Building A Mash Tun

[Siborg]

I'm nearly done building my manifold for my esky mash tun that I'm converting. I've got all the stuff cut to length and all sorted, just need to iron out a few bumps and cut slits in the piping for drainage.

I've basically copied manticle's design from an earlier thread and changed a few things for what I needed/wanted.

Here's the manifold sitting snuggly inside the esky:

At the moment, its sitting on that diagonal piece, which I think may be a problem. I might shorten the long tubes to make it sit closer to the floor of the esky.

Here's the inside connections. It's basically female to female threaded joiner, then a nut and a rubber washer:

Here's the outside. Same thing, just a rubber washer, nut, ball valve.

Filled it with water and there is a slight leak around the outside of the esky where the washer is, and at the join where the ball valve screws on to the threaded pipe.

I have some tefflon tape lying around... would winding some of that around the threads help with the leaking? Also I could have tightened the nuts on both sides of the esky wall a little more, but being rubbber I was a little hesitant. It was just a quick throw together of all the parts cause I'd had enough of it (copper pipe cutter was a pain in the arse). If worse comes to worse, I might put a bit of silicone around the hole that I drilled for the threaded pipe. I wanted the whole thing to be able to be pulled apart for cleaning, but I'm not too fussed if I have to silicone it.

What do you think?

 

[pike1973]

hi siborg what size esky is that ,you are useing. also what are you going to use for cutting the slots?

 

[Siborg]

its a 52L esky. Just a spare one that I had lying around. Gonna use a hacksaw or some sort of power tool, depending on what I can borrow from my mates.

 

[manticle]

Definitely use thread tape wherever you have threads and joins.

If that fails you could silicon the outside but thread tape and fiddling should do the trick.

I would shorten the manifold so you have space away from the walls. Otherwise nice job. A hacksaw will work but if you can get your hands on a dremel and some diamond tipped wheels it will make life easier. Remember the safety glasses.

 

[pike1973]

try using a 1mm disc on an angle grinder ,but you will have to remove all the waste from the cut on the inside of the pipe with some thing like a piece of dowell. Good luck.
Ads.

 

[Beerbuoy]

I would shorten the manifold so you have space away from the walls.

I based my tun on John Palmer's idea's in his book How to Brew. It explains mash tun and manifold design in a couple easy to unerstand paragraphs. The bloke spent heaps of time experimenting with fluid flow through the grain bed. From memory having the manifold to close to the edge promotes channeling down the sides of the tun.

try using a 1mm disc on an angle grinder

+1. 1 mm angle grinder blade. Don't get to fussy. It doesn't make any difference if the slots are not all the same spacing.

Cheers

BB

 

[cdbrown]

Don't forget to test it out with some boiling hot water. Mine all seemed to be leak proof until I tipped hot water in ready for the grain. The walls of the esky are very flexible when heated.

 

[mxd]

looks good, what are using for washers ? If silicon where did you get them ?

Did your pickle you brass Tee and threaded pipe ?

well done.

Matt

 

[Wolfy]

What do you think?

Looks very similar to the one I made.
Just a few comments:

The designs on Palmer's book/website indicate that the pipes should be equal distance from each other and 1/2 that distance from the side of the esky - yours actually look very close to the sides.

I also drilled-out the first/central T-piece so that the middle intake connects directly to the outlet - think I remember reading (or hearing on the Brewing Network show) that without doing that the long flow path from the central pickup made it much less effective.

Of course it does depend if you will be batch or fly sparging, as most of his analysis is more relevant to fly sparging.

 

[Screwtop]

My 2c, be sure to run the thread tape right through along the thread where it will pass through the esky wall, screw down the nuts on either side. Looks good, there are probably a few finer points which could be taken into account with the design. Have made quite a few of these things and really, the differences in design make very little difference to the results.

Cheers,

Screwy

 

[Siborg]

I would shorten the manifold so you have space away from the walls.

Do you mean the long ones are too close, or the ones with the T's in them? I wanted to have the ones with the T's as close as possible, if not flush against the shorter edged walls to prevent it from moving around too much.

