Distaster brewery 40 litre plastic build.

[Mephistopholes]

Just cut out the manifold. I was wondwring whether i could just drill holes with my 1.5mm drill bit or if i would have to use the hacksaw?

 

[BigYin]

I'm assuming in my build that the Mash Tun will be holding grain and therefore it's slots, and I'm making an identical sized strainer for the boiler, but as it has to strain out the hops, that will be holes.

 

[Mephistopholes]

Slots or h9les? What difference? Theyre both as narrow as eab other.

 

[tubby_shaw]

Slots or h9les? What difference? Theyre both as narrow as eab other.

Round hole+round ish grain = blocked hole = no run off
Slot+round ish grain = no blocking
Trust us we've tried we know :thumb:

 

[Mephistopholes]

But i dont wanna cut all those slots. :x

 

[BigYin]

Angle grinder - they're the way forward :mrgreen:

Got mine and a ceramic cutting disc to cut through some ceramic tiles - awsome!!

Will be ace when I next need to do some paving and need to cut any slabs - just whack n a masonry disc and off you go!

I got a pack of 10 x 1mm deep metal cutting discs for this job - cost under a tenner - makes incredibly light work of the slot cutting work!!

 

[Mephistopholes]

Well lucky you.

I've got a cheap hacksaw and i refuse to pay anymore for anything else. the copper was bloody expensive enough. i'll resume sawing on monday. would ideally like to brew next weekend.

 

[BigYin]

oh, I'm with you on the price of copper :evil: It's incredibly expensive! I looked up the soft 10mm copper pipe to make my wort chiller out of, and thought I'd found a bargain at the plumb centre only to find out that the price they were quoting was per metre, not the 30 metre roll :nono: :evil:

He offered to drop the per metre price to almost half the catalogue price, but that still made it almost £180 for 30m of the stuff :evil: :evil: :evil:

Ended up buying a 25m roll from screwfix for £49 - that made my eyes water :shock:

Depending on how much of it I use, I'm contemplating flogging the balance onto someone - or even making a second chiller and flogging that!!

Anyway - back to topic - never sure with a text only reply - wasn't meaning to annoy you with my recomendation (and attempted justification) for an angle grinder - if indeed I did!! A lot of people use the old hacksaw to great effect, and a few have used their Dremel. The hacksaw is definitely the cheapest way to do it! :drink:

 

[mr_spin]

I also used an angle grinder for cutting the slots on my manifold - far easier. I used a super slim cutting disc (0.9mm from memory). It was a ball-ache removing all the rough bits though!

 

[Mephistopholes]

No offense intended. I am however extremely jealous of your rotary badness.

I have a new plan however which will not cost anymore money and should hopefully speed things up.

Having asked around at the weekend as to what tools friends could lend none had any power tools. however a few had hacksaws which leads me to my masterplan. a plan so fiendishly clever it cant fail.

I intend to tape/tie/glue together all 4 hacksaws in my possesion and thus cut 4 grooves at once.



I will call it the megasaw.

 

[gurtpint]

i would think as long as the pipe is rigid enough to take the weight of the grains and liquor, then it doesnt matter how flexible it is. hopefully going shopping this afternoon then building tomorrow. Btw copper is bloody expensive atm it seems.

Right on. Checked with a friend of mine and seems to have the drill bit I need, so I hope the Immense Hole Project will be completed next Sunday. For the tap I have one of these:

http://www.ebrew.com/Products_W/weldless_bulkhead.jpg

I suppose the female threading inside won't cause any grief as long as the pipe connecting the manifold and the tap can fit in there? It doesn't have to be screwed on or fastened permanently, right?

Haven't checked out the prices of copper tubing here but I think I might be in for an unpleasant surprise judging by what you wrote. There's a second-hand/surplus construction materials shop nearby and I think I'll check them out prior to going to a hardware store.

How's the megasaw project coming along then?

 

[Mephistopholes]

Sadly the megasaw collapsed. glue string nor sticky tape could bind them. I'm not sure if the world was ready for such a radical proposition anyway so i buckled and spent five quid on these. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0143075134

Hope you can find a bargain out there somewhere. After all DIY was supposed to be the less expensive option.

