Has anyone fabricated their own spinny sparge arm?

[WishboneBrewery]

Has anyone fabricated their own spinny sparge arm?

If you were to make one what bits do you need?

[brewzone]

Heres My take on a spinny sparge arm

BZ

[Garth]

I attempted to make a couple last year in the hope of selling them cheaply on here, I was prompted by the price what some hbs were charging for them £35+

It was basically a copy of Phil's spinny sparge arm that you could get readily in hbs 18 months ago but he stopped exporting them from the US as he apparently was making zero dollars on them. The 8.5" arm was something like £18, I got mine from H&G.

I got the two correct sizes of brass tube from a online hobby shop and managed to get the pivot bit correct and it did spin freely, (I even got the correct size silver balls for it to spin on) just the holes were the nightmare. Apparently, as haphazard as the holes looked drilled in Phil's version, they actually contributed greatly to how it spinned (sp. span?). I tried a one with uniformly spaced holes all the way along the arms and although it went round, it didn't do the coverage that Phil's did.

Obviously this is only one way of attacking this problem. I have seen decent looking sparge arms with waaay different methods of doing the 'spinning but not p1ssing water all over' technique. I saw a one just the other day on a hbs website and someone had found a neat little valve thingy for the spinny bit, but the rest was made from the same brass tube that I used.

If you manage to make one, let us know, as I may be wrong but don't think anyone on here has made one yet that worked........I may have to dig the bits out and try again.....

[WishboneBrewery]

Maybe I'll have a go, I'll browse the plumbing section while we're out looking for bathroom suites this weekend.

[boingy]

I considered a homemade spinny arm but I figured it would be difficult to get the right balance of spin speed, flow rate and head pressure. Instead, I made a rectangular fixed one in a similar style to the copper pipe strainer I use at the bottom of the MT.

5 parallel pipes fed from the middle of the centre pipe. Random 1mm holes drilled all over it and at all angles. It gets excellent coverage and is fed by gravity from the HLT about 12 inches above the MT. It performs well. If you build one I have two tips:

1. Get yourself a 10 pack of 1mm jobber drill bits from Screwfix. You *will* break them - I broke two by just putting the drill down on the work bench!

2. Drill a small number of holes to begin with then test it. I was surprised how few holes I needed to get decent coverage at low flow rates.

[Garth]

I figured it would be difficult to get the right balance of spin speed, flow rate and head pressure.

That's the easy bit, this can be achieved by simply putting a tap in the feed line to the arm. I used to have the HLT up high and adjusted the tap until I got it so it was just say spinning.

Brewzone, what sort of fitting did you use for the T shape pivot piece?

[WishboneBrewery]

I mean, can you use a loose-fitting compression fitting or something??

[brewzone]

Brewzone, what sort of fitting did you use for the T shape pivot piece?

Hi Mate!

Just an ordinary 10mm compression brass tee with brass olives as I find they wear less than the copper olives and are not so prone to pitting!

I use PTFE tape to keep the compression nut from coming loose. I tighten it fully with a pipe wrench then back it off and retighten it to finger tight then back it off ever so slightly to allow it to rotate freely.

I always keep about 1/2" of liquor above the grain bed so the spread from the arms is not so important. Balancing the input to the output is the tricky bit as You know. I try to get about 1.5-2L per minute flow rate on a 82L batch size with the arms spinning at full pelt.

BZ

[brewzone]

I mean, can you use a loose-fitting compression fitting or something??

Yep! Thats how I do it!

BZ

[WishboneBrewery]

I mean, can you use a loose-fitting compression fitting or something??

Yep! Thats how I do it!

BZ

I was thinking that maybe pinning the threads at a certain slack point might do it, but chances of that stopping rotation

[brewzone]

I mean, can you use a loose-fitting compression fitting or something??

Yep! Thats how I do it!

BZ

I was thinking that maybe pinning the threads at a certain slack point might do it, but chances of that stopping rotation

I use the PTFE as it allows any slack to be taken up if the olive and mating surfaces of the tee begin to wear.

Also means it is easy to take apart when required.

A small amount of leakage around the olive helps provide a little lubrication too!

BZ

[Garth]

Cheers Brewzone, that's very helpful, I desperately need a bigger sparge arm as the 8.5" looks a bit lost in my 50 litre thermobox.

what was your hole configuration, equally spaced? or closer together towards the end of the arm

[stu-le-brew]

I have just moved to pumping the sparge liquer and find that the "Phil's spinny sparge arm" works much better that when I relied on gravity. The increased pressure is fine in my 70ltr mash tun, although this could be because its never full (my brew size is 50-60ltr).

[brewzone]

Cheers Brewzone, that's very helpful, I desperately need a bigger sparge arm as the 8.5" looks a bit lost in my 50 litre thermobox.

what was your hole configuration, equally spaced? or closer together towards the end of the arm

Morning!

I put nine 1mm holes per arm. The holes are arranged as below so that they are staggered which gives a better spread without too many holes. It does require a pump though to get the pressure and flowrate required to keep it moving.

A nice sharp dot punch will make the required holes in copper without the need to drill.


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--* - * - * - * - *- * - *- * - * < end furthest from tee (arm 1)
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* - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * < end furthest from tee (arm 2)
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/edit

The above example does not display the same way it does when editing but if You imagine that one arm has the holes beginning slightly further out than the other You should get the idea where I'm coming from! I'll try to get a photo posted to better explain what I mean.

The holes are equally spaced.

BZ

[jaycee]

Nice one BZ, for the info