Beer Carrier

[Kevin Morin]

If there are micro breweries near you that sell growlers of beer, and you pick up a few 1/2 gallons from time to time? then you know that hauling the bottles in the car or truck is a pain.

I built this little carrier from SS tube and its here to help others with the material handling problem. I was inspired by the old milk bottle carriers of days gone by when bottled milk was delivered to the home.



As a prototype it is kind or rough but I hope the idea is clear since it was easy to build. The main rings were rolled around a 5" pipe in order to get a closely sized bottle ring.

A piece of 3/4" stock was crushed on the ends to make a handle with flattened ends to weld to the top of the 180 in the 3/8" tube main frame.



a 180 bend at the top of the two main frame tubes were formed then the four bottom bends were turned out 90 deg.



the two U shaped pieces that hold the bottles into the rings were just a pair of 90's and the butt weld to the rings.



by butting the tube to the next piece all the seams were TIG welded using a 3/32" ceriated tungsten and 0.025" 316L wire since this tube was 316. The ends of the main frame were flattened to make the butt weld less a saddle but the U shaped pieces were cupped with a carbide burr to see how that fitted saddle worked?



you can buff the HAZ to make the surface more uniform, and the entire carrier would doll up some with a little attention. I was just prototyping and was tired of the bottles rolling around the floor boards so it was done and hasn't had any finish work.

I think the idea(s) are sound and hope others will expand on this theme? A logo could be cut for 'side badges' between the two main frame pieces, that could make a product others might want? The tube arrangements could be rerouted in a quite a few different methods to get a similar product.

single bottle and four bottle carriers could be done along this line. Using SS tube is a good solution since its relatively light wt, easily cleaned or steam cleaned, could be reasonably well finished with just some buffing and bends easily.

Just a thought for those welders who 'haul their own' beer.

cheers,
Kevin Morin

[insterno]

Nice!

[zapster]

...zap!

[deerhuntre]

The growlers fit in the pouch behind the front seats in my F-150, but this is a much better solution and I'm think I'll be making one pretty soon!!

[gordfraser]

when you take the bottles out it looks like it could have been a gynecologists tool from early 1900's

[barefooter14]

lots of great micro brews here in wisconsin. I also get growlers at some places since i own 3 growlers so i can just bring them to any micro in wi to get filled. So i might try to make one of these into a triple thing like the syrup holder at a breakfast joint.

thanks for sharing a good idea.

[weldbead]

Originally Posted by gordfraser

when you take the bottles out it looks like it could have been a gynecologists tool from early 1900's

she's gonna need a couple shop rags for shims...........

[weldbead]

wha'd you use to bend the tubing? seems like 1/4" solid round bar might be easier to bend withoutkinking it.? nice carrier.

[LONGEVITYPerformance]

nice carriers... necessity = the mother of invention and ya did her good...

[Kevin Morin]

thanks for the kind words gentlemen,

the tube was bent with a standard roller bender
http://toolmonger.com/2009/09/21/swa...ubing-benders/
like this one for 3/8" size tube and the ends just flattened a bit in the vise.

I knew it was kinda retro gord, but not quite that retro???

At first I was going to split some 3/8" rubber hose and make some small sleeves to line the tube and cushion the bottles but it turned out they weren't needed.

deerhuntre, I can find places to keep the bottle corralled in the truck but in and out of the brewery or bar is another item. I got fed up with a finger in each growler and banging them along if I was fishing for my keys.

I hope you guys will give it a few minutes sketching time as there are only about a dozen different shapes this can be and do the same thing. Barefooter14, that is a great idea, to make it three sided instead of two or four.

Someone should take a little time to explore their neighborhood for a plaz table and make some SS sheet logos to go on the sides and the local brew house may want a few dozen to keep on hand.

Lots of brew houses have a loyal following and if their logo were reduced to a SS cutout and then brushed and mounted to the sides of a carrier, well.... it may be something a man could do to offset his brew budget?

If a guy is gonna spend 25$ on a half gallon of hand crafted brew, (local Alaskan costs) I don't see why some in that group might not want to drop most of a Cnote on a life time guaranteed carrier?

The guys who don't frequent this site (people who are not in the trades) mostly can't build one and the guys who do frequent WWeb might as well knock down a few growlers' worth of commerce making those other folks a nice 'milk bottle' carrier??

cheers,
Kevin Morin

[Tim M]

Were's the straw?

[Vinnie]

Looks good

[slow6i]

Now thats MY kind of drinkin... err.... thinkin! Well done!