swampdonkeybeer
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Hello everyone,
This is a quick rundown of how I put together a rotating sparge arm for my home brewery. This is a bit difficult to explain, but I hope with the pictures added to the description everything will be fairly clear.
Cheers,
Benjamin
..............
The Goal: Here is a pic of the completed project. The only thing not shown is the little rubber caps I picked up at a local hardware store to close up the ends of the rotating arm itself.
..............
Step 1) The first thing we need is some brass tubing of various size diameters.
1a) We need a lower arm assembly comprised of two tubes (eventually soldered) forming a "T" shape.
1b) We need a tube sleeve (middle tube) that is just slightly larger in diameter than the lower assemblies vertical tube.
1c) We need another tube that is just barely larger than the middle tube to make retention rings with
1d) we need a long and larger diameter tube than the other tubes that is the final exterior vertical tube.
Here you can see the rotating part of the lower arm with a hole already drilled to accept the vertical tube.
Step 2) We need a vertical tube on the lower assembly and a bearing surface. What you need to know now is that there are two parts to the vertical tube. There are two tubes that fit inside each other perfectly. The inner tube is the one permanently fixed to the lower rotating arm itself (gonna plug into that hole in the lower arm you just saw above). The outer tube is just a sleeve that fits over the lower assembly arms vertical tube. This needs to be a snug fit but without any friction. Polish the inside of the sleeve and the outside of the lower assembly until they slide in and out of each other perfectly.
Bearing Surface? - If you cut a ring off from the middle tube here (maybe 1/4" length) and solder it to the top of the vertical tube from the lower assembly, what you end up with is a lip for the lower assembly to rest on as it dangles inside the bigger diameter tube.
Here is a couple pictures of these two tubes and the bearing surface ring at the top of the smaller tube. This should give you an idea of what I am talking about. It is very important to understand that this is the bearing surface from which the mechanism rotates. You absolutely need to have the bottom side of the ring and the top edge of the middle tube perfectly flat to each other. Because they rest against each other and because this is where the mechanism spins, you have to minimize friction by having them perfect. Take the time here to either cut the with precision or to sand the pieces and polish them extremely smooth.
Here is the middle tube sleeve already over the lower assembly vertical tube. The bearing ring is already fixed to the lower assembly.
Here is the same shot but with the two tubes sitting together on the bearing surface.
Step 3) Now that the bearing surface is fixed to the lower assembly vertical tube, we need to address the middle tube sleeve. The tube that is just a little bigger than the middle tube here needs to be cut into rings. These rings are going to be fixed to the outside of the middle ring with spaces between them. These spaces are for rubber rings to sit in.
Here are the retention rings.
Here are the rings loosely fit over the middle tube and spaced out a little.
Here we are soldering those rings into the final placement and spacing.
Here are the rubber rings that fit over the middle tube.
Here is the middle tube with the retention rings and the rubber rings on it. It is sitting in-place around the lower assembly. The lower assembly horizontal tube is held in place here as well.
Step 4) Not that all those moving parts are soldered together and the middle tube is in place, the lower assembly can be soldered into final position. This forms the "T" shape at the bottom.
Here is the lower assembly soldered together. The middle tube is now trapped between the lower assembly and the bearing surface ring.
Step 5) The outside vertical tube can now be friction fit into place here. It is large enough that it slides over the top of those rubber rings and holds very snug. It shouldn't be so tight that it is difficult to put together, but it should be snug.
The lower assembly needs holes in now. I started with very small holes spaced evenly across the lower arm. The holes along each side of the lower arm (on either side of the vertical tubes) need to be along the sides of the tube and on opposed sides end for end. Think water sprinkler here.
In this picture you can see the outside vertical tube in place and you can see the holes in the lower assembly on the left side. The right side holes are of course in the exact same position but on the other side of the tube.
note: You will need a couple rubber stoppers or caps to stop up the ends of the lower assembly. You could solder the thing closed with little discs of metal or something, but I want to be able to run a pipe cleaner through this thing once and a while.
note: I added a couple extra holes toward the outside of the lower arm. More water exiting that tube on the outsides helps the spinning action. I recommend starting small with the holes and run a little water from the tap trough the thing to see how fast the flow is. You want it to spin easily and to not dump too much water all at once.
Step 6) The sparge. I drilled a hole in a large cutting board thats just big enough that the outer vertical tube fits in there. I used some additional rubber rings to hold the tube in place on the cutting board. The cutting board also acts as a lid (for the most part) on the mash tun to keep that heat in there.
In this photo you can see the sparge arm in action. It is in place in the cutting board, dangling just a few inches above the top of the grain. Sparge water is being gravity fed to the sparge arm via my second mash tun / lauter tun. The BK is seen below collecting that sweet sweet liquid!
...............
I hope all of this makes sense. There are a bunch of little parts and doodads, but ultimately it is a very simple mechanism. I adjust the water pressure with a ball valve and only use gravity to feed the sparge arm. I generally get a 60-90 minute time frame on the sparge.
