So, you want to build your own stir plate?
- But, why build my own?
There are a lot of reasons to build your own stir plate. The biggest
reason is that most of us are tinkerers and we love projects. And a home
built stir plate fits right in with home built brew kettles, chillers,
kegerators, etc, etc.
There is also cost savings or at least the perception of a cost savings.
Assuming your time is free and most of the parts are just laying around then
you can save quite a bit of money building your own stir plate.
Then you might also have this neat wooden cigar box laying around that
you think might make a nice stir plate. Just remember that after a couple of
years use, that wooden cigar box won't be so nice anymore.
Actually, you could even build your stir plate in a cheap clear food
container, the kind you can put 2 sandwiches in. Just don't expect the
plastic to last more than 2 - 3 years!
Stir Plate Instruction Links
There are a lot of personal sites on the web with instructions for
building your own stir plate. Some are excellent while others are, well,
kind of iffy. We researched the web for stir plate designs and these are a
few of our favorites.
Here's a rheostat based design. It's elegent, simple and cheap!
http://redkettlebrew.blogspot.com/2008/02/stir-plate-parts-and-pics.html
Here's another one, also rheostat based.
http://www.thebitterbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=64
Here's a third rheostat based stir plate. At least find a decent box for
your stir plate! This one's in a cheap plastic food container.
http://freakbrothershomebrew.blogspot.com/2009/01/freakin-stirplate-is-complete.html
This one's based on a LM317 regulator. Also, he claims to need a spacer
to lift the magnet away from the fan motor because the magnetic field
interfered with the motor.
http://www.stirstarters.com/instructions.html
This guy writes an excellent set of instructions. He even tells where he
initially went wrong. It's another LM317 regulator design.
http://brewiki.org/StirPlate
Here's one based on a 555 timer PWM circuit. No, it's not our design - we
designed our own.
http://brewznet.wordpress.com/2008/09/20/stir-plate-prototype/
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