Any home brewers out there?

[Cowher]

DO NOT BUY A BASIC KIT. You will wast money

I was thinking of getting every thing piece by piece. Do you know any cost effective brew kettles? What do you think about the copper coils used to cool the wort? Is that useless?

One last tip. For primary fermentation, do not use the air lock for about 5 days or the fermenting has settled down. Take one of the 5 gallon buckets and put about 2 gallons of sanitizer blend in it. Sanitize the hose from above and use it for your air lock.
Here is a pic of mine - yes I brew in my office...

So should I skip the airlock and use this set up?
Is this to vent the foam that builds up?

Thanks for the info. Huge help.