This is a quick rundown of how I put together a rotating sparge arm for my home brewery. This is a bit difficult to explain, but I hope with the pictures added to the description everything will be fairly clear.
Cheers,
Benjamin
..............
The Goal: Here is a pic of the completed project. The only thing not shown is the little rubber caps I picked up at a local hardware store to close up the ends of the rotating arm itself.
..............
Step 1) The first thing we need is some brass tubing of various size diameters.
1a) We need a lower arm assembly comprised of two tubes (eventually soldered) forming a "T" shape.
1b) We need a tube sleeve (middle tube) that is just slightly larger in diameter than the lower assemblies vertical tube.
1c) We need another tube that is just barely larger than the middle tube to make retention rings with
1d) we need a long and larger diameter tube than the other tubes that is the final exterior vertical tube.
Here you can see the rotating part of the lower arm with a hole already drilled to accept the vertical tube.
Step 2) We need a vertical tube on the lower assembly and a bearing surface. What you need to know now is that there are two parts to the vertical tube. There are two tubes that fit inside each other perfectly. The inner tube is the one permanently fixed to the lower rotating arm itself (gonna plug into that hole in the lower arm you just saw above). The outer tube is just a sleeve that fits over the lower assembly arms vertical tube. This needs to be a snug fit but without any friction. Polish the inside of the sleeve and the outside of the lower assembly until they slide in and out of each other perfectly.
Bearing Surface? - If you cut a ring off from the middle tube here (maybe 1/4" length) and solder it to the top of the vertical tube from the lower assembly, what you end up with is a lip for the lower assembly to rest on as it dangles inside the bigger diameter tube.
Here is a couple pictures of these two tubes and the bearing surface ring at the top of the smaller tube. This should give you an idea of what I am talking about. It is very important to understand that this is the bearing surface from which the mechanism rotates. You absolutely need to have the bottom side of the ring and the top edge of the middle tube perfectly flat to each other. Because they rest against each other and because this is where the mechanism spins, you have to minimize friction by having them perfect. Take the time here to either cut the with precision or to sand the pieces and polish them extremely smooth.
Here is the middle tube sleeve already over the lower assembly vertical tube. The bearing ring is already fixed to the lower assembly.
Here is the same shot but with the two tubes sitting together on the bearing surface.
Step 3) Now that the bearing surface is fixed to the lower assembly vertical tube, we need to address the middle tube sleeve. The tube that is just a little bigger than the middle tube here needs to be cut into rings. These rings are going to be fixed to the outside of the middle ring with spaces between them. These spaces are for rubber rings to sit in.
Here are the retention rings.
Here are the rings loosely fit over the middle tube and spaced out a little.
Here we are soldering those rings into the final placement and spacing.
Here are the rubber rings that fit over the middle tube.
Here is the middle tube with the retention rings and the rubber rings on it. It is sitting in-place around the lower assembly. The lower assembly horizontal tube is held in place here as well.
Step 4) Not that all those moving parts are soldered together and the middle tube is in place, the lower assembly can be soldered into final position. This forms the "T" shape at the bottom.
Here is the lower assembly soldered together. The middle tube is now trapped between the lower assembly and the bearing surface ring.
Step 5) The outside vertical tube can now be friction fit into place here. It is large enough that it slides over the top of those rubber rings and holds very snug. It shouldn't be so tight that it is difficult to put together, but it should be snug.
The lower assembly needs holes in now. I started with very small holes spaced evenly across the lower arm. The holes along each side of the lower arm (on either side of the vertical tubes) need to be along the sides of the tube and on opposed sides end for end. Think water sprinkler here.
In this picture you can see the outside vertical tube in place and you can see the holes in the lower assembly on the left side. The right side holes are of course in the exact same position but on the other side of the tube.
note: You will need a couple rubber stoppers or caps to stop up the ends of the lower assembly. You could solder the thing closed with little discs of metal or something, but I want to be able to run a pipe cleaner through this thing once and a while.
note: I added a couple extra holes toward the outside of the lower arm. More water exiting that tube on the outsides helps the spinning action. I recommend starting small with the holes and run a little water from the tap trough the thing to see how fast the flow is. You want it to spin easily and to not dump too much water all at once.
Step 6) The sparge. I drilled a hole in a large cutting board thats just big enough that the outer vertical tube fits in there. I used some additional rubber rings to hold the tube in place on the cutting board. The cutting board also acts as a lid (for the most part) on the mash tun to keep that heat in there.
In this photo you can see the sparge arm in action. It is in place in the cutting board, dangling just a few inches above the top of the grain. Sparge water is being gravity fed to the sparge arm via my second mash tun / lauter tun. The BK is seen below collecting that sweet sweet liquid!
...............
I hope all of this makes sense. There are a bunch of little parts and doodads, but ultimately it is a very simple mechanism. I adjust the water pressure with a ball valve and only use gravity to feed the sparge arm. I generally get a 60-90 minute time frame on the sparge.