Ok, so I picked up my conical fermenter and all in all, I am happy with it. It is not the highest quality, but for 1/3 tp 1/2 the price of others, I can overlook some of it's shortcomings..
Here are are a few pictures:
1) This is a picture of the hardware that came with it. All tri-clamps w/food grade silicone and 1 peice ball vavles. Came with 1 (1/2'') barb.
2) Decent enough Thermometer and thermowell, all stainless (no brass), with a silicone o-ring on the inside
3) 2 tri-clamp sanitary welds - bottom dump and racking
4) Inside view of bottom weld - no visible pitting
5) This is the most disappointing aspect of the conical - you can see that the inside weld for the racking valve is not sanitary. I am tempted to sand it down more, but don't know how thin the actual weld is.
On a brew day, I fill it past the thermowell with hot water and sanitize using 1-step or PBW.
Summary:
Pros: Great price, decent hardware, functional design, resulting in a good conical. A plus is that the conical itself is not connected to the stand, which makes for easy cleaning.
Cons: Overall thickness of the SS is thin and the welds are sub-optimal.