Buh-bye, Carboy Brush

I made my own drill powered cleaner.

Purchased:
1/4 inch aluminum rod ($3.72 for 3 feet)(only used about 1.5)
2 pack of 3/4 inch external tooth lock washers ($1.07/2 pack)
4 pack of screw protectors ($0.97/4 pack)(only used 1 but they don't sell just one at Lowe's)

Supplies on-hand
1/4 inch nuts
1/4 inch washers (1 inch diameter)(you should use 3/4 inch)
shammy (car drying thing) (you only need a few strips)

Tools:
Knife
Die for cutting threads to match whatever nut you have
Wrench for tightening the nuts

Cut threads onto the rod, clean the threads then build a sammich in the following pattern:
Nut, washer, lockwasher, shammy, shammy, shammy, shammy, lockwasher, washer, nut, screw protector.

Trim the shammy so that it is slightly larger than the inside diameter of your largest carboy. (Excessive shammy length will slow the shammy down and your drill will try to wind it around the rod)

I chose shammy because of the way it adds weight when it's wet. I believe shammy would be safe to use on plastics but I haven't tried it yet, I only have one plastic carboy and it's full of fermenting apfelwein right now. Don't go any bigger than 1" for the washers, your carboy neck isn't much bigger.

Put a gallon of warm soapy water in your carboy, slush it around to make sure the krausen is wet. Wait about 2 minutes, then start your drill. I use my drill on the lowest setting to prevent shammy wrap. I've got to rack some beer on Tuesday and, with my wife's help, I'll post a vid of the device being used. I might even take it apart and put it back together for the same vid, it only takes a minute...

Here are a few pictures

Here are pics:

Last pic, a full body shot:

Me likey.

Very sweet, simple yet practical.

Nice..

I bought one of the carboy cleaners..but honestly haven't used it much. An overnight soak in oxyclean while shaking it around a few times followed by a good rinse has left my my carboys spotless.

However, it's definitely nice to have. It works well for cleaning kettles/MLT also.

Nice DIY!

Nice work ... Any pics or videos of this thing in action?

+1 to stankonia. However, I'm a big fan of DIY'edness .. so kudos for the build. I would have used a "Sham-wow" just for giggles

Simple 'nuff! Good stuff...

I've never needed anything but lye and oxiclean to get carboys clean with no scrubbing. Am I doing it wrong?

What on earth do you do with lye ?? Never heard that one..

Don't believe him...hes a lyer!

Nice DIY.

I just soak in PBW overnite, a few shakes the next day, clean as a whistle.

jetmac said:

I just soak in PBW overnite, a few shakes the next day, clean as a whistle.

Click to expand...

+1, I make my own PBW solution, an overnight soak, a little shaking, and a good rinse = spotless.

Having said that, I still like the idea.

joeybeer said:

What on earth do you do with lye ?? Never heard that one..

Click to expand...

Lye is caustic. It's very good at eating away organic material. At the proper dilution. A VERY strong mixture of it can eat away glass. YouTube some videos of it.

But yeah, diluted properly it can eat away anything stuck in your carboy. Or eat away the burned-on stuff in your oven (it's what's in oven cleaner).

You can also make soap with it if you mix with some fat or oil.

Homercidal said:

Lye is caustic. It's very good at eating away organic material. At the proper dilution. A VERY strong mixture of it can eat away glass. YouTube some videos of it.

But yeah, diluted properly it can eat away anything stuck in your carboy. Or eat away the burned-on stuff in your oven (it's what's in oven cleaner).

You can also make soap with it if you mix with some fat or oil.

Click to expand...

What I bolded is why is feels the way it does when you get it on your fingers. Very slippery. You've basically turned the oils on you skin to soap (if you wait too long, then it does the same to the lipids in your cells). Actually this is true for any alkaline cleaner like oxyclean and PBW. They just aren't as agressive as lye

Homercidal said:

Lye is caustic. It's very good at eating away organic material. At the proper dilution. A VERY strong mixture of it can eat away glass. YouTube some videos of it.

But yeah, diluted properly it can eat away anything stuck in your carboy. Or eat away the burned-on stuff in your oven (it's what's in oven cleaner).

You can also make soap with it if you mix with some fat or oil.

Click to expand...

I'm not saying it works better than anyone's method other than my own.

I don't like to soak things over night because I rarely get in to a cleaning state of mind outside of beer brewing. I would most likely neglect it for quite some time if I don't clean it immediately.

