My Stir Plate

[brew]

K - so I had some spare parts laying around - box is actually an old clock radio in my "spare parts box". So was the adapter, fan, and old hard drive (for the magnet). Bought the POT at The Source for $5 (ish)...

The hopdawgs order won't be in until next week sometime - anyone got a stir bar I can borrow?

[attachment=0:bf15n07a]MyStirPlate (384 x 512).jpg[/attachment:bf15n07a]

[pliny]

Looks groovy man!

Yeah, I got a stir bar I could lend you.
What do you have for the liquid vessel?

[brew]

Awesome! Thanks pliny - I'll PM you for a time to stop by to borrow it (mine's on order)...

For the starter I use one of the 2L glass jugs that Ian had - straight walled, seems to have worked OK for prior starters I've made...

[pliny]

Just wondering about the bottom of the flask cause if the bottom is not flat, the whole spinning thing with the magnet and stirbar might not work properly. I guess you can adjust the settings once you get every piece.

FYI, the liquid doesn`t need to swirl like a cyclone; just so the yeast is in suspension.

[brew]

Cool - I see the 2L jug I have does have a concave bottom and looks like it might be difficult to spin properly - think I'll invest in a flask as well... thanks...

[Jmac00]

for some reason, i can't see the pic??? says : You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

[Richard]

Urgh, the ACLs on this thing are a real pain in the ass. Give me a few to sort this out.

[Richard]

Sorted; "can download files" permissions apparently extends to embedded images.

[fakr]

Nice Brew!

Now, I would be REALLY impressed if made it so you could listen to music while stirring yeast!

[pliny]

With music playing, it would make the yeasties even more happy.

[brew]

Gonna work on this...

[HappyHax0r]

I'm planning on building a stir-plate this Saturday actually. I was wondering about stir-bars. I have some stainless bar stock (about 1/8 or 3/16 in diameter), would it be possible to cut/grind/polish a portion of that and use it for a stir bar? I could clean it with acetone first quite easily as I have acetone too.

Are stir bars a special shape? or will a simple piece of bar stock do the trick?

[chrismccull]

The ones that I have seen are pill shaped and plastic coated.

[HappyHax0r]

That should be simple enough to replicate using a bench grinder, some stainless steel, and liquid plastic, but I'm not sure the plastic coating is required
as I've seen plenty that just look like shiny steel.

I wouldn't cover them in something like CA, or even some sort of paint-on coating that wasn't plastic (such as nail polish) due to the acidity of the wort,
but I figure if it's good enough for brewing (stainless) it should be good enough for stirring, no?

[Chris Craig]

I believe stir bars are magnets...at least mine is.