Bryan's New Boiler Build

[RuddyCrazy]

G'day Guy's,
Well I did see on the forum today free shipping :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: :happy-partydance: and the main thing I need for this build is a 6" Tri-clamp and thought to bump the order over the $200 mark I reckon a 3600 watt and 2400 watt elements can do it then I will have the option there to use elements and also the gas/fire option will be put in for the heating requirements.

I'm am just about out of argon and I'm seeing just how more flowers and dragon flies i can make as just heard they are off to market :scared-eek: and i was told get ready for the next batch so after this weekend may even have the cash to buy a new refill :handgestures-thumbupleft:

As the long weekend is here I will pencil in a day and do the final fit up of the keg's as both keg's are taking room up in my shed so this project does need get finished.

Cheers Bryan

[Nathan02]

Good stuff mate, this boiler should be ready in time for your retirement :laughing-rolling: . Looking forward to seeing her finished.

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well while distilling this morning my eye came across something thats been sitting in my shed for over 10 years :scared-eek: so decided to get my cheap DMM and do a ohm check :handgestures-thumbupleft: Well it wouldn't hold a solid reading but I averaged it out to 5 ohms :scared-eek: So onto frugle to the oms calc and I think it's safe this baby is a 10Kw element :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

the mother of elements.jpg

As one can see it's close the length of the keg and it has what looks like a 1-1/2" BSP thread and old o-ring for sealing

the element.jpg

Here is a pic of the element and the casing has a sticker saying tested and working $10 :laughing-rolling: SWMBO thought it might do me all those years ago and honestly it is just too good to passup.

Now to finally do a test on this element I'll use this ol' relic :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

voltac.jpg

As this thing is only rated to 10 amps I will start start it way under 50 volts and for the test I'll fill my mashtun with 40 litres of water and see how long this old element takes it to get it to the boil.

Before any of the warden of power descend on me :scared-eek: :scared-eek: :scared-eek: saying this is a sparkie job 99% of the sparkies I talk to have no idea on the field I'm talking where I talk about off grid stuff they just look at me with a blank stare when I tell them i lost faith in power generation so now i just make my own :laughing-rolling:

My shed inverter which is the power does have short circuit protection and if a short is found the power cuts straight away so no fried bodies ready to explode full of moonshine. :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: That was one feature I asked for when I got that inverter built back in '05 :handgestures-thumbupleft:

so more fun times ahead :handgestures-thumbupleft: and if this mother of elements proves good it's going in period.

Cheers Bryan

[chipboy]

Careful grasshopper, 5 ohms at 240VAC is 48 Amps, a bit more than that Variac can take and most likely your inverter..

[RuddyCrazy]

Careful grasshopper, 5 ohms at 240VAC is 48 Amps, a bit more than that Variac can take and most likely your inverter..

Yes I do know the power needed so that why when starting it will be a very low voltage then as I increase the voltage i reckon the inverter will complain of over current. If this does happen I'll rewire the connection with some 16mm cable and fire up my 16hp Listeriod engine which has a 5 Kw genhead on.

Now if this trial does work then my planned project of getting my 15Kva genhead married up to that 4 cyl Perkins diesel which has a 32 amp 3 phase and 43 amp single phase output will handle this beast of an element.

All good fun and at all times I'll make sure the magic smoke doesn't show a presence :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling: :laughing-rolling:

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Well from first thoughts to reality :scared-eek: :scared-eek: :scared-eek: measured that element on my Fluke scope meter and with that quoted ohms figure of 5 ohms needs a decimal point in front of it as the ohms reading is 0.5 ohms :scared-eek:

Anyway got some heating cable thats 0.7 ohms a meter and got the ohms reading to 3.4 and hooked it up to my 30 volt 3 amp power supply, direct connection 1.9 volts 3 amps :scared-eek: so put the heating cable inline and now running at 7.4 volts 2.90 amps so an order from Oatleys is on the cards and I'll get a 10 metre long heating cord so I can trim the the ohms to suit my application.

Doing a soak test to check this element works and already at 3 amps the heating cable is warm to touch and the cable is rated 500 volts 0.7ohms a metre so with a several wraps of this cable and some break before make knife switches can dial in the required ohms for more of less heat and serve a dual function heating element.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Well guy's hooked the voltac and setup the DMM and amp clamp and started at 20 volts then saw a red spot and the fuse blew :angry-banghead: there are bakealite tubes to stop the bridging and one had dislodged causing the fault. So prevent this happening again I'm going to get some fiberglass tubing so each nichrome wire can be insulated from the point it leaves the former.

Had a look at the Oatley site for heating wire and no sign of it there and the research turned no hits :angry-banghead: So the hunt will be on for another product to do the job.

Cheers Bryan

[chipboy]

480Amps, not even that Lister will do that!

[RuddyCrazy]

Anyway after lunch I unwrapped each string of wire and measured the ohms of each string and they all were within 0.02 of the same 14.6 ohms, so I do reckon that is according to ohms law it's a 4Kw element. So 240/14.6 = 16.4 amps and 3945 watts.

So this week I will get some insulation tubing and rewire it up ensuring the 14 ohms is there and do another test. Now that 5Kw genhead does power my 3hp aircon and when I engage the cooling if I don't have at the lowest setting the genhead will throw the belt as the inrush of current acts like a huge brake so as I do have some soft start box's here I'll try the test with one of them.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Well it has been been a while since I gave this project a look but this arvo over a few shed beers got a mock up

legs.jpg

The idea is to get it all fitted and tacked up then take it down to work to burn it in and I do reckon when I get to use one of those new tig's that aint scratch start it will be a fun exercise doing my first big welding job with an argon gas inside so all welds are done on both sides.

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

G'Day Guy's,
Fitted the legs to the keg today which did most of the afternoon to finally get them seated with very little gap and all squared up :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Next job is fitted the drain and in the pic shown is the valve where I'll cut the 2" pipe to length and tig to that fitting.

kegs.jpg

Getting there....

Cheers Bryan

[RuddyCrazy]

Well guy's with my lasted shipment from 5 Star :handgestures-thumbupleft: got some 2400,3600 elements to finally get some power to it. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Now as I have already committed a 6.3Kw solar array to my new sparkling 100 milk can with the same elements it will take my solar to close to 20Kw now will i be happy with 50 Kw on there own grid or will I need more. :laughing-rolling:

So now I'm in retirement in order to get this project done.....

1. hook that new inverter I made
2. finish the welding trolley
3. Buy a plasma cutter just as they cut mustard on use
4. Investigate how much an apprentice costs

Now that last one is my job over the next month just so my crazy knowledge can be passed on :scared-eek:

Got a month or two to get this done before I get to making the cheese happens on a 4 by 4 roster

Cheers Bryan