Start of my MLT conversion

Plan on doing my first AG brew on Sunday with an IPA.

I took a vacation away from all my homebrew gear this week and had to do something with my time, so I converted a Rubbermaid 12 gallon rectangle ice chest into an MLT. After spending 4 hours driving between two Home Depots in Flagstaff, AZ, I finally got *most* the parts I needed.

They didn't have the proper washers I needed and food grade clear tubing .. and the LHBS (Homebrewers Depot) was closed on Monday for some reason *shrug*.

Here are the pictures of what I've done so far, Thanks to whoever added the Coleman MLT conversion on the Wiki for the ideas.

Still left to do:

Cut slits in copper with dremel when I get home.
Add food grade silicone to the bulkhead to seal it.
Connect 1/2" food grade tubing to the barb on the outside.

PS. Thanks to everyone for their posts in this forum. I've been trolling for a while soaking up the homebrew knowledge provided here.

On to the photos:

http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad316/seigex/CIMG0040.jpg
http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad316/seigex/CIMG0038.jpg
http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad316/seigex/CIMG0042.jpg
http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad316/seigex/CIMG0043.jpg
http://i947.photobucket.com/albums/ad316/seigex/CIMG0044.jpg

Looks good

I don't know if you use Beersmith or not, but one thing I did after I got mine assembled was to put about 4 gallons of water in it, attach a hose to the ball valve, and drain it out to see how much was left behind. My large MLT is a 48-qt coleman cooler and my manifold build is similar to yours and it only left 8 ounces of water behind...

PS - I also built this handy-dandy insulator block that works really well. It's three layers of the 1/2" pink insulation board from Home Depot...

Nice MLT, I like it. Am I gonna have a problem doing 5 gallon batches (will the grain bed be too small? I only have a 7.5 gall kettle right now so i don't have a way to boil a full 10 gallons of wort. Or will 5 gallons be ok?

You can do 5-gallon batches in the larger MLT. I struggled with this idea too. To satisfy myself, I built a second MLT from a 5-gallon round water cooler and use a stainless steel braid as the manifold. A deeper grain bed is a good thing but I'm not so sure that you can't efficiently do smaller grain bills in the larger MLT. I wanted both sizes as part of my brewery so I could use whichever MLT suited my grain bill the best. I make some high and low gravity beers, so I can choose the equipment that fits best. I don't make 10-gallon batches, so I can't tell you what the best solution there is, but I'm fairly sure the 48-qt cooler would handle a majority of the batches that size.