Cooler Mash Tun Manifold Drain Slot Dimensions

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OneHotKarl

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Hey everyone,
I finally built a cooler mash tun out of the Coleman 70 quart Xtreme cooler and built a manifold. I went with stainless steel because I had some extra parts and now its time to cut some slots in the manifold for draining.

Has anyone figured out a nice size for the slots that works well? And also what spacing works well.

I wouldn't drilling holes instead of slots either, but I don't know which size hole would work.

Any comments or suggestions would be helpful.

Here are some pictures of the cooler with the manifold installed:
(Sorry for the bad quality pictures, they were taken with my laptop.)
http://picasaweb.google.com/snoworshine/Cooler?authkey=hPkF2kPZECc
 
I believe slots are preferred over holes. My manifold has slots cut about every 1/4 inch (I didn't measure, just cut a close to each other as I could without making it too weak) about the width of a diamond cut-off wheel for a dremel, because that's what I used.
 
Wide open it is only restricted by the filter bed of the grain, with just water in mine, it flows just as fast with the manifold as it does without, which is faster than I would ever want to sparge (I fly sparge).
 
And one more thing I forgot to ask, Are the sides of the manifold the best places to add the slots? And then is the inner or outer side of the manifold best?
 
Copper, but the diamond wheel will cut through anything. The heavy duty cut-off wheels worked also, and are cheaper, but the diamond wheel is a little more narrow and it cuts like a hot knife through butter.
 
I have not actually used a slotted manifold, but i have heard that with a slotted design, the husks can bend and sneak their way through. Along with this advice, i was told that 5/32" is the perfect size. I went forth and made my false bottom by cutting off the bottom of a plastic 5 gal bucket and drilled a buttload of 5/32" hole in it. I have no problems with stuck runoff and my wort runs pretty clear.

Good Luck!
 
I actually put the slots on the bottom of mine for a little extra filter power, that's how I saw other do it, and it works well.
 
Here is my copper manifold... I used a cross cornered 5 mm pattern that I made with some spare plastic kicking around my company... The holes are 5/32. I would suggest using some cutting oil if you choose to drill holes.

P4210405.JPG


Also, this is setup for the holes to sit on the bottom of the manifold
 
Mine is pretty simple....32 holes...1/8" drill bit. I did use a center punch to keep the bit from chasing all over the copper tubing because I used a hand drill. It flows water just as fast with or without the manifold, and I get nearly instant clarification when I start Vorlauf.
 
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