Dismantling a ceramic beer tower... Help!!!

[CJR]

Hi everybody.

Just bought this lovely beasty from another forum member, yet neither of us can work out how to dismantle it.



I want to tighten up some of the taps and possibly change the line. Does anybody know how to take apart one of these? Internet has been no help so far. Hope someone can help me out.

Cheers,

CJR

[barneey]

A few suggestions...

The taps will almost certainly just screw into the stainless body, the question is do they have a lock nut the otherside or is there thread built into the housing? If the latter just unscrew the taps an pull, the tap complete with line should come out a little to beable to work on it. If you have just a simple nut your need to get to the otherside.

I`ve never dismantled a ceramic tap but if there are no visable signs of screws anywhere would the ceramic housing either be glued in position or have an actual thread on it?

Final solution I can think of, if by chance you didnt want the tower and only the taps for say a kegerator build , hit it with a hammer.

Sorry cant be of much more help with a solution.

[drunkpapaj]

On the beer towers/font i've worked on they are assembled so no fixings are visable, normally there will be screws/bolt in the bottom holding the mount on them, as you remove that you can then access other fixings that then mean you can disasemble the rest of it slowly.

[CJR]

A few suggestions...

The taps will almost certainly just screw into the stainless body, the question is do they have a lock nut the otherside or is there thread built into the housing? If the latter just unscrew the taps an pull, the tap complete with line should come out a little to beable to work on it. If you have just a simple nut your need to get to the otherside.

I`ve never dismantled a ceramic tap but if there are no visable signs of screws anywhere would the ceramic housing either be glued in position or have an actual thread on it?

Final solution I can think of, if by chance you didnt want the tower and only the taps for say a kegerator build , hit it with a hammer.

Sorry cant be of much more help with a solution.

I'm not sure but I have a feeling I'll need to be inside.

The ceramic tower isn't threaded in but there is a long, black plastic tube inside the bottom ceramic piece which has a thread on the bottom. I assume the top also is a screw thread but it doesn't seem to like unscrewing...



I can see a thread in the middle at the bottom with a nut on it which connects to top bit where the medallions attack but the thread itself is so long that I can't get to the nut even with a long socket extension (that reaches).

Unfortunately I rather like it as a tower otherwise the hammer option might have already been carried out.

On the beer towers/font i've worked on they are assembled so no fixings are visable, normally there will be screws/bolt in the bottom holding the mount on them, as you remove that you can then access other fixings that then mean you can disasemble the rest of it slowly.

I'm assuming that is what the long, plastic tube will be.

[barneey]

Have you tried a tap spanner to get at the nut?

[CJR]

I haven't come across one before. I'll see if the brewery has one I can borrow. However the depth if the font is about 1 1/2' by eye and the bar across the bottom has a lip on either side so I don't know if that will affect anything. There is about an inch of thread stopping me getting to the bolt, unless I can remove the ceramic base somehow.

[barneey]

Well if your near a plumbers merchants or a wickes store pop in with the tap and see if a tap spanner might work.

You might get a few strange looks but who cares

If it doesnt work you could always borrow a hammer whilst your there. Dont take this the wrong way BUT IMHO unless your colour blind the shade of green is truely horrendous.

[CJR]

Well if your near a plumbers merchants or a wickes store pop in with the tap and see if a tap spanner might work.

You might get a few strange looks but who cares

If it doesnt work you could always borrow a hammer whilst your there. Dont take this the wrong way BUT IMHO unless your colour blind the shade of green is truely horrendous.

Don't care about the strange looks.

I think the green is rather nice personally, plus taking a hammer to it would defeat the object of my £50 which was to get a 3-tap tower I can clamp onto my desk.

[darkonnis]

I'd have been more tempted to paint it myself. get some funky designs on the go. If I had room for something like that I'd have had it myself, but realistically for me its too big and I'm not a huge fan.
Let us know how you get on

[boingy]

Stick a webcam and a torch up it and see what you can see.
That beer line has to be replaceable so there is likely to be a fixing somewhere/somehow.

Or buy another one that you can break to learn how to not break it....

[CJR]

Trying to work out if there is a pub serving Hoegaarden with one of these fonts...

[Fil]

DONT attempt to just unscrew the taps.. i did with my 4 tap font only to sidcover that JG stem/elbow fittings had been fitted which ended up snappin the back end of the first tap i unscrewed. resulting in me having to use a non matching stella tap



i would start by trying to unscrew the top metal cross bit, as the top brass ball was the key to dismantling my font, give it a squirt of wd40 the night before you attempt it too, if used a few months wiping down with a mouldy rag could deposit crap

[jmc]

DONT attempt to just unscrew the taps.. i did with my 4 tap font only to sidcover that JG stem/elbow fittings had been fitted which ended up snappin the back end of the first tap i unscrewed. resulting in me having to use a non matching stella tap



i would start by trying to unscrew the top metal cross bit, as the top brass ball was the key to dismantling my font, give it a squirt of wd40 the night before you attempt it too, if used a few months wiping down with a mouldy rag could deposit crap

+1
My font opened up by first unscrewing top to reveal nut and long bolt.

[CJR]

DONT attempt to just unscrew the taps.. i did with my 4 tap font only to sidcover that JG stem/elbow fittings had been fitted which ended up snappin the back end of the first tap i unscrewed. resulting in me having to use a non matching stella tap



i would start by trying to unscrew the top metal cross bit, as the top brass ball was the key to dismantling my font, give it a squirt of wd40 the night before you attempt it too, if used a few months wiping down with a mouldy rag could deposit crap

It worked! I had already unscrewed the cross bit but not the bit holding it up so I put it back on tight and started to unscrew it again. This time the whole thing came off to reveal the inside. And I'm glad to say the three taps are all 3/16 pushfits.

[barneey]

assumed you have also seen JMC post viewtopic.php?f=16&t=61293