Mash Tun - Weld the copper joints?

[Homeboy]

After a extract brews im now venturing into the world of AG and building my first Mash Tun.
I have all the copper and joints, drilled what feels like 3000 holes in the copper and just about to weld it all together when I saw a post that advises not to weld so that you can take it apart for cleaning???
Does anybody have any advice on this??
Personally, I would like to weld it so I can take it out easily at the end but am I making a mistake with this?

 

[Kybren]

I made my copper manifold a tight so it wouldn't come apart when stirring so I could clean it. I find it better like this as you said for cleaning

 

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

I didn't weld mine at all. It only came apart once in about 20 brews, before I changed up. I remember reading somewhere that partial welding is a happy medium, so you can still clean deeply.

Personally, I hated having all those little pieces of copper to put together each brew day. Based on that. I'd vote for partial weld!

 

[Homeboy]

Thanks guys. Can I just confirm though that when you mean 'cleaning', you dont mean cleaning the inside of the copper tubing??
Im planning on welding (or partial welding!) my copper tubes together but then having an attachment to my cooler so I can remove the whole assembly in one go for cleaning (as in rinsing the tubing out). Does that seem reasonable??

 

[Hop_on_the_good_foot]

So when I made mine, I decided to drill the holes with the smallest drill bit I could find (on my dremel) instead of slits. Wrong way to go looking back... I would find grain particles inside the tubing and also blocking the holes so i was certainly happy I could take it apart to clean inside.

As Kybren said above, if its tight, it'll hold together just fine. You'll be surprised how tight it can fit together without a weld.

Whatever you do, I think as long as your confident you'll be able to flush it out properly, you're golden.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If the joints are not tight couldn't you give them a nip with pliers so they are a tight fit.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Somewhere online there's a mash tun filter made from stainless steel braided tubing with several short pieces of copper tubing inserted to prevent collapse under the weight of grain.

 

[Homeboy]

Thanks for everyones advice, I have decided to compromise and weld one side up but have left the other end 'un-welded' so I can remove it for cleaning.
(im unable to attach a photo)

 

[private4587]

What I did with mine was to use a centre punch, and give each joint a light tap with hammer and punch and this was enough to nip each joint so that it would not come apart in use but allowed it to be stripped down for cleaning when required.