Expressions of Interest - SS fermenter cones- Melb, Syd, anywhere

[Tex N Oz]

I'm looking for expressions of interest on a huge order of truncated fermenter cones as pictured below.
These could be picked up in either Melbourne (pending someone to handle them there) or West Sydney. I'd be happy to ship anywhere in Australia if you pay shipping.

Material 304SS 2B finish
Top Hole 355mm OD
Bottom Hole 38mm OD
Rack Arm Hole 38mm OD (horizontal planed for a 90° outlet)
Thickness 1.5mm
Funnel to Flange radius 10mm
Flange Height 12mm
Total Height 292mm
Cone Angle ­60°

These are CNC spun and tooling is extremely expensive. For this reason, the prices will be as follows should we get enough interest.

50 - 100 ~$90 ea.
100 - 200 ~$70 ea.
200+ ~$50 ea.

These are approximate prices based on discussions with the manufacturer.

I'd be in for 2 if less than 100 and 5 if mid range and 10 if we get the 200+ but that's unlikely. Anything less than 50 is unfeasible.
I'll be building 25 PSI capable fermenters if we make this happen. I'm thinking ferment, rack, carb and serve all in one unit.

Any input is appreciated and if there is enough interest I'll get firm pricing but it will be very close.

 

[Mardoo]

I'm interested. Why the 355mm opening at the top? It seems like something like 500mm would be more useful to more people.

 

[Cervantes]

Would this be designed to weld on to the bottom of a cornelius keg?

 

[Tex N Oz]

355mm is the diameter at the chime of a DIN keg. Carefully plasma cut at the chime and it's exactly 355mm and would give you a 60.5 litre fermenter.
Before anyone goes on a rant about illegal, knocked off commercial kegs, I'll add that you can buy brand new DIN kegs for $150 each and that would be the road to travel.
Used kegs wouldn't suit because even the slightest ding would put your critical weld at risk and it wouldn't be worth it. I calculate that with the price of a new keg, you could put together a very nice pressure fermentation vessel for about $350 that would fit nicely in many upright fridges. Go the extra mile and having it pickled, passivated and electro polished would make one sweet fermenter. There are a few companies here in Sydney that will do it for not a lot of money. Again, you don't want a nasty assed keg that been thrown off the back of a truck or rolled down stairs. You want a nice clean new one for something like this.

 

[Cervantes]

Not trying to be a smart arse, but it may be a little awkward to clean properly as you won't be able to get your hand in there.

Edit:

Sodium percarbonate may do it though.

 

[Tex N Oz]

Not trying to be a smart arse, but it may be a little awkward to clean properly as you won't be able to get your hand in there.

My plans are to use the threaded top hole to fit a Gamajet nano through and add 4 more 1.5" sanitary fittings on the top for all other things.
First, fill the fermenter to overflow with wash and let it set 1 hour to soak, then drain out the bottom, back into the wash bucket and then recirc through the Gamajet for another 15 minutes.
Then a cold water rinse and a quick hit of 6% H2O2 or iodophor. Seal it up and she'll be right until I need her again.

Minimise access and you'll minimise infection. Plus, if you've electro polished the interior, the last thing you want to do is abrade it with dirt on a rag.

 

[Mardoo]

OK, excellent choice of sizes. I'm interested in 2 at ~$90/each, up to four at ~$70/each.

 

[zappa]

I'll stick my hand up for 4. Will revise if we get to 70 or less.

 

[Tex N Oz]

When I get home tonight I'll organise a chart and keep it updated. Hopefully we'll see some increased interest in this project.
We're at 8 towards the 50+ and 13 towards the 100+ and 18 towards the 200+. Hopefully my math is right.... I'm doing Dry July and my brain is running short of octane at the moment.

 

[Topher]

What do ya reckon is the Best way to stand this up? Get the welder to whack some legs on......or some kind of separate assembly to sit it in?

I'd consider this if I get a bigger ferment fridge.

