The Phake™ bottom is now complete. It is made of perforated, hinged  SS, with SS bolts used as stilts. It was made by Tony Owens, a friend I met on the Brew-Rat-Chat. Sorry, no picture yet. I've also completed a manifold for wort inflow, which I've named the noSplashThingy™. 

The first three brews were kind of hard to get up to temperature, and I attributed this to a lack of insulation on the HLT and Mashtun. What I decided to do, was get some foil-covered bubblewrap, and use that to sandwhich some plastic lined fiberglass insulation. On the Mashtun, I added a sheetmetal covering, so that I wouldn't damage the Bubblewrap, as its easy to tear. I also got some 1/2" and some 3/4" Armaflex pipe insulation. The 3/4" fit over the unions I have in the piping, and I used the 1/2" on everything else. I made insulated lids out of styrofoam sheet, and wrapped it with duct tape to keep the stuff from getting knocked loose. 

The original insulation for the mashtun became difficult to remove from the mashtun, and the foil started peeling off the bubble wrap. I made a new insulation sleeve using flashing material inside and out, and spraying handi foam on the inside. This insulation is easily removable when cleaning out the mashtun.