SpanishCastleAle

Recipes 

Last night I refurbed my first ball lock corny. Everything was pretty easy except getting the bent dip tube to have the tip into the middle of the little well at the bottom. Whenever I would tighten the post-fitting the dip tube would rotate and the tip would wedge itself against the bottom bowl part of the tank (but not in the well).

I also thought it was too close to the bottom so I cut a little bit off and at an angle so it draws in from the side instead of drawing up from the bottom. But even doing that it still would rotate and make contact with part of the bottom. I ended up cutting even more off and it actually came out really nice but...how do you keep that bent dip tube from rotating while tightening the post fitting?

I've only had pin lock kegs before and those have straight dip tubes so I've never encountered this.

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Early brewers were primarily women, mostly because it was deemed a woman's job. Mesopotamian men, of some 3,800 years ago, were obviously complete assclowns and had yet to realize the pleasure of brewing beer.- Beer Advocate

JesseRC

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you hold it or over compensate for it.

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Jesse

Primaries: Mojave Red (AG)
Kegs: Hibiscus Saison (AG), Orange Kolsch (AG) , Cocunut Porter
Future Brew: Wee Heavy

RICLARK

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I have the swmbo reach down in there and hold it while I tighten it down.

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GilaMinumBeer

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I orient the tube too far to the opposite side so that when I tighten the post down the tube corrects itself.

wildwest450

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I chop mine off and don't worry about it.

SpanishCastleAle

Recipes 

Thanks.

My arms are just skinny enough to fit down in there...there was no 'holding' this tube. It was turning no matter how tightly I tried to hold it in place.

Regarding 'overcompensating for it'...there wasn't enough room to do that. You could only rotate it a tiny, tiny bit before it was wedged in to the bowl part of the tank (but outside the little well at the bottom). It rotated way too much for that to work...at first. After I cut it the second time it was short enough to do this and doing this PLUS attermpting to hold it as tightly as I could...that got it.

Maybe this dip tube was longer than usual? Before the first time I cut it, this dip tube went all the way down into that well...just right off the bottom of it. Even after the first cut it was still down into that well. Just 1/16 of a turn would put it all cock-eyed and outta whack.

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Early brewers were primarily women, mostly because it was deemed a woman's job. Mesopotamian men, of some 3,800 years ago, were obviously complete assclowns and had yet to realize the pleasure of brewing beer.- Beer Advocate

Trenchant

Recipes 

I've never heard of it actually being a problem. Sure it hits the side of the keg. But it doesn't affect anything.

Both the kegs I purchased came off the pepsi line. They both had the dip tubes hitting the side of the keg.

conpewter

Recipes 

I just let it snug up against the bottom/side of the keg, doesn't need to be in the exact middle.

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Primary: Nothin
Secondary: Shady Lord RIS, Water to Barleywine, Pumpkin wine, burnt mead
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beerthirty

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Do all of you have frankenstein cornies? The correct diptube in a cornelius has a locating ridge that prevents rotation. Firestone kegs don't have this ridge but they use straight dipstubes and the bottom of the keg dimple is elongated to the side of the keg so rotation doesn't matter. I have never cut my diptubes, I want every drop of beer goodness in my kegs. I have only had flow problems in one keg and that was due to me putting the wrong popitt in the bev connector.( I have all three brand of kegs and I mixed up the parts the first time around)

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SpanishCastleAle

Recipes 

Mine might be. Mine had one post fitting with that 'star-pattern' for the hex (so you have to use a 12-point socket) and the other post fitting was a regular hex. The poppets looked similar but slightly different. There was no 'locating ridge' or 'indexing ridge' or whatever...the dip tube, post fitting, and the welded fitting on the tank all had a smooth circumference. To be honest, I couldn't remember which poppet went with which post-fitting...but the thing seals tight the way I did it.

My old pin-locks might be a Firestones...they have the straight dip tube and the well is offset to one side. But the post-fittings look like they have the poppets crimped in there or something...they're not coming out.

FWIW, the ball-locks were purchased so I could fit 6 in my new keezer and this is the first one I tore down. The shorter, stubbier pin-locks wouldn't fit 6 in there (too big diameter). The pin-locks are going to now be my lager secondaries so I can carbonate naturally.

__________________
Early brewers were primarily women, mostly because it was deemed a woman's job. Mesopotamian men, of some 3,800 years ago, were obviously complete assclowns and had yet to realize the pleasure of brewing beer.- Beer Advocate