Posts Tagged ‘elements’
Building a dual purpose Copper / Hot Liquor Tank from a 50 Litre Stainless Steel stock pot and two Backer kettle elements. The Stock Pot. The Elements.
The Tools and the Holes, 3mm Cobalt drill, allen key, 21mm Q-max cutter, adjustable spanner, 10mm HSS drill:
15mm Polycarbonate tube in the Brass push-fit (Bent Tap Connector), Copper pipe goes right through the drilled out Tank connector to connect the 15mm Ball valve & Hop Stopper:
White Plastic clip, drilled and tapped M10, Stainless Nuts, Washers, Threaded Rod:
Inside the vessel, sight tube on the left, and copper stub for connecting Hop Stopper, I’ll most likely swap the washers for some silicone baking sheet ones:
Sight Glass fitted with Tank connector and Brass Push-fit:
Ball Valve tap fitted:
Syphon effect extension with 8mm restriction at bottom:
Hop Strainer soldered and fitted, just needs a shed load of holes drilling in the bottom third of the 22mm pipe, made almost exactly the same as my own so you can tilt the boiler a little when its time to run off and you get a little bit more wort for your hard work. The End Cap just pulls off for cleaning and the Brass Compression elbow allows you to get a Cask Tap cleaning brush right inside to clean too:
Left to right – Element, 37.5mm Q-max cutter, pierced slug, Carbide Burr, Psudo-Dremel, Spanner & Allen key (My Q-max cutter is for cheap-ass kettle elements so i had to whizz round it with the Dremel to open the holes up and make a snug fit for the M40 threads on the element):
Fitted element:
Both elements fitted, I decided to fit them at 90 degrees:
After fitting I wired up the plugs on the Element leads, and filled the vessel full of water to check for leaks. No leaks found so I emptied out and did a boil test with both elements which was good for cleaning the pipework out, I gave the element sockets a wiggle and one almost popped off.
So I’ve decided to get the KM8 bearing nuts to secure them instead, I’ve also sanded down the original plastic cowls which helps but one of them still feels a bit dodgy so I’d prefer it not to fail when having 45-50 Litres of boiling wort in it… so Bearing Nuts it will be!
Once its all secure I will do another boil test and give the copper pipework another good flush through.
Last piece of the puzzle… all that is needed is a good boiling to clean out the copper pipework and also clean off the IC I’m making.
www.bearingboys.co.uk/KM8_Bearing_Locking_Nut
Mango Chutney HLT
Posted on: May 5, 2010
- In: Brewing
- 2 Comments
The making of my Hot Liquor Tank (HLT), this is going to be the upper-most stage of my gravity-fed garage brewery, holding up-to 50 Litres with 2 heating elements, sight tube and ball-valve tap. This will eventually be Insulated and temperature controlled.
This first shot shows the first Element, a budget Kettle Element from Curry’s:
The Inside with element and other side of the Ball-Valve Tank connector with soldered-in copper pipe:
Both elements now fitted and doing a leak / heating up test:
The Polycarbonate sight glass tube fixed at the bottom with a Compression fitting and another Tank Connector, clipped on higher up with a 15mm Plastic pipe clip drilled and tapped out to screw onto a length of M10 Stainless studding (including nuts and washers):
I cut two holes in the lid, one for filling and another for sticking a spoon through to give it a stir. I decided I’d heat / Boil with the lid in place as it keeps the barrel’s shape better along with keeping the heat in, I shall eventually insulate the sides with Foil-backed Camping mats or something:
Element splash shrouds (and good for keeping fingers away) made from used Silicone Sealant tubes, I Just need to ‘seal’ them round with something.. maybe Silicone Sealant!:
The parts for this are as follows:
The Mango Chutney Barrels came from http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Smiths-of-the-Forest-of-Dean-Ltd__W0QQ_armrsZ1 I bought 2 as I’m sure I’ll find a use for the other even if its just storing malt.
I got the Polycarbonate tube from – http://www.theonestopplasticsshop.co.uk I have about 1.5m left over which I suppose I could sell but might just hang onto for a while in case I find any other uses.
The little white Pipe clip and Tank connectors was from ebay.
The Stainless nuts, stud and washers came from – http://www.a2stainless.co.uk
The Compression Elbow was from – http://www.tradingdepot.co.uk as it seemed to be the cheapest place.
🙂 I Just had to bend a little bit of copper pipe to join from the Tank connector to the Elbow 🙂
Copper pipe from the Local Plumbers merchants.
Temperature Controller on order from Hong Kong, so I can control 1 element and keep the liquor at a constant 80°C ideal for Mash & Sparge:
I got a couple of long ‘Hot Condition’ Kettle leads and a Temp Sensor from RS:
461-159Â Â NTCH Liquid Probe. SS. Silicon Cable
406-219Â Â Hot condition straight plug w/cordset,2m
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