Thermopot Bottom Drain Options

[Fil]

while i agree Andy's Work is superb and clean looking, but dont get hung up on what the tun bottom looks like unless your planning on sitting it on a glass shelf and standing underneath it..

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

I decided to bring the thermopot home with me so I can start work on it.

I've just ordered a 21mm Q.Max and a 10mm tin coated HSS bit for the pilot hole and will be ordering the
deck fitting and elbow from Mr Lard. I assume from above I don't need to buy any washers or other fittings for this?

I have a 40mm holesaw (only used once on a FV so not blunted) which I will cut the bottom of the thermopot.

I have a 2 piece tap in my coolbox MT, so am going to use that in the interim (it'll just be laying around anyway), then get a 3 piece ball valve when I start to build my HLT and Boiler in the new year.

I'm hoping the 50mm nipple I have will be long enough to connect the elbow to the tap. Will need to do some measuring.

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

Hmmm, the postage on the deck fitting and elbow are almost as expensive as the parts. Does anyone know of Mr Lard will send via Royal Mail?

[Eclipse9101]

The postage is only £6.25 for me on the bottom drain fitting kit. Which parts are you looking at?

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

The deck fitting and elbow. They're £7.92, but the courier delivery is £5.21. I;m sure they'd fit in a jiffy bag. Have tweeted Mr Lard to see if he can send Royal Mail. If not, I'll have to wait a few weeks and buy them when I order a false bottom.

[Fil]

while thermopots have thinner skins than stock pots a 10mm drill bit is huge for drilling a pilot hole .. hope i misunderstood and u have 2,3,5mm bits already to start and open up the hole too..
and the 10mm is just for the final qmax bolt opening.. also 20mm would be better and help fixing 1/2" bsp fitting centrally but thats not a biggy..

get stuck in

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I have smaller bits so can progressively get to the 10mm hole.

I did wonder whether 20mm or 21mm would be best, but I did 21mm in my coolbox tun so just stuck with that.

Accidently duplicated my order with My Tool Shed, so asked them to cancel and refund one. Unfortunately it looks like both have been cancelled. I probably won't have time to do any butchery before the weekend anyway, so no big deal.

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

I've ordered the deck fitting and elbow. I've gone with the courier as I'm impatient and think I'll get the false bottom elsewhere - any comments on the Hop & Grape ones? It'll be a bit cheaper, but if they're particularly less quality I'll go with Brew Builder.

What's are people's experiences of deliveries from Brew Builder on little parts like this? Am I likely to receive by the beginning of next week?

[Andy]

This is my build thread BTW.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50472&p=530919

[JamesF]

Haven't checked the postage, but BrewBuilder actually look cheaper for the size I want.

James

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

This is my build thread BTW.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=50472&p=530919

Thanks, I think this is I had in my head so very helpful.

[Andy]

I had to hacksaw down the skin fitting thread but with the MrL fitting you don't need to do this. Also I had to fit a washer on the skin fitting thread (on the underside of the tun) as the skin threads didn't go all the way up the shaft, the MrL fitting doesn't have this problem.

[YeastFace Brew Co.]

Great, thank you.

The largest holesaw I personally have is 40mm, I assume this won't give me enough clearance to tighten everything up? Father-in-Law will probably have larger ones, but can easily pick one up, if not.

[Andy]

Might get away with 40mm but it will be a pain to enlarge it if you have probs!

In my thread I mentioned a tool from BES to tighten up the skin fitting (which has recessed lugs inside it), you will need a way of doing this! The tool is great but ain't cheap, it's possible to use something else to tighten it up so have a think about that.

[JamesF]

My 1/2" BSP elbows are about 25mm OD, so if you need to work on the bottom of the deck fitting with the elbow in place I'd say that 40mm is not going to be big enough to allow you to get tools in. If the deck fitting is going straight into the elbow and clamping everything together then it's probably not an issue.

I haven't checked when I can do with mine yet. I shall do that now

James