What steps pre-mash can be taken to limit the likelihood of a stuck sparge?

I'm still very new to all-grain, 7 batches in, so I am still a little shaky with procedure. The other day before my last batch I was re-reading "how to brew and noticed that John Palmer recommends sparging until you have the target amount of liquid in your brew kettle or until you hit a gravity of 1.008-1.012. I don't really understand this. Is this a lower limit? I used 15.4 lbs of grain and at 8.5 gallons it was …

I used to use a simple drink cooler and screen for a mash tun, but was given a chugger pump, 10 gallon Blichmann G2, and false bottom which I now use in a RIMS setup. The first time I brewed a wheat on the new system I used 1# of rice hulls like I always did, but some of the hulls slipped through the false bottom and clogged my quick disconnects. Has anyone else experienced this? I brewed the same …

I have just finished building my mash tun using an insulated plastic barrel. Everything works great but when I pour hot water into the barrel and put a lid on, pressure builds up inside and eventually "blows up" the lid. My question how do you deal with this? Do you let the steam slip away (make a small hole or something like that) or do you just fix the lid so it won't budge?

I've heard of both for very similar uses. What is the difference between a mash tun and a lauter tun? Or more generally, what is the difference between a mash and a lauter? I found this wiki article on lautering, which implies after the mash, there is a rinse and sparge of the mash, but wouldn't that be taken care of in the mash tun, with a false bottom and vorlouf, with no need for an extra lautering container?

In the most recent Zymurgy, there is a recipe that involves step infusion mash. It's not quite explained how to get the wort off the grain. So I was wondering how a step infusion mash works? I currently brew BIAB, with my own sparge/rinse system, getting about 75-85% efficiency. This step infusion calls for some water at 140 degrees (30 minutes), then some boiling water (again 30 minutes, mixing with previous water, the boiling temp is mitigated), then "lauter and …

I've upgraded from a 20L homebrew system to a 200L system and used it for the first time the other day. I previously did boil-in-the-bag but for my new system I have a false bottom. For my first test I decided to try a half-batch. The problem was that several kilos of grain managed to get down beneath the false bottom, blocking the outlet and also clogging the pump with grain, preventing me from being about to recirculate or transfer …

What is the best way to handle a higher than expected extraction efficiency without compromising the flavor of the beer? If I'm brewing a blonde ale for example, aiming for a 72% extraction efficiency and end up with an 80% extraction efficiency, it's going to significantly alter the character of the final beer. What should have been a 4% ABV might end up at 5.2% ABV, for example. Logic tells me that diluting the wort by adding additional water will …

I've heard there are negative effects of oxygenating wort before a boil. I don't lauter right into my boil kettle, but just dump the wort into it when I hit my target volume. There's a lot of splashing going into the boil kettle, can somebody explain what effects the pre-boil oxygenation will have on my beer?

Particularly during lautering and during a boil, I have a hard time keeping track of water/wort volume. What method(s) and equipment do you all recommend for accurately calculating liquid volume during a boil/water heating?