After I clean with warm soapy water and rinse, I splash some sanitizer inside and cover with aluminum foil...That is, unless it's one of my three-gallons, those just get more juice poured on the yeast cake...

I guess I just wanted to make one. It took about as long for me to make it as it would have for me to come up with something funny for the free give away thread...

Skagdog said:

I'm not saying it works better than anyone's method other than my own.

I don't like to soak things over night because I rarely get in to a cleaning state of mind outside of beer brewing. I would most likely neglect it for quite some time if I don't clean it immediately.

After I clean with warm soapy water and rinse, I splash some sanitizer inside and cover with aluminum foil...That is, unless it's one of my three-gallons, those just get more juice poured on the yeast cake...

I guess I just wanted to make one. It took about as long for me to make it as it would have for me to come up with something funny for the free give away thread...

Click to expand...

Well I soak overnite because I choose to, but you could certainly get it done within an hour. But your method would use alot less water.

Nice design(I agree with you on " It took about as long for me to make it as it would have for me to come up with something funny for the free give away thread.")

Funny, the day after I see the ad for the guys trying to sell these things for over $30 someone on here makes one for much less.

Nice!

I would totally build this if I used carboys!

Schnitzengiggle said:

+1, I make my own PBW solution, an overnight soak, a little shaking, and a good rinse = spotless.

Having said that, I still like the idea.

Click to expand...

How do you go about making your own PBW solution? That could save me some serious bucks!

Agreed! How bout that DIY recipe for PBW?

Can anyone source the parts to make a tiny bottle cleaning one? :rockin:

Stankonia said:

Can anyone source the parts to make a tiny bottle cleaning one? :rockin:

Click to expand...

How tiny are you talking? :fro:

Retrofit said:

Me likey.

Click to expand...

Me too-ey.

So if you don't have a die to cut threads, are these easy to find or are they better cut by someone for a fee?

You could get a cheap die set from harbor freight...

I have been using an even cheaper version (but not as good) of this using two zip ties and just two strips of the chamwow thing... It works but you have to keep replacing the zip ties...

Lowes and hd sell threaded rods. Those should work.

Ah nice. Yeah zip-ties seem cheap & easy.

wegz15 said:

Lowes and hd sell threaded rods. Those should work.

Click to expand...

You'd want to come up with a way to safeguard the neck of your carboy - the threads would chew it up if they came up against it, and they will probably come up against it.

SkyHighBrew88 said:

So if you don't have a die to cut threads, are these easy to find or are they better cut by someone for a fee?

Click to expand...

I bought a 1/4-20 die from my local Fleet Farm today for $2.49. The material for the entire project, including the shammy and the die, was under ten bucks.

Bernie Brewer said:

I bought a 1/4-20 die from my local Fleet Farm today for $2.49. The material for the entire project, including the shammy and the die, was under ten bucks.

Click to expand...

Nice! For ten bucks why not have one, sure beats $30. There are always a brew here & there that's harder to clean than my brush can reach even if you do use oxyclean.

Great build ! I'll third wanting the PBW recipe !

joeybeer said:

Great build ! I'll third wanting the PBW recipe !

Click to expand...

Unscented Oxyclean works as well as PBW. PBW has some additional ingredients, but for our purposes the unscented Oxyclean works great. I stopped buying PBW a couple years ago now.

socalboomer said:

You'd want to come up with a way to safeguard the neck of your carboy - the threads would chew it up if they came up against it, and they will probably come up against it.

Click to expand...

I went the 3/8" threaded rod route, I slipped 3/8" ID tubing over the length of the rod leaving the top 1" exposed. If everything works out OK, I plan on grinding three flat spots at the top of the rod for the drill chuck.

thanks for the idea.

tom

millstone said:

I went the 3/8" threaded rod route, I slipped 3/8" ID tubing over the length of the rod leaving the top 1" exposed. If everything works out OK, I plan on grinding three flat spots at the top of the rod for the drill chuck.

thanks for the idea.

tom

Click to expand...

Tubing works good. What also works is a cork that's drilled out bigger than the rod diameter. It just depends on what you have laying around, I guess...

Here's another version. Not saying yours is bad but just another variation. I used a scotch brute pad that I cut into strips and used 1/4" threaded rod. Clear vanilla tubing covers the rod to keep from damaging my carboy neck. The whole thing cost about 3.50 and took me 5 mins to build here at work. Ace is the place.

Brite* sorry