (6 mm) brass tube into the stopper on the fermenter end. So far so good. Only issue was stabilizing the stopper in the fermenter lid. The vinyl hose would lay over and pop out the stopper. Luckily I'm never without the handiman's secret weapon! I put a 7 g washer on top of the airlock to encourage, but not force, the CO2 into the bag.
I'm still trying to figure out that air-lock. Don't think I've seen one like that, but perhaps it's camera angle. Is that a 3 piece with a floating bell? And, is that your thermowell for your temperature control sensor also going through the stopper?
Bloody genius!
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It's a 30L Speidel. Very well made. It's distinctive feature is the oversize 2 piece airlock. I think the reason for it's size is to reduce the risk of overflowing the airlock.
Your are correct, that is a 2 hole bung with one hole used for a thermowell. I run two Inkbird controllers. Actually only one is a controller, the other (in the thermowell) just monitors center of fermenter temperature. The other controller monitors and controls ambient temperature in the chest freezer. I tried controlling temp using only the thermowell but, the lag time led to large temperature swings and even a frozen carboy when I lagered once.
This is good to know. I've done my first two batches with temperature control monitoring the batch temp, but the thermowell is only about 3" long and comes in from the side, meaning, I'm monitoring temp close to the outer 'layer' of the batch around the fermenter walls. If everything works like I think it does, there's pretty significant activity that will homogenize the temperature in the batch, though. If not, well, darn it. Pretty easy to hang the probe in the air chamber, though, in fact, less trouble than to put it in the thermowell. Gonna do a little work on the forced air heater I built so I can use it in the freezer to help shorten up some of the overshoots on air temperature and batch temperature. I only saw about 2 degrees low swing in the batch temp, though. Hard to argue with that on a 5 gallon batch. I can see where it would be a bit more critical when lagering, though. Still got some studying and reading to do before I lager my first batch, but I'm thinking it's gonna be something along the lines of my Frankenbeer. The corn in that stuff really does something I like to the flavor, despite everything I've read saying corn does diddly in beer except raise the gravity. Sure tastes different to me.
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A 3 inch thermowell coming in from the side should get you an accurate temperature reading. Especially with all the convection during active fermentation.
After partially freezing a carboy, I started taping the temp probe to the side of the fermenter. I figured that would be a good compromise between the wort/beer temp and ambient temp. I went to the bung & thermowell after seeing @Craigerrr's mod on his Speidel. I went to a two inkbird setup mainly because it always bugged me that I never knew the exact temperature of the wort/beer. So, no real need there.
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Plus 1 for 3" is plenty and surface temperature.
It takes as little time for the temperature in the center to get to where you want it to be but in the meantime, the temperature on the outside is still being subjected to the heat source and getting above your desired temperature. My study between the temperature on the glass surface and the temperature 12" into the center of the carboy never saw a difference greater then 4 °F when using a heat belt applying heat evenly. Crazy temperature differences in fermentation tanks does happen but they are not that much on the homebrew level when you're doing 5 gallons at a time....RDWHAHB
It takes as little time for the temperature in the center to get to where you want it to be but in the meantime, the temperature on the outside is still being subjected to the heat source and getting above your desired temperature. My study between the temperature on the glass surface and the temperature 12" into the center of the carboy never saw a difference greater then 4 °F when using a heat belt applying heat evenly. Crazy temperature differences in fermentation tanks does happen but they are not that much on the homebrew level when you're doing 5 gallons at a time....RDWHAHB
