Hole Advice

[daveyk]

I also like the connector.... where did it come from? I need to do a similar thing to my boiler but hadn't even thought about needing to increase the size of the hole.

[FutureBrewer]

Update:

Did a bit more on the boiler this weekend:



The bottom of the boiler has ridges meaning plenty of dead space, so I decided to make a dip tube which sits on the outer edge of the vessel so that (with a gentle tip) I can drain off most of the wort.



I bought a couple of Yorkshire solder ring street elbows from Screwfix and cut a 41mm length of 15mm pipe.



After soldering the first elbow to the pipe (bit messy, I know - but I've never soldered before ) I marked the angle of the second elbow with a felt-pen.



The second joint was a bit neater



The finished article in position Then all I needed to do was test its wort slurping abilities.



I poured in a few litres of water and drained it through the tap - tipping the boiler slightly towards the dip tube at the end of the run-off. I'm pretty pleased with the result, not much wastage there

Next, of course, is a suitable hop strainer... I'm doing this at the moment:



It's a work in progress, but I'm not sure about the design though. Any suggestions?

Cheers,
FB.

PS - daveyk: The connector Jubby recommended to me is Compression x BSP Parallel Male part No.7786 from: http://www.bes.co.uk/products/141.asp

Q-Max cutters are excellent for making a bigger 'ole too!

[Kev888]

Good stuff - glad the dip tube worked out!

Thats an interesting design of hop stopper. I've seen them as mesh tubes or flat-ish envelopes, but I guess any shape will work as long as the hops will form a decent filter bed over/around it.

Cheers
kev

[FutureBrewer]

Thanks Kev,

Yes, I think I'll abandon that particular hop strainer...

I see you've used stainless braid from a hose before - how did you get on with that as a hop strainer?

Any problems to be aware of?

Cheers in advance,
FB.

[Kev888]

The stainless braid has worked well for me; I've used it in two boilers in the past and have just gone with it in my new upgrade too so i've high hopes for that as well. That said, I've seen a lot of people both liking and disliking the braid, and some people having to put bits of tube inside to stop it collapsing, but I think in most cases the issues have been in MTs rather than boilers, where the weight of grain and filtering demands are quite different really

The main issue that I can think of is probably not to use galvanised hose clips to fix it. The wort can bring off the coating fairly quickly - mine went rusty quite soon and probably the dissolved zinc isn't very healthy either. I tried a method of sandwiching the braid between the nut and olive in compression fittings, this worked but was a little fragile over time if you want to take it apart for cleaning and so on. So these days I use stainless steel hose clips (I got mine somewhere on ebay) and they seem the best solution I've tried so far.

But the mesh sheet you have is also quite popular; I've not tried it myself but its usually formed into a tube or envelope enclosing some sort of more rigid pipe or drainage system.

Cheers
Kev

[FutureBrewer]

That's great info - thanks a lot Kev!

Cheers,
FB.

[Gricey]

So, I revisited Jubby's posts and decided the obvious course of action would be to spend even more money and buy the tap, adaptor and hose tail he recommended!


[

So, I've a 70L (HLT) 50L (Boiler) 50L Thermobox (MT) to convert, one thing I've noticed:

Whats the difference between that tap up there and the one Vossy has used in previous builds:



I know its a different part from BES, but what's the actual difference, other than Vossy's looking more space shuttlish?

Gricey

[leedsbrew]

Vossy has used a 3 piece ball valve gricey. The female fittings at each side of the valve are held in place by bolts with a washer/gasket at each side so you can take it apart for cleaning! I've got one on my mash run and boiler. I didn't see the need to use one on the hlt as it's only water (until I realised that I want them all to match so number 3 is on order! )

[leedsbrew]

Here's a couple of images from google to illustrate it.


LB

[FutureBrewer]

Now THAT'S a ball-valve and a half!

[daveyk]

So, I revisited Jubby's posts and decided the obvious course of action would be to spend even more money and buy the tap, adaptor and hose tail he recommended!


[

Sorry but I think I must be missing something. How does this set up differ from a standard ball valve and tank connector? Does it go through a smaller hole or something? Really need to get round to a similar Swan cygnet conversion myself and this looks the business.

Dave

[FutureBrewer]

Sorry but I think I must be missing something. How does this set up differ from a standard ball valve and tank connector? Does it go through a smaller hole or something?

With a standard tank connector you generally have to file down or (as in my case) drill out the connector so you can pass a 15mm pipe through it.

The connector Jubby recommended makes life a bit easier:



Front nut comes off, connector slides through hole up to 2nd fixed nut. Tighten up and the job's done - with a BSP thread on front to attach the ball-valve tap, and a 15mm compression nut & olive on the inside of boiler to attach pipe & hop filter.

It works for me anyway...

The monster ball-valve tap that LeedsBrew and others have got comes apart for cleaning - the one I have doesn't.

Cheers,
FB.

[daveyk]

Thanks... that makes sense now.... so what is that connector called?

Dave

[Kev888]

If its of interest, you can get solder versions too such as this (though that example seems a bit costly) with a 15mm pipe socket at one end and a 1/2" BSP thread on the other.

Cheers
kev

[FutureBrewer]

PS - daveyk: The connector Jubby recommended to me is Compression x BSP Parallel Male part No.7786 from: http://www.bes.co.uk/products/141.asp

Q-Max cutters are excellent for making a bigger 'ole too!

Cheers,
FB.