what material would you use?

admin

a friend wants me to make a beer cart. It will have a propane tank with turkey fryer style heating element and will be used to heat up the beer stuff in a 5 gallon pot. I want to construct a burner grid to set the pot on. The material will need to stand up to hours of direct flame with a big pot on it. My question is "will mild steel do?"  I am thinking of a 1/2 inch plate with 1/2 inch diameter holes drilled in it every 1 inch or so throughout the plate. The plate will rest on heavy angle that has been bolted securely to the frame of the stand. The burner plate would be removable. The burner elemet will rest on a shelf below the plate and the tank below that. I will try my hand at sketchup soon. Advantages of the thick plate will be that it will act as a heat diffuser to prevent scorching of the brew. A metal ring might be added to the underside of the grate to keep flames from lapping up and around the pot wasting heat. Any thoughts?Miller diversion 165Miller mig 211Hypertherm pm 30Milwaukee 6230 14 inch chop sawMd 45 mag drill (RIP; fell on its head)New MD 45! Thanks to the esposa!Finally got an O/A setup
Reply:Is cost a factor, I was thinking Stainless, especially when in contact with food stuffs... And, I consider beer a food item.Thank you....Life is tough, tougher when your stupid...2xMiller Matic 252Miller PassportSpoolMate 100Miller Dynasty 200dxThermal Dynamics A80-mounted to PlasmaCamThermal Dynamics 52-PortableMiller Trail Blazer 320
Reply:i dont think that a burner unit that a pot SITS on would be considered in "contact with" food stuff....the plan sounds great....i used to home brew and used a turkey fryer and also had one that was a 500k btu burner from a commercial water heater, that was a chore  b/c it was so damn hot even on the lowest settings but it was great for boiling water to pluck 50 chickens at a time  good luck and have fun with the build!
Reply:Oh, I miss-understood... The 1/2 Mild Steel Plate sounds like a workable plan. I do not see why mild-steel would not work just fine. The 1/2 would stand-up to the heat well and there is no critical shearing force, so mild-steel strength would be fine. And, the thickness of the steel would distribute the heat evenly, once the desired heat was reached you could back it down...Thank you....Life is tough, tougher when your stupid...2xMiller Matic 252Miller PassportSpoolMate 100Miller Dynasty 200dxThermal Dynamics A80-mounted to PlasmaCamThermal Dynamics 52-PortableMiller Trail Blazer 320
Reply:Post some pictures when done, I was curious about beer brewing...Thank you....Life is tough, tougher when your stupid...2xMiller Matic 252Miller PassportSpoolMate 100Miller Dynasty 200dxThermal Dynamics A80-mounted to PlasmaCamThermal Dynamics 52-PortableMiller Trail Blazer 320