 

[gurtpint]

Sorry to hear about the untimely demise of the megasaw. However, I am sure that 100 years from now you well be celebrated as a pioneer and a visionary.

Dropped by my nearest hardware store today and discovered that if I was to get my copper pipe + connectors new, it would cost well over 40 euros (pipe diameter 12mm). And that doesn't even include the ball valve. Bah. So, with this in mind I'm actually tempted to go for the stainless steel hose route. I reckon it would work alright for me, since I batch sparge and the price would be well below the 20 euro mark. I'm a bit concerned whether the hose can take the water + grain weight though.

 

[hopin mad]

regards copper fittings, if you ask any plumbers supplies shop for "Yorkshire Fittings" they come without solder, or you could look at plastic fittings for the 15mm drainage pipe, plastic is cheaper at the moment

 

[Mephistopholes]

I need to cut the holes out on my hdpe bucket to insert the elements. the washer to hold them has an internal diametewr of 38mm. I have read that the best way to do this is a holesaw though ive just priced up at screfix for one holesaw and the arbor to hold it is gonna cost £9.50 or so. way too expensive to be cutting 2 holes.

so..

Does anyone know where to get one cheaper or is there an alternative. ive got a 1 inch drill bit and am planning to if nothing else comes along drill a one inch hole and gently run a very sharp knife round till i get the desired width.

:hmm:

 

[BigYin]

very difficult to cut a perfectly round hole by hand with a knife - and it has to be spot on for the kettle element seal to stand a decent chance of working!

Is there no one you know who might have one you could borrow?

Is there no one you know who lives nearby doing the same things as you and you could split the cost?

 

[Baz Chaz]

I need to cut the holes out on my hdpe bucket to insert the elements. the washer to hold them has an internal diametewr of 38mm. I have read that the best way to do this is a holesaw though ive just priced up at screfix for one holesaw and the arbor to hold it is gonna cost £9.50 or so. way too expensive to be cutting 2 holes.

so..

Does anyone know where to get one cheaper or is there an alternative. ive got a 1 inch drill bit and am planning to if nothing else comes along drill a one inch hole and gently run a very sharp knife round till i get the desired width.

:hmm:

Find a local friendly tradesman working nearby and have a word joiner / plumber :thumb:

 

[Mephistopholes]

Ok emergency over flea bay did the business.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT

Prolly not the best quality but should do two plastic holes.

yeya

 

[BigYin]

good find! :thumb:

 

[Mephistopholes]

Been pretty busy the last two nights and nearly finished.

managed to get the manifold finally cut out. this was a real pain and something i had to do in small chunks. i have to say though i'm pretty happy with the final product.

The manifold is very tight on the bottom of the tun and when testing it with water there was less than half a pint left.

Also after trying several different hop filter solutions a full false bottom on trial seemed to work the best

This is really tight to the side and has no chance of moving. i actually used some old hops and trub to test it and it works a dream even at full run off speed.

it is however at exactly the same height as i was going to put the elements

spo first question... Do i put them below and risk melting the hop filter or put them above and risk getting a cold spot underneath? the lid is from my old brupaks boiler/copper so is pretty durable, but it is such a good fit i dont want to risk ruining it.

and the second is concerning the element..

As you might be able to see the plug fits over the three pins on the back of the element but isnt particulalry snug thus leaving some of the pin exposed, i was hoping to leave the original switch on too but as its mounted away from the circular area where the main element joins , it is gonna be quite difficult to build a tight shroud. is there some way of making this all a bit safer. all i have done is remove the element and havent altered it in any way. do i need to disable a cut off for the boil? i'm pretty sure i can cut a hole exactly when the holesaws arrive and get a watertight fit.

this is the last major thing i need to do now before i can start brewing.

The sparge arm has nearly been finalised and i even managed to make this out of a leftover length of copper and a plate from the back of the brupak boiler( the element in it got wet and has become unsafe/uinusable, i will be much more careful with the new ones)

new mash paddle

Hopefully i would like to brew saturday morning so not long to get the elements sorted. Any advice would be extremly welcome.