phase 1 of the frame build

Here's what Lonnie Mac wrote in the introduction to Build Brutus Ten for BYO magazine about his experience welding together the frame of the Brutus Ten:

I built Brutus on my living room carpet and my small 6'x8' apartment patio.  The raw stainless steel alone stretched across the threshold, from the dining room to the patio door.  I hooked up a 220-volt welder to the dryer outlet.  During the daytime, no one knew that, beneath the blinding flashes illuminating the whole complex, lay the birth and free-will-victory that is now Brutus Ten.

He bought a small welding system and spent alot of time studying books and message boards and making practice cuts.  In his Build article, he talks about the great pleasure it gave him to learn this new craft.

Having spent 16 years with my nose buried in thousands of pages of statutes and regulations, I can totally understand the excitement that comes with stretching your mind in a new direction.  Brewing has always done that for me.  But, I have to admit that if I'd tried to cut and weld the Bluto 555 frame myself, the scene would've been more like Paul Timberman's Workshop, with the addition of third degree burns, electrocutions and blindness!!!

So back in August or so of 2009, I started talking to my good friend Rob, who was one of the original members of the Auburn Brew Club back when I started the club in 2007.  He had watched me brew in my basement about a dozen times while putting together his own homebrewing system and learning to brew.  Rob works as a mechanical engineer for a local machine/welding/fabrication company and, because of his knowledge of the brewing process, we were able to communicate really well about what I'd need and the reasons why.

click for more pictures

click for more pictures

Rob and I decided to build the frame in 2 phases: the first being the basic frame and the "tippy dump" harnesses.  (Click here for more pics of Phase 1 of the frame build).  Once we got that done, I brought it home to further contemplate the design for the additions of the attachment points for the electrical and gas plumbing components, which would be phase 2 of the frame build.  There are 8 casters, and I believe they're rated to 600lbs each, so I shouldn't have any problems with them, even if all 5 kettles were completely full at the same time.  The frame is about 12 feet long and 2 feet wide, and it's a little over 5 feet from the floor to the top of the kettles.