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My Boiler Build

I have been looking to upsize my 15 gallon keg boiler almost since I finished it which was almost 2 years ago. I've been watching eBay and Craigslist and every time I found JUST what I wanted it was too much coin or too far away. A few weeks ago I found a 70 gallon SS boiler on eBay and it was only 10 minutes from my house. Better yet, the guy only wanted $250. Offered him $200 and he accepted.

Got it home and started working on it and ordered parts from @Smaug. Yep, they showed up the next day, as usual. I got rid of the few ports that it had and used my plasma cutter to cut out the holes for the new ferrules. 2 3" sight glass openings, one on top and one about 3/4 of the way up on the side. 2 2" openings on top, one as a fill opening and the other for a temp probe. 3 2" openings on the sides down low for the ULWD elements and a 5" on top in the center for the column.

I have a mig welder but have had ugly success welding SS so I decided to let a pro do it. 8 ferrules and a drain elbow later I am damn glad I didn't do it myself.

Next is to start polishing it to make it look a little better and then on to cleaning and testing.

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Comments

  • Looks great mate, nice welds too.

    StillDragon Australia & New Zealand - Your StillDragon® Distributor for Australia & New Zealand

  • very nice...

    DAD... not yours.. ah, hell... I don't know...

  • Shipped your probe, let me know when you get it.

    Glad to know its going on one hell of a rig.

  • Thanks Grim. Really looking forward to getting this thing up to speed.

  • looking awesome. I'm jealous!!

  • I want to use this volt/amp meter for my control box.

    The SSRs will be run in parallel so to have the total volts/amps displayed, can I run all three wires through the coil or do I need three separate meters?

  • edited September 2016

    @FloridaCracker said: I want to use this volt/amp meter for my control box.

    No. of digits 3-1/2?

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Kapea, not sure what you mean.

  • 188.8 = 3-1/2 digits

    888.8 = 4 digits

  • I have no shame about admitting that I have no idea what you guys are trying to get into my thick nugget. Something to do with how many digits the meter displays?

  • a half-digit can only be blank or show a 1... see example above

    Or google: 3 1/2 digit

  • @FloridaCracker said: I have no shame about admitting that I have no idea what you guys are trying to get into my thick nugget. Something to do with how many digits the meter displays?

    Look at the specs for the meter on the page you linked to above

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • edited September 2016

    @CothermanDistilling said:

    188.8 = 3-1/2 digits

    888.8 = 4 digits

    That's what I like about life; I learn something new every day.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • So I guess back to my original question, can multiple wires be used inside of the coil?

  • you can run all three through the coil...

  • Good question. My gut feeling is that you will read the highest current draw in a wire not the total. But if they are all coming off the one controller then they could be the same so the reading is OK - assuming equal wattage elements. Will test that out when i get home as i could be totally wrong.

  • Electrical Engineer here... as long as the polarization/phase is the same, they will be cumulative, as what is beign measured is the voltage created by the electromagnetic flux:

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    picture the current tap being on the feeder wire to the whole panel, but nothing else is hooked up.. you have three circuit breakers split off to 3 SSR's, then to the other leg or ground... the sum of current through the three wires is the exact same as the current through the main feeder wire....

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  • Mechanical Engineer here and cant quite wrap my head around it . If you have 20 amps in one wire and 5 in another you are virtually saying you will have 25 amps worth of flux. As in said my gut feeling is that 20 + 5 would not have the same flux as 25. But i am mechanical but had a whole lot of experience with generators and CT's and it would not sit right to run several wires thru a CT. I will have to go with your professional knowledge - just doesnt seem right. Actually the more i think about it your probably right and i will suck eggs till i test it. Of course they have to be same phase - just assumed as out of phase would be silly.

  • edited September 2016

    The ammeter channel on my multimeter works that way. It warns me when my pump motors are about to take a shit.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • @GD50 , if they are different phases of 3-phase, or even different legs of a 'single phase' it would not work... that is why you have concern based on generators, they have ammeters per phase.

  • I am installing 3 separate double pole 30A breakers in the main panel of my garage and then running the lines from those to the SSRs in my controller box.

    Here's a diagram that I got from another member on how he suggested it should go using my Auber controller. How would you guys suggest wiring in the volt/ammeter to this diagram? I've read that wiring it after the SSRs is not such a good idea.

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  • edited September 2016

    I'm not an electrician but this could work?

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  • edited September 2016

    Nevermind...

  • @FloridaCracker I think you don't want to wire the supply voltage up after the SSR output as you're facing a fluctuation of the RMS voltage as the SSR is cutting off waves after a certain time.

  • Sounds and looks great. Thanks to all who are helping with the electrical.

    Started getting the box ready for the guts by enlarging the opening for the extra SSR. I will only have to drill/tap 2 new holes on the heatsink for the mounting because of the layout of the pre drilled holes. I will have a fan in this box as extra cooling won't hurt. Been spending hours sanding the tank in prep for final buffing. The legs have been painted silver and should look OK when mounted.

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  • Propane

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • BTW - your new boiler is an absolute beauty @FloridaCracker!

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Struth @FloridaCracker, you have 100A going to your garage! Nice one.

  • @TheMechWarrior said: Struth FloridaCracker, you have 100A going to your garage! Nice one.

    200A

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