My Sight Gauge

[sluggerdog]

Hi All,

I am finally getting around to getting my brew stand, HLT and all the other little things I need done to my brewery.

Anyway I am in the process of building my sight gauge and I ran into a snag, you can see how I am doing it from the picture attached.

My problem is I cannot find the clear tubing needed for the actual sight part, anyone know where I can find this? Bunnings was a no go.

Cheers

 

[big d]

batz scored a nice length from somewhere in perth.not near you but he may be able to point you in the direction of the correct supplier.
maybe look up a lab equipment supplier near you sluggerdog.

cheers
big d

 

[PeterS]

Hi All,

I am finally getting around to getting my brew stand, HLT and all the other little things I need done to my brewery.

Anyway I am in the process of building my sight gauge and I ran into a snag, you can see how I am doing it from the picture attached.

My problem is I cannot find the clear tubing needed for the actual sight part, anyone know where I can find this? Bunnings was a no go.

Cheers

[post="85497"][/post]​

I just finished that project. I got a lenght of polycarbonate tubing which can stands high temperatures from Plastic Welded Products in Capalaba. Give them a call on 3390 1668.

:beer:
PeterS....

 

[Borret]

Cadillac plastic would be a start

Brisbane
PO Box 2267
Fortitude Valley 4006
Phone: (07) 3252 2322

or another engineering plastic wholesaler.

Let your finger do the walking.


How do you plan to attach it? What size exactly are you after. You will find the availability of polycarbonate tube to be basically imperial sizes but the acrylic is available in metric. Others have said they are against the use of acrylic but I have had no probs with it so far (and it is food grade). A little extra handling care must be taken with acrylic though as it is alotmore brittle. If you can find polycarb in the right size definately pay the 10% more and get it.

I won't bore you with more details, if you want to know more just ask.

Cheers

Borret

 

[sluggerdog]

OK, thanks for the replies...

HOWEVER Ross has just PM'ed me with the following info:

"I think there's a problem with putting your site glass on the out tap - when you pour it will suck down & give incorrect readings - was doing the same until someone pointed it out to me..."

Can anyone confirm that this will happen or not? Really a bugger otherwise as this way is dead simple for a programmer like me.

Thanks

 

[Borret]

I must say I avoided that arrangement for that very reason.

Go for a seperate fitting, that way it can be more flush to the HLT and easier to read if you have increments or units marked behind it.
Also I know it sounds obvious but others have found out the hard way. Put it as far toward the bottom of your HLT as you can and use the lowest profile fitting possible so you can read it as far down as possible.

Another 2c

Borret

 

[sintax69]

yep that is spot on i did the same a tee with polytube coming out of it every time you open the valve the sight glass drains is a simple matter of the valve in one hole the sight glass in another I have no changed mine yet cuase i have not got a plug for the tee and its a simple matter of opening and closing the valve to check the level

 

[sluggerdog]

yep that is spot on i did the same a tee with polytube coming out of it every time you open the valve the sight glass drains is a simple matter of the valve in one hole the sight glass in another I have no changed mine yet cuase i have not got a plug for the tee and its a simple matter of opening and closing the valve to check the level

[post="85526"][/post]​

So sintax69 your saying it does work but just not the best way to do things? you just need to close the valve to check the measurment?

If so this will do until I change it...

 

[sosman]

Another tip is to keep it away from hot spots, particularly if you use a keg.

 

[Gough]

yep that is spot on i did the same a tee with polytube coming out of it every time you open the valve the sight glass drains is a simple matter of the valve in one hole the sight glass in another I have no changed mine yet cuase i have not got a plug for the tee and its a simple matter of opening and closing the valve to check the level

[post="85526"][/post]​

So sintax69 your saying it does work but just not the best way to do things? you just need to close the valve to check the measurment?

If so this will do until I change it...

[post="85532"][/post]​

Slugger,

Mine is on a 'tee' and it reads a little lower as it is draining when the tap is wide open and settles a little higher when you close it. I am used to it and just open the tap once or twice until I reach the desired volume. Works fine and I'm not worried by it, but as others have said something you can design out if building from scratch. Worth the effort to get right, but not worth stopping you from using it in the interim IMHO

Shawn.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I am going to put a seperate elbow close to the bottom of my uggly kettle and use silicon tube( at $8mtr ) so the it does not interfere with the tap.

 

[sintax69]

as gough said easy once your used to it but if doing another keg setup remember two holes are always better than one

live and learn

 

[jayse]

If I told you I used a tee piece coming up of the same line as the tap, using your standard racking hose for a sight glass under a 'nasa' burner would you say i was mad?

Coming up to 200 brews with the same piece of hose and its still looking like new.
Theres no real drama with measuring the level while the taps open either. Just shut the tap off if you want a exact measurement.

Its a pretty poor pic but i think you can make it out.
Anyway just hinting that it can be done as simply as this or as fancy as you like.


Think I better wait till tomorow.
Jayse

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

It looks like its all been covered here but somewhere like boiler land would have boiler sight glass... and yes a seperate elbow set up for a constant acurate reading ...

Cheers bunyip

 

[warrenlw63]

Slugger.

I started out in a similar fashion to you. I just found the volume drop a little annoying. Particulary for fly sparging. So I put the thermo on the end of the "T" instead.

So far as a sight glass goes. I use something similar to Jayse. Piece of 9mm racking hose at $1.20 per metre you only need to use about 30cm. Each piece last 4-5 brews. From a tightarse perspective that's about 10c per brew. :beerbang:

Makes attachment fairly easy too. Just need a hose-barb and clamp. One day I might go out and hunt up a bit of polycarbonate. This will do for the meantime. :chug:

Here's one I prepared earlier. B)

Warren -