Brilliant idea by the way..... Dry July makes people more productive. I built a kickarse stainless kegerator last July. Good luck!

 

[lael]

Off topic: Did you post pics of the kegerator somewhere?

What do ya reckon is the Best way to stand this up? Get the welder to whack some legs on......or some kind of separate assembly to sit it in?

I'd consider this if I get a bigger ferment fridge.

Brilliant idea by the way..... Dry July makes people more productive. I built a kickarse stainless kegerator last July. Good luck!

 

[Tex N Oz]

What do ya reckon is the Best way to stand this up? Get the welder to whack some legs on......or some kind of separate assembly to sit it in?

My plans are to build loop stands so I can reach in and lift the units out then hang up by the chime handles up high to flush with my tank cleaner. Once empty it should be fairly easy to handle and wont disrupt the other fermenters in my ferminator. When not in use they can be stored upside down in the corner.

The loop stands will catch the bottom roll rail giving it decent balance.

 

[Ferg]

I've actually gone down this route already and had a cone section & dome section spun at whitehorse metal spinners in Melbourne.
My unit is designed to be totally enclosed with a 2" triclover fitting on the bottom & 6" on the top. It will be cleaned in place with a spinning ball. It is failry similar to the brewhemoth unit at the top. My unit is 100 - 110l capacity.
I specified 2mm wall thickness, 1.6mm would be fine (I would stick with standard stainless steel sheet thicknesses: 0.9, 1.2, 1.6, 2.0, 2.5) and a 2B finish. In hindsight I should have specified an internal roughness value instead as my unit cone came out quite bumpy and needed some work done inside. I wouldn't be too concerned about trying to match the outside diameter with the keg size as it will be comparitevly cheap to have the straight walled section of the tank rolled and welded together. For comparison I got a quote for 20+ units as I wanted to see whether I could build several units. My prices were: Cone $145 + GST, Dome $80 + GST.

 

[Tex N Oz]

Hey Ferg

That's a nice setup and I did consider making a complete fermenter but had a few design reasons.
Anything larger than a 60 ltr is more than my needs. 50 litre final product is the most I'd ever want in one type of beer as I'll be legging into 1/6 bbl kegs. I hope to keep lots of beers on taps. I can brew a 23L up to 55L. My needs would completely change if I were commercial and needed something larger.
Because I'm going to run pressurised fermentation I'm not too keen on lateral welds. I'm keen to keep welds <= 12mm from the cone to body for minimum work stress. By letting someone else design the pressure vessel and only make a few supported welds I'll keep distortion to a minimum. I'll also have a chime for storage (upside down). Will it make a difference at 25 PSI? Probably not but I'll build em quick with 6 x 38mm fitting welds and a single 1115mm cylinder weld. I may run pipes through the ferminator to support by the chime handles without the need for ring stands. Not sure yet.
As for the thickness of the metal isn't by a standard as its spun from a much thicker, smaller round of metal. I'm only interested in a uniform thickness for a final product and kegs have a 1.5mm thickness. Much easier to maintain a sanitary weld.
With kegs I can maintain 4 fermenters in my fridge with offset puke tanks.
How much was your steel tooling costs for that?

 

[bjbear77]

2 @ $50 (200+)

 

[Tex N Oz]

That's 10% towards the 200 and damn cheap at $50 each. If we get close I may buy up the rest just to make it happen.

 

[Bomber Watson]

3 for me please. Preferably at the cheaper rates.

 

[Yob]

so if im reading this correctly, I'll still be responsible for getting some muppet to weld the cone on and get it right?

What would shipping come to?

 

[Tex N Oz]

so if im reading this correctly, I'll still be responsible for getting some muppet to weld the cone on and get it right?

Probably the easiest weld a welder could make. I can post generic machine settings and techniques if anyone needs them.
Simple stuff.

What would shipping come to?

How many and to where? Shouldn't be much.

 

[Mardoo]

I'd stay away from the muppets Yob, unless you need some cookies eaten