The Binford 6100 Wort-O-Matic

After building the Electric Hot Liquor Tank I realized clamping a temperature controller to my brewstand and having wire nuts next to 180°F water was stupid.
Thus I made the Wort-O-Matic control panel for my brewstand.

Members of the Brewboard (brewboard.com) asked for a diary of my experience.

Let me say that electricity can kill you and I do not advocate doing what I have done here.

My adventure can be broken down into the following parts:
  1. Planning the Control Panel
  2. Obtaining the Components
  3. Preparing the Panel
  4. Wiring the Panel
  5. Deploying the Panel
  6. Other Needs
  1. Planning the Control Panel
    • Defining NEEDS
      I had an existing two-tier brewstand with the HLT high and the Mash Tun and Boil Kettle low. Control was needed of:
      • Water temperature in the HLT
      • Pump on/off for:
        1. Mash temperature (raising tempature during the mash by recirculating wort through a heat exchanger in the HLT
        2. Lautering. My lauter grant is only 4 gallons and must pump out to the kettle at least 3 times while sparging
      • Amperage drawn. The electic heating element in the HLT plus the pump could trip a 15amp breaker so an amp display would tell the brewer when it was close.
      • Kill switches for the three powered elements - HLT heater, pump, stirrer
      • Count-down timer
    • Defining WANTS
      • Visual indication of power to all elements
      • Humor and coolness-factor
    • Integrating Existing Systems
      I had already built the lauter grant level doctor and wanted to integrate it into the new panel.
    • Creating a Mock-up
      In photoshop I began laying out pictures of possible components and creating a mock-up
  2. Obtaining the Components
      This took a while.
      I first stalked eBay for two Johnson Controls A419s. I paid about $50 for one and $12 for the other.
      Later, thanks to George Schmidt on The Brewing Network and Brewboard forums I discovered the Love Controls TS series controllers and bought two of those to use instead of the Johnson's at $50 each from Cole-Parmer.com
      Other components came from All Electronics, Electronic City, Apex Surplus and my own garage.
      Cost Breakdown
      Qty Part Supplier Cost Ext.
      2 Love TS Series Controller Cole Parmer $50.00 $100.00
      1 30a Digital Amp Meter eBay $35.00 $35.00
      1 AC Voltage Meter All Electronics $12.00 $12.00
      1 Digital Count-down Timer Hobbytron $29.00 $29.00
      15 Switches and LEDs Electronic City ~$4.00 $60.00
      1 Pound of aluminum stock Apex Surplus $1.00 $1.00
      1 Primer and Paint Lowes $12.00 $12.00
      1 Silkscreening Supplies Any Good Art Supply $60.00 $60.00
      $309.00
      Holy crap, was it really that much?!
  3. Preparing the Panel
    • Tooling the Metal
      After obtaining all the controls, indicator lamps and switches I created a final layout in Photoshop and printed it at 100% to see what I thought of it.
      I held it in place on my brewstand, I "pushed" buttons and "flipped" switches and decided on a final layout.
      Using a caliper, a straight-edge and a pencil I drew out the cutouts on the aluminum and drilled holes (or pilot holes) for each.

      Holes drilled; power switch test-fitted.
    • Facing the Metal
      Acrylic silk-screen ink will not adhere to aluminum so after a thorough washing with dish detergent to remove oils and grease the tooled panel is primed with a spray from Krylon. This was followed by three coats of flat black spray paint.

      The silk-screen was made very similarly to this website's description and printed on the panel.

      Here is the printed panel before five coats of spray satin clear polycrylic for protection.
    • Mounting Components
      While mounting I found a few holes too small and one forgotten entirely. An 'on' indicater LED for the count-down timer got a hole right between the timer's two switches.
    • Creating an Enclosure
      I opted to build the enclosure out of wood for several reasons:
      1. I had a ton of it laying around
      2. It is very easy to work with

  4. Wiring the Panel
    • This was nutty. I diagramed out my hot flow like this:

      Wiring in progress:

      Wiring completed:

  5. Deploying the Panel
    • In the rear; outlets for the three switched elements and one 'always hot':

    • The box now completed:

      In order to mount the new panel to my existing brewstand, I screwed 1/2" floor flanges to its sides and used 2" pipe to create a pivot point. Those rest in coat hooks bolted to the stand

      All done and in place:

  6. Other Needs
    • Adding a New Branch Circuit
      Call an electrician.
      Period.
      Maybe you are the Goddess's gift to handymen and can do that crap yourself, but I'm not.
      I called a guy and had two new 20 amp circuits run into the garage for this and other purposes for a very reasonable fee.
    • Things I Would Have Done Differently
      • The outlet cover I used for the XLR probe connectors gets in the way. I should have put the probes on the back of the box.
      • The buttons on the timer are big and clunky. Something sleeker would be better.
      • Silk-screening is hard... I should have practiced more before doing my final print.
Kerry on 12/17/07 11:48 am writes
WOW! This is awesome! Your sculpture is amazing also.
Good job!
Push Eject on 12/19/07 11:30 pm writes
Thanks, Kerry. It was a fun project that has improved my beer by an infinitesimal amount. Still, it makes brewing easier. :)

Cheers!
nonbrewer on 01/24/08 11:19 pm writes
Nice to see some one noting which Love controller and a site that posts the cost. Kudos to you.
Nick on 04/17/08 12:48 am writes
This rules.
Rob Hart on 11/12/08 01:11 am writes
Hey Mate,

somehow stumbled upon your site, quite a tidy bit of kit you've designed there!

Rob.
Scott on 12/06/08 05:12 pm writes
Hey, what LEDs did you use? aren't they dc voltage, or very low ac? how did you wire them inline with the 110v ac power?
Push Eject on 12/06/08 11:57 pm writes
Hi Scott. I used a mix of LEDs and 120v incandescent indicators. However there ARE three transformers inside the case for the timer, liquid level doctor and amp meter.

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