Home Made Conical Fermenter

[dug]

I wish I knew how to weld. Good luck :icon_cheers:

 

[praxis178]

I wish I knew how to weld. Good luck :icon_cheers:

It's one of those things I take for granted, I've been doing it since I was ~14, started with stick, then went and learnt fusion (forge welding) welding, then got myself a TIG setup and went to TAFE and did a welding course..... No expert, but my beads do look ok, now. :unsure:

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

It's one of those things I take for granted, I've been doing it since I was ~14, started with stick, then went and learnt fusion (forge welding) welding, then got myself a TIG setup and went to TAFE and did a welding course..... No expert, but my beads do look ok, now. :unsure:

Looking Good mate!

 

[praxis178]

Small update....

SS sheet stock is still flat and will remain so till next week (the joys of "mate will do it for for a few beers"), so while most of the parts are now here, still waiting for the 1" NPT pipe nipple, I'm at an imp's ars til either the sheet gets rolled or that nipple shows up.

So in a fit of semi inebriated boredom I welded on the 1/2 nipple for the racking valve last night, free advise to the uninitiated don't weld when drunk or distracted!



Probably my worst bit of welding since *before* I did the welding course, even burnt a hole in the thin ***** funnel wall....

 

[Gopha]

So after much f*+k arsing around welding the scraps from pot A, I've decided that while I can weld it with reasonable consistency it's right at the cusp of the finest that my TIG will do, even at minimum the amps are a tad high, so I've ordered a piece of stainless steel sheet which a mate of mine will roll into a cylinder for me. Down side to that is the new material is 1.2mm which was the thinest the supplier had in stock, I could have gone thinner if I had wanted to buy a whole sheet.....

And today my funnel arrived OD 303mm, height 218mm wall thickness <grrrr> 0.55mm <grrrr>, still better than the pots, so I guess we'll see how things pan out welding 0.5 to 1.2mm as a butt weld. The finished fermenter should still take the original Big W stock pot lid as it's lid.

You may wont to have a look at this product, if you are not doing a gas purge on the back of the weld. I have used it and its brilliant - Cheers
http://www.solarflux.com/Pages/Productinfo.html
P.S. Doesn't solve the thin metal problem, but it sure beats the sugary back of a weld

 

[praxis178]

You may wont to have a look at this product, if you are not doing a gas purge on the back of the weld. I have used it and its brilliant - Cheers
http://www.solarflux.com/Pages/Productinfo.html
P.S. Doesn't solve the thin metal problem, but it sure beats the sugary back of a weld

The type B stuff sounds like silica flour, boric acid (low temp binder that is also a kind of flux) and spirit carrier, mostly being boric acid based on the MSDS percentages. Still easier to buy a tub than brew my own....

Thanks for the link! :icon_cheers:

Mostly I just grind that sugary ***** off at the post welding clean up, but if I can save some time and effort, what's the loss?

 

[hirns]

Interesting thread Thomas

I've been contemplating the use of two of the 19L Big W S/S pots to make a cheap boiler. I was going cut the base off one and them stack them to make a 38L ish boiler. As the metal is so thin I was going to use a spot welder to fix the two together (as the handles are spot welded on). However, rather than then welding them to seal, I was then going to use silver or lead free plumbers solder to sweat the two together. The solder seams are obviously easy to clean and polish up.



Cheers :chug:


Hirns

 

[praxis178]

Interesting thread Thomas

I've been contemplating the use of two of the 19L Big W S/S pots to make a cheap boiler. I was going cut the base off one and them stack them to make a 38L ish boiler. As the metal is so thin I was going to use a spot welder to fix the two together (as the handles are spot welded on). However, rather than then welding them to seal, I was then going to use silver or lead free plumbers solder to sweat the two together. The solder seams are obviously easy to clean and polish up.



Cheers :chug:


Hirns

Too bad you're not closer, got a spare pot and one that is bottomless and re-worked to fit the other pot ~1cm below the lip.....

Do still have the box the funnel came in which would fit the two pots if you're interested, cost plus postage maybe?

I did think about soldering, but discounted it as valves tend to get abused a bit and while soldering is strong, I don't know how long it would put up with that and keep the beer inside the vessel, but for a boiler/kettle should work well.

 

[hirns]

:chug:

Too bad you're not closer, got a spare pot and one that is bottomless and re-worked to fit the other pot ~1cm below the lip.....

Do still have the box the funnel came in which would fit the two pots if you're interested, cost plus postage maybe?

I did think about soldering, but discounted it as valves tend to get abused a bit and while soldering is strong, I don't know how long it would put up with that and keep the beer inside the vessel, but for a boiler/kettle should work well.

Yeah, aggree.. for the valves etc I would be welding(or using weldless), but for simple (and clean) joint sealing I would think that the silver solder(can't remember melting point) with the spot weld re-inforcement would do the job very safely(no one wants a 100C wort shower if the soldering fails).

Cheers
Hirns

 

[hirns]

Thomas, meant to ask you how did you cut the bottom off the pot without tearing/warping the metal too much to weld to the other pot?

