Lawrence Brewers Guild

I got the idea from the green board from different posts, I finally got it working, I just need to put it in a box and add an on/off switch.

It's simply a 12 volt CPU fan, a magnet from a fried hard drive, a potentiometer (rheostat/dimmer/thingy that makes it spin slower) and a 5 volt power supply from an old Palm Pilot charger. The only thing I had to buy was the potentiometer, and it was around $4.

the magnet should probably be glued down but it is attracted to the fan magnet, so it stays in place just fine.
for the wiring, the positive off the power supply (black w/ white strip, but you can't see that in the pic) goes to the left post and the negative goes straight to the negative (black) wire on the fan. The positive from the fan goes to the middle post.



I bought 2 spinner bars.

A 1.5 inch hexagon with a ridge in the middle (mine's red)


and a cross/plus sign


The plus seems to do a better job than the round stir bar and is also much quieter. The round stir bar does a lot of vibrating but the plus is barely audible. I've only tried water so far, I need to see how 2 liters of starter will spin with it.

Looks awesome Bill, I am anxious to hear how it works out! Pay attention to any heat build up that may occur. I bet with the fan it will be negligible. If it works out well you may have a side business. Something tells me with your line of work you have a few of those CPU fans lying around! Keep us posted!

Where did you get the plus stir "bar"?

Nice, Bill.
I may get mine done this weekend (fat chance).

philip wrote:Where did you get the plus stir "bar"?

http://vwrlabshop.com/stir-bars/c/1775/

quick shipping, was the best deal I could find at the time.

Im happy w/ my PLUS pattern purchase too.....thanks again Bill for heading that up!

I got it all put together with a power switch and the speed control mounted on the top.

Here is a pic of the vortex with the plus spinner. The vortex is a bit strong, but I'm assuming that wort and yeast will be harder to move than water w/ some wadded up paper in it.



Here is a close up of the potentiometer. The lighter is just to show perspective. I just drilled a hole in the case and screwed it in. This is when I found out that the case shell was aluminum.



Here is the power switch along w/ my spectacular wiring job. I'm going to silicone the wires into that hole. I'll leave the rest for ventilation.



Front shot



I super glued that fan to the inside of the case and soldered all the wires together for stability. Should work like a charm!

I'll say it again, awesome!

I love this hobby.

I forgot to say that I changed out the 5 volt power supply for a 9 volt. Once I got the 5 volt wried up and the case together the rotation of the fan even at full power was pretty low.