Mash tun construction question

I have been building a mash tun out of a 150qt cooler. The bulkhead I bought from my homebrew store was too short, so I improvised with some brass pipe. The piece of pipe is a bit too long now, as the threads don't get close enough to the cooler walls, I have used a handful of washers, and o-rings. I am still worried it might leak into the cooler. At Home Depot, an employee steered me towards an epoxy to seal it up. I am worried that it will leach into the wort, but the employee said it was used for drinking water. Has anyone else run into these problems, or used an epoxy to seal the mash tun? Also would anyone have any suggestions for the build?

Here are some pictures of the build. I still want to put a sparge system on the cooler lid. I was thinking of doing a PVC system. Does anyone know of a good place to find plans?

Wow. It's the Mother Of All Cooler MLTs!

There are a whole bunch of different length 1/2" nipples here, maybe you can find one that will work without a crapton of washers and o-rings?

Cheers!

As for epoxy leaching into your wort, that's probably not an issue. Epoxy is generally inert once it is cured. The big question: will the epoxy adhere well to the cooler's plastic? The polyethylene used for those coolers might be a bit slippery.

Maybe you can cut off some of the excess pipe so you don't have to use a big stack of washers. Try that with the o-rings, then fill it with water. Check for leaks before you resort to the epoxy.

Another thought is to give the people at Bargain Fittings a call. They specialize in adapting things like that and maybe they could offer a simple solution to your problem.

Good luck!

The washers should work fine as long as you have a proper seal on the inside and outside walls with rubber washers.

Test it. Fill it, the more water the better to see if the pressure holds.

37.5 gallons? Unless you are making really large batches or really high gravity beers I would get a smaller cooler. I would also get the parts that fit instead of messing with the epoxy.