Cheers :beer:

Hirns

 

[praxis178]

Thomas, meant to ask you how did you cut the bottom off the pot without tearing/warping the metal too much to weld to the other pot?

Cheers :beer:

Hirns


1.2mm inox blade in my angle grinder and went at it slowly doing ~1/10 the circumference at a time. No distortion, but you do need a steady hand and a good eye not to go askew, my cut missed the start point by ~1/2 the blade width.

You will find that the bottom of the pot is ~6mm smaller in diameter than the top of the pot, took me the better part of an hour to gently hammer out the bottom section (I kept about half of the radius between the walls and the bottom), to flare it out to match the top of the other pot....

The offer still stands on the two fitted pots. The body of my HB'ed conical is now a 1.2mm thick custom rolled stainless cylinder 300mm ID and 600mm long.

 

[_HOME_BREW_WALLACE_]

Photos???

 

[yardy]

Small update....

SS sheet stock is still flat and will remain so till next week (the joys of "mate will do it for for a few beers"), so while most of the parts are now here, still waiting for the 1" NPT pipe nipple, I'm at an imp's ars til either the sheet gets rolled or that nipple shows up.

So in a fit of semi inebriated boredom I welded on the 1/2 nipple for the racking valve last night, free advise to the uninitiated don't weld when drunk or distracted!

View attachment 40883

Probably my worst bit of welding since *before* I did the welding course, even burnt a hole in the thin ***** funnel wall....

what filler wire did you use ?

Dave

 

[praxis178]

Progress shot:


Picked up the rolled tube yesterday, and having the day off I figured I might as well spend it on brew related fun, so I welded it up, then welded on the funnel which already had all it's fittings fitted (that Solar Flux is GREAT stuff!).

Still need to clean up the welds and make up the legs and some sort of lid as the tube is a bit smaller than the pots were so those glass lid(s) won't fit anymore.

So with a bit of luck should be able to put a double down come the weekend in my newest fermenter! :super:

Tech specs for those that want them:
wall thickness: 1.2mm (cone 0.5mm)
bottom valve: 3/4" bore
racking valve: 1/2"
volume: ~49L brim full (needs to be confirmed once finished)

Welding gear etc: TIG using standard argon shielding gas and 1.6mm 316 filler rods as required (6 used to this point and not much more welding to be done really).....

 

[praxis178]

Progress shot:



So today I whacked the legs on and put some crude but effective plugs on the valve outs and filled her up with water, only two small leaks, one I can't "see" but for the water drip and the other became obvious, like slap your forehead obvious, with the application of 48L of water.

So after I fix those in the morning, mount the valves and buy some more cling film (looks like I'm going over to the dark side, bye bye airlock) for a lid it will be ready for a test brew....

One thing I learnt, 0.35mm SS sheet is NOT nice stuff to play with let a lone weld! If I do this again I'll do it the easy way, stump up $900 and buy the damn thing ready to go!

 

[hockadays]

not a bad effort at all thomas. How are the welds after grinding on the inside? total cost?

 

[praxis178]

not a bad effort at all thomas. How are the welds after grinding on the inside? total cost?

Thanks,

The internal welds are <cough> crap, but that's mainly cause I can't reach (should have done it in two 300mm long cylinders) and see at the same time. So sanitary they ain't, but if I'm militant on my sanitation it should be ok.

Total cost $330 inc the gas and the pots I didn't use.....

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

will make a nice grain silo in the end .. I don't want too seem to down on you Thomas , but I recon you will have infections set in eventualy if the welds are not at least smooth as ..

I like your optermissim though and wish you all the best with it ..

I have had a few attempts at the tig sofar , and while some of it is good , I'm not ready too take the jump and say it s good enough to ferment in , and I'm not on that thin stuff , lol , realy need a good work shop and not just in a carport , lots and lots of gas to purge heavely from the inside ect ect ...

great stuff and good luck with again ,

cheers

 

[MattC]

That looks like a pretty good job there TJ. How will you be addressing temp control, does it fit in a fridge or do you have some other idea to control temp for another side project, like a glycol jacket???

cheers

 

[Thirsty Boy]

will make a nice grain silo in the end .. I don't want too seem to down on you Thomas , but I recon you will have infections set in eventualy if the welds are not at least smooth as ..

I like your optermissim though and wish you all the best with it ..

I have had a few attempts at the tig sofar , and while some of it is good , I'm not ready too take the jump and say it s good enough to ferment in , and I'm not on that thin stuff , lol , realy need a good work shop and not just in a carport , lots and lots of gas to purge heavely from the inside ect ect ...

great stuff and good luck with again ,

cheers

Not necessarily

If it were a commercial unit and big... yeah, of course. But in a home sized unit all he has to do is occasionally fill it up with boiling water; and drop in a heat stick (or work something out with a burner) to keep it boiling in there for a while.

Bugs might be able to hide in bad welds and seals from sanitising agent.. but they can't hide from heat.

A bit more effort is going to be needed with this than a "properly" welded unit, but as long as he's aware of the issue and takes steps to address it, there is no unavoidable reason it needs to be more infection prone than any other fermenter.

TB