Don't forget to test it out with some boiling hot water. Mine all seemed to be leak proof until I tipped hot water in ready for the grain. The walls of the esky are very flexible when heated.

Good idea. I tested it with cold water today, but I will have to try it with some hot water. Maybe not boiling as mashing/sparging won't be any higher than 80 degrees.

looks good, what are using for washers ? If silicon where did you get them ?

Did your pickle you brass Tee and threaded pipe ?

well done.

Matt

They're rubber washers. I didn't pay too much attention... Something flexible and big enough to cover the hole. I'll see if I still have the packet. Haven't done a thing to the brass tee and threaded pipe. That's the way I bought em from Bunnings. Should I pickle them?

Looks very similar to the one I made.
Just a few comments:

The designs on Palmer's book/website indicate that the pipes should be equal distance from each other and 1/2 that distance from the side of the esky - yours actually look very close to the sides.

I also drilled-out the first/central T-piece so that the middle intake connects directly to the outlet - think I remember reading (or hearing on the Brewing Network show) that without doing that the long flow path from the central pickup made it much less effective.

Of course it does depend if you will be batch or fly sparging, as most of his analysis is more relevant to fly sparging.

I measured it up to be 1/2 the distance of the distance between the middle pieces. The brass T made it a little wider, 20mm, so its 30mm away from the wall instead of 45mm (space between long pipes was meant to be 80mm, now 90mm)

I'll be batch sparging anyway, so it probably won't be too much of an issue.

My 2c, be sure to run the thread tape right through along the thread where it will pass through the esky wall, screw down the nuts on either side. Looks good, there are probably a few finer points which could be taken into account with the design. Have made quite a few of these things and really, the differences in design make very little difference to the results.

Yeah. I found a role of teflon that I'll run through all the threads and tighten the f**k out of those nuts near the washers.

Cheers for the feedback guys!

 

[mxd]

Haven't done a thing to the brass tee and threaded pipe. That's the way I bought em from Bunnings. Should I pickle them?

I have the same in my development at the moment and I pickled them last night, not too sure if they should be pickled. ?

 

[manticle]

Pickling brass removes any lead content. Just give it a soak in some white vinegar and cold water.

You should have some clearance from the walls on all sides. Mine is probably 20mm around all sides.

 

[glaab]

I like to sweat one of these flanged backnuts on. It always seems to wanna leak through the threads. A silicon washer behind there and she'll never leak a drop

 

[Siborg]

Pickling brass removes any lead content. Just give it a soak in some white vinegar and cold water.

You should have some clearance from the walls on all sides. Mine is probably 20mm around all sides.

Yeah, I'll give that a go... Don't want lead in my beer!

 

[Pollux]

I recently built my first decent tun, for the slits I used a $8.99 pipe cutter from bunnings, but instead of rotating it right around the pipe as one would to cut it I simply rocked it over half the pipe while slowly increasing the pressure, worked for me.

 

[Siborg]

I recently built my first decent tun, for the slits I used a $8.99 pipe cutter from bunnings, but instead of rotating it right around the pipe as one would to cut it I simply rocked it over half the pipe while slowly increasing the pressure, worked for me.

How long did that take you? I have the same tool and was considering doing that too, but I reckon it would take ages and I'm worried that it might make the slit too wide as it did when I was cutting my copper pipe to length

 

[Pollux]

ummm, roughly 35-40 cuts done in around 15 minutes......

This was after I tried both drilling and a hacksaw. Certainly quicker than either.

 

[Siborg]

Pickling brass removes any lead content. Just give it a soak in some white vinegar and cold water.

You should have some clearance from the walls on all sides. Mine is probably 20mm around all sides.

How long for?

ummm, roughly 35-40 cuts done in around 15 minutes......

This was after I tried both drilling and a hacksaw. Certainly quicker than either.

I'll try it on an offcut and see if its any good for me. I got alot of time to kill today, so I might end up doing that. That and I can't wait any longer... I want it done yesterday!

 

[mxd]

How long for?

Courtesy of John Palmer:

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB.html

6th paragraph. - Cleaning Brass